I went to Japan for this years Christmas Break, from the 20^th of December to the 5^th.

 

Many trip reports and photos to come, but I’ll start off with Fuji Q.

pics here:

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-130-Fuji-Q_High_Land

Basically, I had a tight-ish schedule, and began to fret a bit when I saw snow forecast the night before I visited.

Still, I went through with it, and arrived to about 20cm of powdery snow. It was very pretty, but kept the crowds away, but a double edged sword as it meant only indoor rides were open for the first half of the day.

The Japanese are very industrious, and right from the early morning, staff were all hands on deck clearing snow and opening attractions.

In the end, I managed to ride basically everything I wanted to (Ok I wouldn’t have minded trying Panic Clock, but it ended up that Tondemina was the only major flat to open)

But the one notable exception was Eejanaika. I guess it would have been cool riding X2s bigger brother, but I would have been far more shattered if I missed Do-Dodonpa

In the end I rode the following:

Thomas Treasure Hunt – A surprisingly good kiddie dark ride where you shine a torch on treasures.

Fuji Airways – Brogent flying theatre with a hilariously good preshow. The film was okay, focusing on repeated “big reveals” of Mt Fuji. One point had you passing through a storm, and another point had a faux air force fly by, but instead of jets, it was CGI people flying in the winged seats of their Gerstlauer sky roller.

Scientific Ninja Dojo Hall – A Naruto themed toy story mania type ride where you shoot ninja stars, fire etc etc, rather well done.

Shining Flower – Giant ferris wheel great for photos. There was an option to ride in fully Perspex pods, but they seemed much more faded / grimy than the usual ones, which wouldn’t be good for photos.

Nagashimuska – A rapids ride with some scarily steep drops and a cool whirlpool element. A poncho is a must considering it was 8c outside.

Rock n Roll Duncan – A kiddie coaster more gentle than a wacky worm.

Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear – An upcharge, pre booked horror walkthrough set in a Hospital. You go in groups of 4, but if you are alone, you end up shelling out for a full slot, costing a whopping 4000 JPY. Was very long though, and could be a stand alone attraction outside a park imo. The childrens ward scene is particularly creepy, and you do get chased a couple of times.

Evangelion  World – I have no idea about this series, it was walk through with several giant robot heads and vehicles from the Anime. Im sure if you were a fan you’d get more out of it.

Fujiyama – A very long, not too rough hypercoaster that was quite intense and fast. Felt way ahead of its time. In particular, the wave turns at the end are nuts. I did 2 laps on single rider.

Takabisha – A great launched / lift hill Eurofighter. Great pacing, a good pop of airtime on one of the hills. I thought the section after the beyond vertical drop was a bit brief though. I did 3 laps, including one with a fast pass from the vending machine out front of the ride.

Do-Dodonpa – A launch so fast your brain doesn’t process it for a second, and one of the few rides I’ve had an oh gawd moment on (prior to the launch) The train does bounce around a bit, so its an experience, but probably wouldn’t want to be  much longer. I did 2 laps, including one with a fast pass from the vending machine out front of the ride.

The park has Pizza La, so I had some japanse pizza (Including a Teriyaki one with seaweed flakes)

Overall, despite the hiccups, the low crowds ensured a great day, and it was quite magical being in a snow filled park. Anywhere else and they’d say “Stuff it, we’re closed today”

Thanks @Gazza I can't wait for the rest.  The misses and I are currently tossing up where to go this year.  It's come down to Japan or Thailand.  

Japan is a very easy country to travel in, and really quite cheap, just make sure you have a roaming bundle or a sim card so you can use maps and translate. You can relax a bit because things aren't a hassle, and its very safe.

Oh and the food is exceptional, doesn't matter if its local or western food.

Everything is geared well to access without a car, so public transport to parks is easy, and every station and park has ample coin lockers to leave your luggage in.

Parks open year round, winter is mostly like a Melbourne winter, though sunset was quite early, just before 5pm.

Operations are slow, but medium and smaller parks never tend to get busy.

The bigger ones get rammed with people, but you can always pay to skip lines or use faspass.

Your mindset changes and you get into "Japanese park mode", if you are at Disney etc, you will get to ride everything becase the operating hours are long, but you have to accept that for a couple of rides you'll just have to wait 2h. And yes definitely arrive an hour before opening so you can nab a fast pass and get in line for a major early.

Interested to know from people experiences how they go with ride audio and shows etc being in another language? Does it suck the enjoyment out of it at all when you have no clue what they are saying?

It doesnt suck the enjoyment out of it. It would be cool.to hear it in English but the ride and the animatronics etc take your mind off it. Japan is amazing 

Most of us know the narratives of many of the rides at Disney or Universal. On the Sinbad ride they even offered us a little book of what the story was about. And if you want to ride Jaws, USJ is the last park in the world that has it.

1 hour ago, iwerks said:

Most of us know the narratives of many of the rides at Disney or Universal. On the Sinbad ride they even offered us a little book of what the story was about. And if you want to ride Jaws, USJ is the last park in the world that has it.

Yeah I would understand many of the narratives, no doubt, but my partner and son would.

i guess for that reason I have never considered Tokyo/Paris Disney as viable options until they have experienced Disneyland first. I just feel like if you are going to do Disney, you do Disneyland, at least the first time. Just my mindset/opinion 

We are looking at doing a Japan trip late this year or early next year.

Just wondering the best way to travel around Japan? Also, I didn’t realise Universal was so far from Tokyo. What’s the best way to travel there? 
 

Would be looking at doing 

- Disney 

- Fuji Q

- Universal

- Nagashima Spa Land

 

 

I went in late March early April a few years ago and would highly recommend them. It wasn’t too cold and wasn’t overly busy either. 
 

The bullet train will be your friend for travelling long distances. So fly into Tokyo, do Disney, then train to Fuji Q then continue on to Osaka to do Universal. And if possible, fly out from there. While your in Osaka definitely spend a few days in Kyoto too. Beautiful part of the country. If you want some tips for Universal, happy to share 

Ahh yes! Totally forgot about them having the bullet train. Will definitely be taking advantage of that. 
 

Would love any tips for any of the parks  

1 hour ago, themagician said:

I went in late March early April a few years ago and would highly recommend them. It wasn’t too cold and wasn’t overly busy either. 
 

The bullet train will be your friend for travelling long distances. So fly into Tokyo, do Disney, then train to Fuji Q then continue on to Osaka to do Universal. And if possible, fly out from there. While your in Osaka definitely spend a few days in Kyoto too. Beautiful part of the country. If you want some tips for Universal, happy to share 

For Fuji Q, it's much cheaper and simpler and quicker to do it as a day trip with the highway bus from Shinjuku.

You can get an all inclusive Q pack ticket, and departures are available that get you to the park nice and early.

@Gazza Just wondering if you did Nagashima Spa Land & how you got there? As it’s kind of between Tokyo & Osaka. 

I visited the parks you plan to in May last year, Nagashima Spa Land was easy with a Train to Nagoya Station and a Highway Bus from there.

 

Get yourself a JR rail pass, we were using the trains everyday whilst over there. Took about 30-40 mins from Shinjuku.

With the rail pass, its good if you want to do a lot of adhoc slightly inefficient travel....random daytrips and the like.

But for me, i only had to do one long and one short Shinkansen trip, plus a lot of travel on private railways (Eg to Parque Espana) so the economics weren't there. My itinerary was more of a loop i guess.

Also, the rail pass doesnt let you use the fastest class Ｎｏｚｏｍｉ Shinkansens....And for me, doing the Osaka Tokyo run at full speed was a big thing I wanted to do.

 

On 17/01/2020 at 1:25 PM, Brad2912 said:

Interested to know from people experiences how they go with ride audio and shows etc being in another language? Does it suck the enjoyment out of it at all when you have no clue what they are saying?

 

On 18/01/2020 at 12:38 AM, Brad2912 said:

Yeah I would understand many of the narratives, no doubt, but my partner and son would.

i guess for that reason I have never considered Tokyo/Paris Disney as viable options until they have experienced Disneyland first. I just feel like if you are going to do Disney, you do Disneyland, at least the first time. Just my mindset/opinion 

I've always regarded Disneyland as the first stop for any Disney Park virgin, but in terms of affordability, a quick trip to Hong Kong isn't too big of a difference. Almost everything in park is in English, but you can ride Jungle Cruise in three languages by choice of queue, and the Golden Mickeys - or whatever it is now - is a cantonese language show, with English subtitles shown on screens to the side of the stage.

I found that Golden Mickeys was an enjoyable watch, largely ignoring the subtitles as they were a distraction from actually watching the show. Many attractions in other languages follow similar themes, in that you can still enjoy the ride\show without necessarily having it spoken to you in English.

if you're unsure about foreign language parks, but can't hit L.A. first - try HKDL instead.

Thanks for that @AlexB!