Universal Studios was the big park for Osaka on this trip and for Nagoya it was a journey down to Nagashima for Spaland, the largest park in the country (by number of coasters that is). This is a park I've been to on both of my previous trips and I love the selection of rides that they have here. They have 15 rollercoasters (17 if you include the bobkarts) and is home to the current longest rollercoaster in the world Steel Dragon, which was down on my first visit in 2005 but up and running in 2009. Since then it had replaced the trains with some more open modern versions so I was keen to ride that again.
They had also added a few new rollercoasters since my last visit, which would take precedence on this trip: Acrobat, a flying coaster that looked like a copy of the Manta ride at Seaworld Orland, Arashi, their latest addition which is a 4D coaster similar to a few rides that are popping up in the States and just for completeness a kiddy coaster themed around Peter Rabbit.
Rather strangely the park had also moved two of their rollercoasters as they expanded into the car park, and it wasn't the smallest ones they'd moved either. Ultra Twister and Corkscrew had both moved from the right hand side over to left of the park freeing up land for a new kids section.
As it turns out I was able to get around the park extremely quickly. This park was nowhere near as busy as Universal Studios and had really efficient operations. This got me thinking that the main draw at Universal has to be the licensing as the ride selection is better here but none of the rides are themed. The other factor is that Nagashima Spaland has a huge water park as part of the resort and on this hot day that was busier than the park. Maybe Universal should consider having a water park to make it easy for us to enjoy their park. So this became my favourite park of this particular trip.
Things were so good that I was able to finish up at the park much earlier than anticipated and I was able to add an additional park to the day. I chose to travel out to Lagunasia a park located along the coast in a small town called Gamagori. This is a park that is under most peoples' radars but has had very good feedback from those who have travelled out to it and I couldn't see a way to squeeze it into the trip, so this worked out very nicely for me, and I'm glad I did as this park has a bizarre selection of rides and because I'd gotten there late in the day the majority of the rides were walk on even more so at the end as everyone else in the park disappeared to see a halloween show, which I stumbled into on the way out. With projection mapping around the courtyard I was captivated and really impressed with the show.
I ended today in the restaurants above Nagoya station. They have an incredible selection but I plumped for a plate of delicious sushi!
The journey to the park was fine although the bus station took some finding (partly confused by it being on floors 3 and up rather than on the ground). From Nagoya station exit through the main entrance and turn right, keep walking down until you see a statue on the pavement then head right into the building and up to the 3rd floor. At this time in the morning the bus station staff are all ready for the park crowd; most of the people here were going the same way and buying combo-tickets with return bus journey and entrance to the park. The ticket comes in section which you hand over from right to left; bus out, park, bus back, souvenir receipt.
The movements can be seen here comparing 2004 at the top to the 2017 image at the bottom. I've highlighted the coasters and their new homes. Now the question is (and don't worry I know the answer, can I count them twice?).
UltraTwister was the last of the coasters to open following an extended testing run. There are very few of these things left.
I'd somehow managed to make my way to Steel Dragon and onto the platform with no queuing whatsoever which confused me a little. It wasn't until the operator explained I'd come up the exit which was being used as a fastpass queue and that I needed a fastpass ticket to board this side. The pass cost 1000 yen (£7) so I thought why not without even checking how long the queue was on the other side. Another couple of minutes later and I'm on the coaster. Now when I rode this in 2009 it felt like a very large kiddy coaster, tall yes but not forceful. That hasn't changed despite the new trains. You're more exposed but the lack of thrill is still present. I don't know why this is, perhaps it's just so big and the hills so calculated that we struggle to comprehend it properly.
Arashi was my first ride of the day and I'm finding these quite intense but really enjoyable rides. The ride runs on a single plane hence the skinny appearance and the cars rotate you as it traverses the track. The ride is short but the park were doing a good job moving people through it. As with most of the big rides, I wasn't allowed to wear glasses but these guys were being super strict in ensuring absolutely no loose items were being taken on board. You were asked a few times both verbally and on signs and they even had metal detecting wands, no pat downs or "give me two good coughs" though :)
The corkscrew hadn't improved with it's move
Manta was enjoyable too despite not being able to see where I was flying. The pretzel elements are rib crushing and the layout is alright but the ride could really benefit from more near misses. The most exciting wingsuit videos are the ones where the flyer buzzes close to the ground; this ride really needs to be emulating that. One day a park on a hill will build one that hugs the terrain!
The park is home to 2 Schwarzkopf coasters both running very well despite their age (both are approaching 40)
I shouldn't be commenting on the Peter Rabbit coaster at all.
This was a Pokemon themed attraction that opened later in the day. It's aimed at kids so I made do with just playing Pokemon Go as long as the battery lasted.
White Cyclone has to be the most epic looking wooden coaster, apparently the extra support is to make its earthquake proof. Prior to travelling out the park had announced the ride would be closing and would be reworked by Rocky Mountain Coaster, a company that are converting old wooden rides into incredible hybrid wood and steel rides. So this was a farewell visit to the ride and it'll be interesting to see how crazy the reworked ride turns out. There were some markers on the open land north of the ride which could mean the new ride will have an even bigger footprint than this one. Let's see.
That was Nagashima and I had a great time from a rides perspective. It lacks the magic of a Disney or a Universal but it has a great selection of rides and it's good they're continuing to invest in more. The theme park scene in Japan has suffered over the last 10 years due to a major accident in one park (now completely gone) and the reactor issues that hurt the economy and there haven't been many new additions compared to the US or China (well, nothing compares to the latter) but this park has managed it.
Anyway onto Lagunasia and the journey by train to Gamagori went well and from the station there's a bus that takes you direct to the park for free, which I've marked for you above. It's really obvious though the bus has Lagunasia livery.
One cool thing is that the park has a tourist discount, just show your passport when you buy your ticket for 10% off.
Aqua Wind is a toboggan coaster (small 4 seater train like you get on the mice). This was an insane ride on account of all the trims being turned off due to there only being 2 cars on the track. The pace on this was mental as it whipped around the turns and flew over the hills. It's got a lot of punch for such a small ride...and it only had a 5 minute queue.
I came across an attraction where you draw a fish and it is rendered in 2D and 3D and put into a virtual fish tank. A nice use of tech marred only by me not being able to translate the word for "fish" and so I drew a smurf which looked rubbishing swimming around the tank like a decapitation.
Magical Powder is a dark ride that's easily missed as the entrance looks like a food shop (that's the theme). It shouldn't be missed as it is incredibly weird and very Japanese. It doesn't even have a proper ending, just a sign that says "to be continued", but where?
The second coaster is even more unusual with most of it being indoors and the only outside photo opportunity being of the final turn through which the train flies through. The ride is part dark ride all coaster and I wasn't sure I was going to fit in it as the lap strap ends didn't even touch let alone click together but the ride op got an extender for me. Some other parks would just have said "get off fatty!" so that was nice, but there was no leg room once I was clicked in and I was worried that any lateral movement might break a bone or separate a knee cap. It hurt but I did make it around but had no intention of re-riding to try the VR experience that they were offering this year. Some further digging revealed there used to be a dark ride here, so I suspect this was some sort of retrofit. The ride is very good and tells a story, but the train is bad.
The final coaster was stellar coaster, a kids helix-heavy kids coaster that looks like something an amateur would build in roller coaster tycoon. The one thing that made it stand out was the train with each car coloured and named a different colour of the rainbow and being whale themed
Around the rear of the park was a large garden with an entrance that reminded me of Seville's Fair. With there being no lighting on the plants there was little point checking it out at this time of day.
The park surrounds a lake which looks to have been a waterpark earlier in the day. There was some construction going on to the left so the park was left in a crescent shape and that construction meant I missed the Fire Fire attraction as I didn't walk to the end of the crescent, ah well!
As I was making my way out the halloween show was in full swing. I hadn't seen it advertised so it was a pleasant surprise to see it. It featured the projections and 4 witches dancing around a large cauldron.
There's another big wheel down here but I had no time on this occasion to ride it. Next time, I really need to spend more time at this park as I didn't get around absolutely everything and based on the great rides I did I suspect the others are a good enough reason for a return visit.
The train journey back was fine (it always bloody is here). I found a cute Nagoya mascot with the golden carps from the castle as its inspiration.
Dinner tonight was a superb selection of delishus sushi.
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