Japan Jaunt 26th July-11th August

[Zeock]

Hello!
On the 1st of January 2023, I asked this forum advice about a future trip in 'Summer 2024'. Thank you all for your excellent advice.


As you can see in the above screenshot, the main objective of a Japan trip would be to go to the Tokyo Disney Resort, but it became apparent that Fuji-Q Highland and Nagashima Spa Land were also reachable from Tokyo, so they were added to the list of things to do in Japan, as well as exploring Tokyo, which was a necessity.

This is the first of four trip reports, which will all be posted on this very thread. The first one, which happens to be the one which you are currently reading, contains details about some of the places that I visited in Tokyo, and details about my trip to Fuji-Q Highland. The second one will mention my trip to Nagashima Spa Land, and the final two will show you what I thought of the two Disney parks in Tokyo.

Let's begin by mentioning Tokyo Skytree. This is the third-tallest building in the world at 634m, and it also happens to be the world's tallest tower. My parents, my six-year-old brother and I went up Tokyo Skytree on the 28th of July. The views were brilliant, and Mount Fuji was visible.




We also went to Sensō-ji Temple, which is located in Asakusa. There were a lot of tourists here, so it was extremely busy, but it was still enjoyable.


We also happened to go to two different 'teamLab Planets' modern art museums, one of which was temporary, and the other was permanent. I really enjoyed both, but I preferred the temporary one, mainly because it was quieter. However, the permanent one had more artworks.


On the 10th of August, we went to Scramble Crossing. It looked smaller in person, and thankfully not as busy as it is when Scramble Crossing is shown as filler in documentaries.

We stayed in an area near Tokyo Skytree, which also happened to be a 5 minute walk from Kinshichō Station, making it convenient to reach destinations.

Let's now move on to Fuji-Q Highland. I arrived via train at around 09:15 (the park opened at 09:00). It was easily reachable, especially compared to Nagashima Spa Land.

As soon as I arrived, I immediately headed towards Eejanaika, because it had been at the top of my rollercoaster bucket list since 2018. I waited about 55 minutes, but it was worth it. I was seated in the back row on an inside seat. The ride was stupendous, and immediately became my new number 1. It doesn't let up from the bottom of the drop until the brake run. One thing I did find interesting was that the drop, although it was brilliant, was the 'worst' part of the ride in my opinion.

I then went on Fujiyama (which has an incredibly low height restriction of 110 cm) with my brother. At 79m tall, Fujiyama would become the tallest ride that either of us had been on at the time. We were seated in the 12th row, and we really liked it, although it was rather brutal near the end of the ride. There was plenty of airtime, which seemed to be similar in amount to Hyperia at Thorpe Park.


I went on Takabisha after that, which was a walk-on. This ride was rather strange. I love Saw at Thorpe Park, so I was expecting to like this. However, this was not the case, as I exited the ride with a headache. One positive about this ride was the launch, since it was rather powerful. The 121 degree drop was also a disappointment, as it did nothing for me.

Following Takabisha, I met up with my parents and my brother, and we went on Fuji-Q's two small rollercoasters, named 'Nia and Animal Coaster' (formerly 'Rock N Roll Duncan') and 'Voyage Dans le ciel', which were both inoffensive, although we did have to wait 45 minutes for Voyage Dans le ciel.

After that, I went back on Eejanaika, this time on the red train. This ride was even better than the first one, and it felt like my skin was being ripped off due to the intensity (it wasn't). I was on the outside seat this time, which definitely contributed to the increase in intensity.

My parents, my brother and I went on Zokkon following Eejanaika. We had to wait 65 minutes, which was the longest queue all day, although Fuji-Q is usually much busier, according to most accounts. The ride itself was good family fun, but the on-board audio was too loud for my liking.

I had four hours left in the day after Zokkon, so I decided to ride Eejanaika two more times, as the wait time was only 25 minutes. I was back on the red train, and the ride was still amazing, with the overbank seeming even more intense than before.

We had some food after this, which was rather enjoyable, and a good way to 'beat the heat', as the temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius.


I then went on Fujiyama for the second time with my brother. We were in the second row, and there seemed to be less airtime, although my brother seemed to love it just as much as before, although this was probably because Fujiyama was by far the most intense ride that he had ridden at the time.

There were now 150 minutes left of the park's operating hours, so I decided to go round Eejanaika until park close, which I managed to do six times. The ride was especially good once the sun had set, since it became harder to decipher the layout while on the ride, and the darkness definitely made the drop more intense. Despite the fact that I rode Eejanaika 10 times on that day, I only sat on the left-hand side, and I am not sure why. I wonder if the right-hand side rode differently to the left-hand side.


The park closed at 20:00. There were no more trains, so we took a bus back to Tokyo, which took around 2 hours.

Thank you for reading! The next report will come no later than Friday.

 

[gclough79]

Nice report, looking forward to hearing about Spa Land

 

[Matt.GC]

You're kidding me, 2 forum members both in my ultimate bucket list country at the same time! You lot know how to make me envious.

Curse the Mrs for wanting to buy an extremely expensive house at the moment. Sod a posh new house, I want to go to Japan now!

 

[Zeock]

This is the second mini-trip report from Japan, focusing on Nagashima Spa Land.

To reach Nagashima Spa Land, my parents, my six-year-old brother and I took a Shinkansen train (bullet train), which was probably wasted on me since I often feel like I am the only autistic person in the world who has very little interest in trains. This train ride lasted around 105 minutes.

It was very fast, as shown below.


After purchasing tickets, which was fairly straightforward, I entered Nagashima Spa Land at around 10:05.

Hakugei is fairly close to the entrance, so I immediately went in the queue. I waited around 40 minutes, but it felt longer, especially considering that the music in the queue line was rather obnoxious. I was seated in the seventh row. The ride was enjoyable. However, it was not as good as most people say, since it lacked variety in its elements, had a dead spot, and the stall wasn't the best. On the other hand, the ejector airtime was superb, and the drop was probably the best part of the ride.

I then went on Looping Star, which is a Schwarzkopf rollercoaster. It did pack a punch, with the inversion packing plenty of positive g-forces.

I went on Steel Dragon 2000, which had a 35-minute queue. The drop was superb, probably the best that I have done, but the rest of the ride, barring the final airtime hills, was rather lacking, and felt slightly rattly. The clamshell restraints were exceptionally comfortable, which did help to nullify any sense of discomfort.

Immediately following Steel Dragon 2000, I met up with my brother and parents inside an air-conditioned restaurant, which was very welcome considering that it was extremely warm outside. My brother and I then went on the two 'kiddie coasters' at Nagashima, named 'Peter Rabbit Coaster' and 'Children Coaster', which were both unremarkable. Jet Coaster, a Togo rollercoaster that was Nagashima Spa Land's first, was nearby, so we did that together. It was very smooth for a ride built in 1966, but the layout, although designed for a family audience, was uninspiring, to say the least.

I dropped off my brother with my parents after we rode on Jet Coaster to go on Hakugei again. The ride had definitely warmed up, as the airtime and general feel of the ride were much more aggressive. However, the metal part of the seatbelt was next to a certain private part of the body, which, coupled with the airtime you experience on the ride, was slightly painful. However, it wouldn't be the most pain that I would experience on that day.


I followed Hakugei with another ride on Steel Dragon 2000, which was much the same as the previous ride, save for a rather abrupt jolt at the valley of the first drop. The ride would be much better if it had a more thrilling turnaround, as this is really what let the ride down for me.

Ultra Twister had just opened, which surprised me since it is apparently very unreliable, so I went on that. It was decent, but quite short, with a moment of significance being the brakes that bring you to a halt midway through, which are the most abrupt brakes that I have ever experienced (far more than Rattlesnake). These brakes did not cause any physical harm though, and the second half of the ride was enjoyable.


I now headed towards Acrobat, which would become my 100th credit. The operations on this ride were extremely poor, but I managed to get on within 30 minutes. I did enjoy the ride, with the pretzel loop being by far the best element of the ride. However, it did feel jarring changing from a very intense pretzel loop to the rest of the ride, which was far more relaxed.


At this point, Arashi had just opened, and I was nearby, so I went on that. Similar to Acrobat, the operations were awful, with half of the seats being out of operation, so I had to wait 55 minutes, which was the longest queue all day for me. This ride was really good, as it was quite intense due to all the spinning, which was more violent than Eejanaika, but it was too short, which let it down a little.

I then met up with my parents and my brother. My brother and I then decided to do a pile of junk known as 'Free Fall'. It is a first-generation freefall tower ride that actually had a very good drop. However, the landing was horrendous, to the point where I ended up having a four-inch cut on the back of both of my legs. My brother didn't seem to have any problems with it, so it may have something to do with size, although I am smaller than the average person whether I am in England or Japan.

After that, I went on Corkscrew, which was a walk-on, with my brother, which did cause headbanging for me on the corkscrews, but not too much. It was a short ride, which may have helped in that department. My brother enjoyed it a lot, mainly due to the drop.

I decided to go back on Free Fall with my brother after this. You may think that this decision was rather strange, but I wanted to see if my injuries were a one-off or something that the ride would reproduce. Thankfully, the former was true, although the ride was still very unpleasant.

My dad and brother went on Corkscrew together following that, while my mum and I went on Wild Mouse, which was a walk-on. It was unremarkable, although there was some airtime present.

There were only 90 minutes left in the day, so I went on Shoot the Chute, which is a water ride. As I mentioned before, it was very hot, so cooling down on this ride felt satisfying. It was quite a lot wetter than Tidal Wave, which I was very pleased about since I enjoy getting soaked, even if it isn't so hot.

I had my third and final ride on Hakugei after this. This was the best ride of all, as it was smooth and packed more airtime than ever. The dead spots also seemed to be reduced in size due to the ride warming up. I decided to place Hakugei as my third favourite rollercoaster, behind Eejanaika and Nemesis.


The time was 17:00. The park closed at 17:30, so there was time for one more ride. This was Space Shot, which is a shot tower. Two of the three 'sides' were out of operation, so the throughput wasn't exactly spectacular. The ride itself was fun but did not pack as much of a punch as the majority of drop towers that I have been on.

My parents, my brother, and I left the park via bus, which took about 150 minutes to reach Tokyo. Overall, I enjoyed Nagashima Spa Land, although the operations and Space Shot were notable downsides of this park. My brother seemed to enjoy the park, especially a pirate ship named 'Jumbo Viking', although he wanted to go on Steel Dragon 2000, but he was too small. My parents seemed to enjoy the park, as 'there were a lot of things there'.

My next trip report will be about Tokyo Disneyland, and it will be posted within a week. Thank you for reading!

 

[Zeock]

This is my third mini-trip report about Japan, focusing on Tokyo Disneyland. I spent 2 days at this park.

To reach Tokyo Disneyland, my parents, my six-year-old brother and I needed to take two trains. The first one was from Kinshichō Station to Tokyo Station, and the second one was from Tokyo Station to Maihama Station, which is where the Tokyo Disney Resort is situated.

We arrived for my first day at Tokyo Disneyland around 08:45. There was a small queue for ticket scanning and security, which felt much longer due to the sun beating down on us. In fact, this day was the warmest day of my trip. I entered the park itself at around 09:05.

As you enter the park, you will notice that there is a roof above you. This immediately distinguishes Tokyo's World Bazaar entrance from the Main Street USA entrances found at other Disney parks.

We went to Splash Mountain first, which had a 45-minute queue. While we were in the queue, my mum used the free Tokyo Disneyland 40th Anniversary Priority Pass to book Space Mountain, which closed on the 31st of July (we went on the 29th of July). The queue for Splash Mountain was excellent, not least because it was mainly indoors. The ride itself is excellent in almost every way (the theming was nearly faultless) and the 4 drops certainly added a lot to the flow of the attraction. My brother didn't like the final drop because 'it got me wet', but he enjoyed the rest of the ride.

After that, we rode The Haunted Mansion. The queue is designed to be an unfinished area of the house, which cleverly hides Splash Mountain. You start the ride by meeting the 'Sinister 11', whose eyes follow you, creating an eerie sensation. This version is more closely related to the Magic Kingdom version than the Disneyland version, but Tokyo's version has received fewer updates than the Magic Kingdom version. This means that there is no Escher Staircase, no Floating Leota, and no Hatbox Ghost. However, the blast-ups still remain in the attic, the Beating Heart Bride is present, and the 'Purply Shroud' in the Seance room has not been removed. I loved The Haunted Mansion, and I much preferred it over Phantom Manor, mainly due to the attic and graveyard scenes. We rode it again immediately after.

It was time to ride Space Mountain. It was really good fun, and it definitely felt faster than it actually is. There were plenty of near-miss elements, which added to the thrill of the attraction.

We then rode Beauty and the Beast. The castle itself looked beautiful, and the ride itself was enjoyable and slightly emotional, with plenty of great animatronics.

Pooh's Hunny Hunt was our next ride. I personally enjoyed it, but I found the ride to be quite overrated due to the lack of detail in certain parts of the ride.

We went back to Tomorrowland to ride Star Tours. The queue was refreshing due to its low temperature, and the ride was good fun. The simulator felt quite responsive, and the 3D felt realistic. I rode it again by myself afterward, and I somehow got exactly the same experience, even though this is exceedingly unlikely due to the randomness of the scenes.

We then to Westernland to ride Big Thunder Mountain. The queue was decent, and definitely better than the one at Paris. The ride itself was very good, thanks to the excellent theming, but my brother thought that 'it was boring'.

We stayed in Westernland in order to ride Mark Twain Riverboat, which was a relaxing boat ride that passed the likes of Tom Sawyer Island and Splash Mountain.

I then rode Snow White's Adventures with my brother. The ride itself looks unassuming from the outside, but the ride itself has some interesting pieces of set design, and the ride system gives off classic ghost train VIBES. We rode it again immediately after. One complaint I have about this ride is that the pace of the ride came to an immediate halt near the end of the ride, due to the proximity between your car and the one in front.

After that, I went on The Haunted Mansion two more times with my brother. I met up with my parents in order to experience Stitch Encounter, which was in Japanese, but it was easy enough to understand due to the events on screen. For our final ride of the day, we rode The Haunted Mansion one more time, since it was definitely our favourite ride of the day.

We arrived for our second day at around 08:45, and we entered the park at 09:00.

The first ride that we rode was The Haunted Mansion, which was a walk-on (a 13-minute wait). The doombuggies seemed to be in 'crawl mode' for quite a lot of time on this ride, which did have the side effect of making the ride longer. We went on it one more time, and it was quite a bit quicker.

After that, we rode Splash Mountain, which was just as enjoyable as the first time that I rode it. We also got much wetter this time around, which annoyed my brother, although he did admit that he enjoyed the ride as a whole.

Pirates of the Caribbean had been closed on our previous visit, so we did that next. I had previously been on Paris' Pirates, but I preferred Tokyo's version by quite a large margin. I really enjoyed the caves, due to their atmosphere, and the finale was much better than Paris'; the latter was very unsatisfying. I rode it on my own immediately following that ride, and I enjoyed it even more than my first ride, as I was truly soaking in the atmosphere. One event of the ride that did bother me was the fact that the original auction scene still remained, rather than being replaced with something more appropriate. I am definitely a supporter of 'Boy Scouts of the Caribbean', rather than being a purist.

We rode Jungle Cruise following Pirates of the Caribbean, which was enjoyable due to the immersive environment, although it would have been better to have been able to understand what the skipper was saying (doing Duolingo didn't seem to help, as it was more interested in teaching me the Japanese word for 'green tea' than actually teaching me something useful).

Western River Railroad was next, which was an enjoyable tour of some of the park. There wasn't much to see throughout many sections of the attraction, though.

Following Western River Railroad, we rode Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!, which wasn't great, as the sets were fairly small, and the ride system was unnecessarily jolty.

I went on my own to ride Star Tours soon after, which was far more enjoyable. This was probably my favourite ride that I had on Star Tours, as the films chosen were more visually impactful than some of the others that they have on rotation.

After Star Tours, we rode The Haunted Mansion two more times. On my second ride, the hitchhiking ghost named Phineas (the one who looks a bit like Boris Johnson) was finally the one that was matched to our doombuggy.

We then went to Pooh's Hunny Hunt, which was unanimously declared to be better than our previous ride on it. I don't have a good sense of smell, but the honey scent throughout the ride was certainly pleasant.

We then rode Casey Jr. It had a 20-minute wait, but it felt longer due to the heat and the fact that there wasn't much to look at in the queue. The ride itself was decent for what it is, but not groundbreaking.

After that, I went on my own to ride The Haunted Mansion two more times. There were quite a few stoppages inside the attraction during these two rides, which mainly took place when I was in the graveyard scene, which I enjoyed since there was more time to immerse myself in the impeccable detail of said scene.

We rode Big Thunder Mountain after that, which felt faster than the first time that we rode it. However, Paris' Big Thunder Mountain was still far better, due to the superior layout.

The last ride of the day for me was Pirates of the Caribbean again, which I rode on my own. As before, it was very enjoyable, and all the animatronics seemed to be functioning. I left the park at around 20:30.

Thank you for reading! The final mini-trip report will be focused on Tokyo DisneySea.

 

[Zeock]

This is the last mini-trip report, and this one will be focused on Tokyo DisneySea.

To reach the park, you need to use a monorail, which takes around 10 minutes.

We arrived there at around 08:30, and I entered the park at 08:50. My mum booked a Standby Pass for Rapunzel's Lantern Festival, as Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey was sold out.


We first went on Tower of Terror, which is close to the entrance. The wait time was 50 minutes, but it definitely felt longer than that. The queue is extremely well-designed (it is meant to be a garden). Still, there were multitudes of cicadas, which ruined the atmosphere of the queue by being extremely loud and drowning out the ominous background music. The building is beautiful from both the outside and the inside, and there are plenty of ornaments scattered around the building seemingly from a variety of different places such as Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras). The pre-show was amazing and introduced the role of the demon Shiriki Utundu in the story. The ride itself was very good, despite the additional restraints resulting in less air time than Paris' Tower of Terror. The drops seemed to have a bit of a punch, despite many people saying the contrary.


After that, we went to Mysterious Island to ride 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Mysterious Island itself is absolutely sublime. I love that the theming encompasses 360 degrees, and it is not as small as it looks in photos. Since I am scared of deep water (which is odd, since I love rain), I found this to be genuinely scary, although my mum, dad, and brother were fine with it. We then rode Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is in the same area. Once again, the queue was brilliant, partially because it was all inside. There is a fake lift (stylised as a 'Terravator'), which brings you down to the station, where plenty of rubbish had accidentally fallen past the queue line to where some more theming was situated. Once we boarded the ride, everything was practically perfect (except for one small screen which looked rather two-dimensional). I enjoyed how the ride builds in tension as you move throughout it, and we all enjoyed the final high-speed section of the ride. The final animatronic, which seemed to be on some sort of B-Mode judging from recent POVs, was back to its normal range of movement. Overall, this became my favourite ride due to the atmosphere, and the exquisite theming. We rode it again immediately after.

Following that, it was time to enter Fantasy Springs. There is a place where your tickets are scanned before you enter. Once you are inside the area, you are greeted by three lands, one of which focuses around Peter Pan, another around Frozen, and another around Tangled. After spending half an hour looking around the area (seeing the Frozen area was rather odd, considering how hot it was), we went to Rapunzel's Lantern Festival. It was too short, although quite pretty in places, and my brother thought that 'it was boring'. After that, we exited Fantasy Springs, which has some brilliant theming in places but is one of the weakest 'ports' at DisneySea.

Lost River Delta was nearby, so we rode Indiana Jones® Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, which we had to wait 55 minutes for. Once again, the theming was exquisite, and the station looked wonderful. The ride was slightly less awe-inspiring than I expected, but it was still very enjoyable. The fireball effect was much weaker than I expected.

We then rode Raging Spirits, which smelled of sausages. The ride was smoother than its counterpart in Paris, but it felt far less intense. The theming was probably the best that I have ever seen for a rollercoaster. My brother enjoyed the inversion, and my parents found it fun.


This was followed by Jasmine's Flying Carpets, and Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster, which had decent theming, and were acceptable, considering that they are both aimed at children.

Next, we went back to Tower of Terror. The cicadas had gone, so the queue was as enjoyable as it was meant to be. The ride felt the same as before, but this did not matter much to be, as this attraction is a lot more than just a ride.

Then, we did Aquatopia, which got us fairly wet (my brother didn't seem to mind this time), and then Nemo and Friends SeaRider, which was OK, but not anything special.

For the last two rides of the day, we rode Journey to the Center of the Earth again. One thing that I have to add about this ride is that you attain a surprisingly large amount of airtime as you exit Mount Prometheus, but obviously, the impeccable theming is the main reason why this ride is so good.

Our second day at DisneySea started by booking Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure, and then we went to Tower of Terror, which we had to wait 35 minutes for. The drops felt slightly more powerful than before, although that could just be my imagination. One interesting thing is that the pre-show is arranged slightly differently depending on which one you enter.

After that, we rode Journey to the Center of the Earth. I was on the back row, which meant that I fully felt the heat of the fire near the end of the ride, which was slightly unwelcome. However, the drop was even better in the back compared to the middle and the front. I immediately rode it again, this time on my own. I am not sure whether I prefer the serene first half or the intense second half, but both combine to create an experience that left me nearly in tears each time due to how good it was.

Following that, I met up with my parents and brother, and we went to Fantasy Springs in order to ride Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure. The queue contained plenty of atmosphere, and reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride was extremely good, combining physical props and screens well. It was also a rather long ride, which made a change from Rapunzel's Lantern Festival.


Next, we rode Raging Spirits again. I was near the back row, so the ride felt slightly more intense than before (especially the inversion), but Paris' version still seemed to be more intense.

We went to Indiana Jones again, which had an 80-minute queue. The ride was as enjoyable as before, but the second ride was the first time that I appreciated just how spectacular the queue was.


We then went to Cape Cod in order to ride the DisneySea Transit Steamer Line. It was fairly long, and there were great views of the different 'ports', such as Mysterious Island, which you passed through the bottom of. We then got off at Mediterranean Harbor, so that we could ride Tower of Terror again, which had a 70-minute wait. It was as fun as before, and it was interesting to go upstairs for the first time before boarding.

For our final two rides of the day, we rode Journey to the Center of the Earth. The night rides were special; it is brilliant coming out of the volcano and seeing your surroundings lit up beautifully. It wasn't too busy, as we only had to wait 35 minutes for each of our rides. We then looked around Mysterious Island in its full night-time glory, and left (after taking some pictures). It really was wonderful.

 

[RubySanders]

Thank you so much for sharing those pictures.