A Japanese Jaunt #2 - Part 10: Hiruzen Kyoto

[HeartlineCoaster]

Content warning - this trip contains whole days without rollercoasters. I would say it's me slowing down, but choose to blame the industry doing so instead.

It’s been far too long since my last visit to Japan at just over 6 years months. The simple FOMO of the previous trip carried over once again, inspired by some longstanding unfinished business with a particular couple of places, and a continued desire to explore new parts of the country by means of their fading amusement parks.

Day 0

Nothing much to report on the travel front, thankfully. Flew into Osaka via Beijing because it was offensively cheap, but too short of a layover to get up to anything cheeky.
Oh, they did try and cancel the Japan leg earlier in the year when the two countries fell out politically again, because the airline anticipated not making any money on flights between them, but it was rebooked with relative ease and only ended up being a minor inconvenience.

Hit the ground half-running with some shopping shenanigans before near-passing out in a Mcdonalds once sitting down and travel fatigue could set in. Time for a reset.

Day 1

Picked up a hire car the next morning, a loyal and faithful cubular Suzuki that served us faultlessly and provided a quintessential local driving experience. Didn't have much in Osaka to hang around for so immediately busted out of the city in search of a new genre entirely.

Why have CoasterForce when you can have HorseCourseForce?

This is Hanshin Racecourse.

It's free to enter on non-race days.

Good place for a picnic.

And generally very pretty.

Can't help but thing of Thunder Dolphin when I see the hole in that roof.

Not sold? Coasters it is then.

Kobe Fruit & Flower Park

The flower bit of the name is up through there.

But turn left before that for the real deal.

Started strong, as always, on the Hurry Coaster, a mini Meisho with some inspired shaping.

Both coasters here came from a defunct park in Osaka in the '90s, so that's fun.

The other, bigger cred also has a bee(?) on it.

It's somewhat jet coaster inspired, as the name would suggest, but also a bit jankier and wilder than usual with the stumpy two-car trains.

In a mine-cart-esque kinda way, was rather fun.

Had some local strawberry sorbet to fulfil the fruit part of the equation, then hit the road, simple.

Up next - more Meisho

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Not far up the road is

Day 2 - Tojoko Toy Kingdom

Reminded me of a few other places, up in the hills in the middle of nowhere, by a lake.

Initial pathway is somewhat blocko-inspired, though this particular theme soon dies out as you reach the amusements proper.

Wait, is that a bonus cred in the distance?

First things first was the Meisho, very similar hardware to the previous day.

Name here is far less apt however, Hill Billy Texas Bronco? Not much of that makes sense.

Was a fair bit heftier in duration, picked up a fair bit of speed over time and the near misses with the rockwork in the end felt rather scary.

While nothing special in any particular way, I came off far happier about it than I had any right to be.
A delayed culmination of emotions about being back at this nonsense again, still a spark for it somewhere deep down I guess.

This also Meisho shuttle loop is long gone, just an eye-catcher from a time gone by.

Huge, in what is very much a park aimed at young families these days, I question whether it would have lasted no matter the circumstances.

And missing the rest of the layout, albeit just a straight line.
It's been exactly this way for at least 20 years and the park has added precisely 0 coasters in that period, an apt summary of the state of the scene out here.

Mooched around and killed some time as there was a staggered opening on the other, smaller cred.

It opened a little earlier than posted, which was welcome. A functional +1 if ever there was one.

Didn't hang around much longer, took a drive down to Okayama, specifically a touristy bit dubbed the 'Venice of Japan' for the afternoon.

Not entirely convinced, but here we are.

Was quiet and pleasant for that time of day at least.

Up next - HeartlineCoaster

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

7 years ago I arrived at the ticket desk of Washuzan Highland to be helpfully informed that all three rollercoasters were not operating that day.

Time for revenge.

Day 3 - Washuzan Highland

Arrived to a reasonably long queue to get in. As with Rusutsu last year I had intentionally aimed for what was expected to be a busy or 'peak' weekend in order to prioritise attraction availability over crowd comfort.

The history of why this place has an obsession with Brazil eludes me, but it seems to be toned down these days. The only time it kicked off was for a weird bingo event in the middle of the day (everyone got a card with their entry ticket) that had a couple of folks in carnival attire trying to rile up a mostly mute Japanese audience, while of course shouting numbers and giving out prizes.

We're not here for that though. It is with immense satisfaction and sadness that I have now ridden every existing version of my namesake coaster.

Despite the queue to get in, the fact that it's front and centre as the first ride you see upon entry, and the horrendous capacity of this running a single 6-person car, it hadn't drawn too much of a wait.

Turns out the restraint system I described for the dive loop version in Rusutsu is entirely unique (amongst those that remain at least). Here the first thing I noticed is a much chonkier shoulder restraint and lack of weird little lap bar.

It all amounts to a similar amount of fear factor however, I can never say enough how much these things are fascinatingly over and under engineered, for the era.

It delivered the appropriate amounts of glory. Two terrifying out of seat moments, one thriling hurl of a heartline, a car crash of a brake run at the far end, and a graceful backwards descent through two more inversions that no one else sees coming. Seems obvious now, but I was surprised at the speed difference of these vs the dive loop edition, which carries an insane amount of momentum and intensity in comparison to that which comes to a dead stop at less than half the height.

This park is quite the athletic workout, as it's built on a massive hill. Also at ground level, but with views here not even halfway up, is the other major coaster.

For the morning it was running its backwards train, which I found to be extremely potent in the back (front) row.

I've experienced the layout before, but not for a long time and never in this manner, so the sheer element of surprise in each of the surprisingly sharp hills led to some surprisingly strong airtime surprises. Loved it.

At the summit of the park is the final, family friendly coaster. Old mate Chupy.

It's great not only for the setting, but the very open cars with no restraint beyond a seatbelt, and of course the train decoration.

Did a nearby cycle railway, also for the views.

An interesting touch was that they added a little trick track to it, for a bit of scary illusion.

They've also got this ferris wheel with open air seats. Seemed to be a few downsides however, in that it's upcharge, your view is restricted by restraint and there were a lot of scary bugs flying around.

Opted for the regular of course.

Can't beat a good vantage point.

This looks far more impressive than it rides.

Around lunchtime they were due to swap the trains on this over to the standup version, as proclaimed on a sandwich board on the path to the ride.

This also coincided with the bingo, so doubled up as being dead quiet and avoiding that.

Now in this mode, it's the same as the Togo stand-up in Italy, which I absolutely adored.
Didn't ride quite as potently in feet-off-the-floor airtime for whatever reason, be it weather, front row or me related.

Still terrifying though, and definitely reinforced for me that, whilst B&M have finally come a bit closer to replicating the fear through actually standing up, and having a restraint that moves with you, Togo have been doing that and better since the '70s. Insane.

Closing lap on that closed out the visit, which was lovely to finally tick off after so long of a tease. Great setting, great rides, a gem of a Japanese park. Having now ridden all the Heartlines, I can officially retire from the hobby.

- - -

The drive for the afternoon took us over a set of bridges through the inland sea and over to Shikoku. Not to be confused with the bridges over the inland sea to Shikoku we've just seen from the park. That's the other way.

Who needs CoasterForce when you can have BridgeForce?

Let's count.

At the end there's a rest stop where you can look back at some of the view.

Finished up in the city of Matsuyama, our base for the night, and took a wander over to some touristy place.

Old train and new tram.

A pretty clock tower that does a show every hour - the top rises up, doors open out from the sides with little dioramas and music plays. It got dark, so no pictures, you can probably find it on the gram.

And the building that the area is named after.

Dogo Onsen. Nice.

Up next - CastleForce

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Day 4 - Matsuyama

Next morning was a rainy one but, for a welcome change, that didn't even matter.

Headed over to see the signature castle of the city, which can be accessed via this cable car station.

The plastic school chair version was out of action, so up we went on big blue.

Even after that there's a hefty hill to climb to get up to the castle grounds. Accessibility wasn't a top priority when choosing the location.

There's separate ticketed entry if you want to go inside, which is recommended both for something to do and the views. Once in, there's a locker room for shoe removal, so you can get to pad the wooden halls and climb the steep stairs in slippers or socks, which adds to the experience.

Plenty of history stuff.

Can't beat a good vantage point.

Yes, that's a ferris wheel. No, no cred.

That was fun. Headed back down and took a drive to see some oranges, the famed fruit of the region.

Yes, it's called a park. No, no cred.

Only oranges.

Juiced up, drove all the way back over those bridges again to reach Hiroshima for the evening.

First and only priority upon arrival was their famed pizza vending machine, which as far as I know is a one and only. Used to live near a convenience store, now it's just under an apartment building.
So, how was the pizza? Pretty good, considering.

Day 5 - Hiroshima

Took a wander through the city the next morning.

Main stuff in the middle includes the museum.

Peace park.

And A-bomb dome. There's also an overpriced vantage point with a slide in it.

We had planned to head to Miyajima for the afternoon, mainly to finish a joke I set up in Florida, but the weather ruined the ferry scheduling.

Same thing.

But if you zoom in real close, there it is from the mainland, specifically the car park of a convenience store. Keep it a secret though, or they might put a wall up.

An hour down the road, something that didn't require a ferry.

BridgeForce is back with Kintaikyo bridge.

There's a toll gate at one end, and another cable car up to another castle at the other end, but the latter was closed by this time.

Yup, that's a bridge alright.

Up next - a bridge

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Continuing ever westward, we found ourselves in Shimonoseki - the town that marks the entry point onto the island of Kyushu, via yet another big bridge.

Just before that though

Day 6 - Haikara't Yokocho

There's a cred to be had here. Guess I'm not retiring just yet.

Only the finest to break the fast of course, one of the nations many Banana coasters.

Alternative transport options are available.

In the interests of keeping things relatively leisurely, this was originally billed to be the only 'park' of the day. However, worrying weather reports were worryingly reporting that the following day was going to be a bit of a write off, so we upped the pace a bit in response.

But first, horsecourseforce.

via Bridgeforce.

This is Kokura Racecourse, the biggest in Kyushu.

Nice place for a picnic.

Building was open, as other races were on elsewhere in the country, you can treat it like a big, fancy betting shop with free drinks.

And then, several down hours the road, you may have heard of this one.

Kijima Kogen

9 years ago, terrifyingly, we sort of almost came here. The circumstance birthed a quote of a lifetime in that we were done with Space World, put it in the Sat Nav, and were presented with arriving 5 minutes before close, with a cost of £70 in tolls. How times have changed.

Thus I suppose this was pseudo revenge, though mainly I've been haunted ever since by the ride that killed Gavin around the same time. And completing the Japanese wooden (not that impressive) and Intamin wooden (better) sets of course.

Enough words, Jupiter.

Ok, some more words. Similar tactics for the 'biggest' park of the trip, though a day early, this was intentionally a weekend for attraction availability over crowd comfort.

So, several hours into the day here, this had a pretty hefty, or at least slow-moving queue. As busy as it gets was only deemed worthy of one train operation.

Eventually made it on, the biggest source of discomfort being assigned seating taking fate out of my hands. Ended up near the front, in a non-wheel row.

Off we went. It's got a fun little pre-lift section, one of the pioneers of the genre in that regard I guess. While only hitting moderate speeds here, this revealed that there probably was something to be worried about.

Up and round and down we go.
I kinda liked it.

A very interesting mix really. There's sparks of it being a very good ride, with even a few moments of what would be impressive airtime, as you would expect from a more modern Intamin, but not at all after riding Regina and Elf.

The tracking is patchy at best. I assume some work has been done at some point as all these things change all the time of course, it varied from laughable jiggle, to stay on your guard, catch this at the wrong time and it'll kill you.

Did I dare to ride again? Probably, through 40% morbid curiosity, 30% a sense of respect to the name and the size, 20% the decent chance it won't be around forever and 10% actual enjoyment. It held the same queue all day though, so no.
On reflection now, glad I didn't, as we so often learn these days, walk away on the high.

Back up the high end of the park are the other creds.

The cold steel of a powered dragon.

The park's signature steel, a Meisho rarity.

It has some of the charms of a jet coaster when wafting over the pathways, but loses the spirit a little bit in trying too hard with inversions.

Looks cool though.

Vekoma Junior, from both the old rollerskate days and a defunct park up the road. Should have saved their jet coaster instead.

And finally a ridiculously intense Meisho mine train thing that was nothing like the others of the trip in any way. Swear I took a picture of it, but have checked all 3 phones now so you'll just have to believe me.

The warning signs - the back row is permanently closed off, more padding than usual, a 5 minute enthusiastic safety spiel form the operator before despatch (resulting in easily the second longest queue on park).

No idea what went on with this one, but every elevation change is marked by the most intense of transitions, which built and built until the very end. Like it wasn't meant to have a long train or someone got their calculations off.

Amazing though, they accidentally stumbled onto a winning formula as it made everyone scream and shout every time. Sleeper hit of the park.

Was sad to learn that the building for this once housed the park's only actual dark ride. It had an interesting history, originally being built as a showcase model over in Europe.
Chuck some 4D seats in a box and call it a day.

Had a cheeky go on the old Intamin drop tower, which became my most efficient amusement attraction of all time. No one else there at all. Nodded at the guy. Sat down. Despatch. Drop. Nodded at the guy. Done. Less than 30 seconds?

With that it was park complete, Perhaps not quite as significant as I'd built it up to be in my head after all these years, but great setting, interesting set of coasters, good vibes, all that fun stuff.

Up next - bad vibes

 

[roomraider]

Not heading to Lina World at all are you?
The Jet Coaster Discovery is a slightly taller modified version of Gold Rush at Kijima. Unfortunatly it lacks the themeing, Always wondered how they compare.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Not heading to Lina World at all are you?
The Jet Coaster Discovery is a slightly taller modified version of Gold Rush at Kijima. Unfortunatly it lacks the themeing, Always wondered how they compare.

Not this time, should have been last time, but most likely next time. It's on the list.


The threat of rain that had accelerated the schedule of the previous day was still looming the next morning. With 2 more, smaller parks still to do in and around the town of Beppu, the ideal situation would have been to knock one out anyway, by hook or by crook.

Thus, as they had the most comprehensive website of the two, I kept tabs on Harmonyland religiously night and day. The rain never came overnight and was, in theory, deferred to mid morning by all reliable measures. As opening time approached, ride statuses were promptly updated and the park clearly stated that neither of their rollercoasters would operate for the day due to weather. I do like a decisive piece of information.

Day 7 - Beppu Hell

As a famous hot spring town, there's plenty of hot air to be seen around here.

Headed into town and then up a steep hill to check out a couple of their many themed bodies of water known as 'hells'.

First one was a geyser with a seating area. A long and annoying sequence of many, many announcements saying it was about to go off, please stop crossing in front of people was accompanied by a long and annoying sequence of many, many people crossing in front of people.

Eventually it went off. Then everyone got very quickly bored and left, to the tune of a long and annoying sequence of staff saying please stop crossing in front of people accompanied by a long and annoying sequence of many, many people crossing in front of people.

Fish.

Here's the stats though, pretty cool, people aside, as most things are.

Just next door was the one with the red water. Had a bit of a queue to get in, through an obnoxiously busy gift shop, followed by some red water.

Steam.

That was enough of that, likely not helped by my mind being elsewhere, and my consistently clockwork remarks about the fact that it hadn't even rained yet, yet coasters were closed for the day at the mere thought of it.

Sadly I then checked the Harmonyland website again only to learn that they had decided to open their coasters... I do loathe an indecisive piece of information. With perfect hindsight, getting there at opening while most people would have assumedly been put off, could have been the perfect inside hack, but just you wait.

The sky was still certainly threatening and it still felt like a risk to commit to the park with 'more' so instead we hit the road to

Rakutenchi

At the very moment I pulled into the car park, it began to rain, and continued to do so for the rest of the day.

So we went to Oita, did some shopping and had some ramen. The end.


Day 8

Well the weather got it out of its system swiftly enough and it was back to business as usual for the foreseeable. We were now on the back foot however, with both parks left to do and a long way to go afterwards.

Made sense to start at the park with 'more', that opened earlier, was the furthest away from our eventual destination, so we hit the road to

Harmonyland

Despite being in the initial queue of cars at the car park barrier before it even opened, and I'll never know how, it took 90 minutes to set foot in this place. To add insult to injury, it was by far the most expensive of the trip so far.

Why? Because it's Sanrioland in disguise, and as we found out the hard way, it's ridiculously overvisited and undercapable.

Headed straight to the main coaster whilst everyone else headed into a queue for lottery tickets for meet'n'greets or some other Sanrio slop.

Despite this, it took 90 minutes to get on the ride. I know exactly why, poor capacity, but hey, custom Vekoma Junior.

With a distinct jet coaster feel. Worth?

Headed up to the powered dragon next but after some quick mental maths it looked to be also hanging around that magical number of 90 minutes, so noped out.

Headed down towards the dark ride to find that both it, and the hill train that helps access it - the place is very hilly, weren't open.

So there's a hundred million people in here and they've got about 3 attractions.

They were open until 8pn however, so figured it was best to let them attempt to sort things out and come back in the evening, at risk to sanity. Got a hand stamp and left.

Rakutenchi

Upon second arrival here, the car park at the base of the funicular - the place is very hilly, wasn't open.

You can drive to the top and go in the less impressive entrance however, it's just a long way round, far less impressive and slightly cheaper.

Another significant factor in the decision to abandon the other stupid place at that time was the opportunity to catch capybara feeding time here.

Which we did, it was great, and then they got in the water, it was hot.

Wish I could chill like that.

They have other attractive animals too.

Oh, and a rollercoaster. Without a 90 minute wait.

One of the more iconic looking old school jet coasters with great views and some acceptable levels of merriment.

This bridge makes more attractions than Harmonyland already.

Bridgeforce from a bridgeforce.

Sadly I then checked the Harmonyland website again only to learn that they had decided to close their car park because they had reached capacity... for the rest of the day. With perfect hindsight, this could have gone an infinite number of other, better ways, but let us never speak of Sanrio again.

And give all our love to Rakutenchi.

Suppose the one mercy was getting to do many hours of mountainous roads in the daylight, slightly pissed off, rather than at night and slightly more pissed off.

Up next - mountainous roads

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

The following morning found us in Miyazaki, a quaint coastal city with a zoo., with a couple of creds.

Day 9 - Miyazaki Zoo

And there it is.

Found this little history piece on the main path in, showing a glimpse of an old jet coaster they used to have. Sad it's gone.

Instead we get this magnificent specimen.

Maybe it's just me, but there's always something about a ride with a funny face that makes it so much more desirable for the count.

And these single file things are usually pretty wild, embracing the chaos.

The other 'coaster' is a bit of a dubious one, but it's well themed to dinosaurs and clowns.

Massive airtime, and it's stood for 20 years without ever being photographed for RCDB so, as ever, you're welcome.

Elsewhere in the zoo they have zoo things.

All in all, a decent morning out.


Took a drive over to Kagoshima for the afternoon, which has a couple of things going for it.

Predominantly a big volcano that came out of the sea right next to it, actively spewing on this occasion.

And the southernmost city of Kyushu.

Nice.

- - -

Day 10

The sort of original plan for the day (it could have also happened earlier, without rain) was to go from volcano to volcano. Unfortunately a helicopter crashed inside the crater of Mt. Aso earlier this year and obviously that's a complete logistical nightmare to do even anything about. So, sadly, though you can usually drive up pretty much the whole thing, all the access roads were closed off for the foreseeable.

Instead, as a near equivalent alternative, nearby there's a man and his dad who live with nearly 100 Shibas.

To many people that's probably better.

While in the area, here's some more general volcanic basin views, including what I assumed to be cracks in the ground from seismic activity.

Kōno Park

But to satiate the real thirst.

A very small park is another few hours away.

With yet another magnificent specimen.

Car park coasters are better when you can park directly under the supports.

Might be the flattest thing ever, but it wasn't without its charm.

I particularly love the residential aesthetic.

Up next - aesthetic

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Another day, another park

Day 11 - Marchen Mura

A quaint place with precisely 0 visitors and a catchy, repetitive, park-wide song.

Home to only the finest of coasters, behold.

One neat thing they have here is these little lookout towers next to each ride.

Might be my most photographed of the trip.

Elsewhere in the park they have cute animals.

A hill with a big squirrel slide on top.

This.

Free table tennis.

And free bikes.

All in all, everything Sanrio wasn't.


Huis Ten Bosch

Down the road was one of the biggest parks of the trip, but you've probably never heard of it because it doesn't contain a rollercoaster. I know I hadn't.

It's a fairly hefty resort, with a fairly hefty pricetag, and entirely themed to Dutchland.

First thing through the main entrance is another teddy bear museum.

Making a habit of these.

Back outside towards the action there are a few rides.

First up was this, which was timeslotted, and had a seemingly pointless fastrack system for 95% of the year.

It's a weird one, with approximately 30 minutes of just pre-shows, moving from room to room with a couple of staff actors. They build hype rather well into each transition, but as with most show rides it's lost entirely amongst the faff and procedure of making people stand in front of the next screen.

Very, very eventually you get to your cinema seats.

Where the main thing that sets it apart from most is that the lead actor sits in a game chair up front by the screen and performs along with the video. It only lasts about 4 minutes and despite their admirable efforts, is a complete and confusing non-event. Oh well.

Next door is a flying theatre. This is an odd one, because it opened just last year with the usual sightseeing faff. Now, less than 12 months later, it's been overlayed with Evangelion.

Which doesn't appear to match the elaborate queue at all.
More pre-shows! You get batched several times and have several instructional videos on joining NERV, military operations, high tech all-terrain (flying) vehicles.

As such they've just transitioned from one trope to another. Scary monsters attack your base (which is the park itself) and you tag along for the ride watching the main characters in big robot suits beating them up. You win, at the cost of the park being destroyed, the end.

It was all a dream though, the park is fine, here's a triple decker carousel.

Last of their big 3 is Horizon Adventure.

This is a strange one, because water based special effects show to me usually means very exciting. Instead you sit on some wooden benches and listen (via headphone translation if requested) to an old man tell a confusing story about water to his uninterested grandchildren.

They run off and knock a statue over, then the story stops, then you watch the flood, then he comes back and shrugs ambiguously, the end.

Ferris wheel time.

The Dutch illusion falls apart when you can see the landscape beyond.

Construction, get excited?

Observation tower time. For context, it's a replica of the tallest church in the Netherlands, the Dom Tower of Utrecht.

This used to house a simulator, sad. The park also used to have a much more interesting sounding dark ride which has also been lost to time.

And I feel like it needed that. While it was a very pretty place, all of the 'rides' were a bit underwhelming and didn't live up to the theming quality of the rest of the park.

All in all, glad to have knocked it off the list, even if it's only worthy of a 's'alright.'

Up next - bridgeforce

 

[Rob Coasters]

It wishes it could be Holland-Park.

Hoping that the coaster they're building is a supersized Klompi. It's the only correct thing to do.

 

[roomraider]

i Feel this is one of those all to common enthusiast things where you visit a park and they immediatly announce a brilliant new ride for next year.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

i Feel this is one of those all to common enthusiast things where you visit a park and they immediatly announce a brilliant new ride for next year.

Brilliant? Sounds optimistic. I did gaze upon such mud wondering whether it would come back to spite me however.



Day 12 began in Nagasaki, where the first port of call was another vantage point.

There's a cablecar station with free parking here, always a bonus.

The ride itself is a little on the pricey side, by local standards at least, but prompt and efficient of course.

Their main justification for this being that the vehicles were designed by someone who designs Ferraris, apparently.

You can drive up here though, which I have made a mental note to do next time.

At night, most likely. The city wins awards for night views, so they say.

It's a pretty spectacular battle of infrastructure and nature at the very least.

Bridgeforce, as promised.

- - -

Deep within the city, bridgeforce continues.

This is known as the glasses bridge. A quaint little riverside walkway, with wildlife.

And adventure.

- - -

A few hours out of the city is Shimabara, famed for holes in the wall that may or may not contain dogs.

Like so.

They also have a castle.

And yet another for the volcano collection. Mt. Unzen here is a little more sinister with that spikey summit.

In it's shadow is an open air museum of houses that were engulfed by an eruption in the '90s.

From there it was another long drive back towards the north of Kyushu, near completing our circuit of the region.

- - -

Day 13 first found us at a frog shrine

As one would expect.

This guy blows bubbles.

Relatable levels of commitment.

- - -

Down the road from there is a place called Dazaifu, which it turns out is well regarded for it's shrines and temples.

I only knew it for the cred though, and having set the sat nav to take me directly to it, was surprised to find that you can't really get near it by car.

So the search on foot began.

These colours aren't nearly tacky enough.

Sure enough though, amongst the serenity, a sight for the soul.

Dazaifu Yuenchi

At the back of the park and summit of the hill it sits on is the lone jet coaster, known as train coaster.

There's the train.

Perhaps more notable are the goats that live under the station.

It's a simple but elegant design, a slow build of a helix into one moment of questionable airtime before going out with a fizzle, just how I like it.

Park complete.

- - -

With that we bade farewell to Kyushu, headed back over the bridge to the mainland, and several more hours up the road to

Akiyoshidai Safari Land

Skipped the safari and headed straight to where the real action was.

Super coaster was rather super.

Damn near one of the biggest on the trip.

It had a good length to it, filled with forces of some description.

I like this choose your animal ferris wheel.

Elsewhere in the park it was dark ride time, didn't do so well on that front out here.

Nevertheless, this was a classic.

And I'm sure this lone image of the interior will leave you wanting more.

Not wanting more, we headed out for another few hours drive to enjoy a sunset by the sea.

Gone.

Up next - sand

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Another few hours to the east, via a bridge

and a Sandshrew

is Day 14 - Hiruzen Kogen

Like the other Kogen, this park lives in the shadow of a mountain.

Unlike the other, it only has one coaster.

A medium sized jet jaunt, named after the park itself.

Very standard layout for one of these, drop and turn,

questionable airtime hills

long helix, hot tyre friction brakes.

Jumped on the wheel for a vantage point.

Then headed out.

- - -

Next destination was Tottori, a city on the northern coast famed for having sand dunes.

There they are.

There is a chairlift contraption down to the popular bit, over some cacti. Unfortunately it closed very inconveniently early for a tourist attraction.

Oh well, here's another Sandshrew.


Day 15

Had the most extreme drive of my career on what Google deemed to be the 'main road to Kyoto' the following morning. One of those moments where it says 20 miles to go, 2 hours. You think that just can't be right. And then it is.

Very glad of the cubular car anyway, scarily narrow and isolated with unprotected sheer drops in many places.

Kyoto

First impressions upon arriving within the city limits weren't great. The mountain road spat us out on a public road next to a shrine that was absolutely swarming with foreign tourists staring in bewilderment at a car on a road.

This trend continued all through the streets surrounding our first destination. Parked up and took an uncomfortably sweaty walk amongst the masses to see some water.

A bridge of course.

And some bamboo. This bamboo forest is supposedly a major attraction, but as I remarked in relative distaste upon arrival, we'd seen many, many bamboo forests at the side of the road on our journeys already. The fact that we'd spent the past 2 weeks not surrounded by billions of tourists however made for a very jarring contrast. I'm thinking Kyoto has a problem.

Kinkakuji

This place was a bit better, with a simple paywall at the door and a one way walking system to maintain some order amongst the chaos.

Golden pavilion is gold alright.

Ginkakuji

This place was the same,

and quieter.

Silver pavilion is definitely not silver though.

Has a decent vantage point, though the camera did it little justice with the positioning of the sun. Morning is probably better.

Matcha

Green.

Gion

Finished up with a gentle stroll around the district most famous these days for hating foreign tourists. And rightly so.

That was enough Kyoto for one day, hopefully a lifetime. I've put it off for years, but it was probably nicer a decade or so ago. Better stick to coasters I guess.

Up next - coasters you've actually heard of