A Japanese Jaunt #2 - Part 5: Haikara't Kogen

[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.