robbalvey

Our next day was Tobu Zoo, home to the awesome Intamin Mega-Lite "Kawasemi." I only rode in the morning, and while it started off kind of sluggish, every train that went around the circuit got faster and faster and the airtime more extreme! It's amazing! I didn't get a chance to ride it later in the day yesterday, but I have in the past, and WOW, it really lives up to being an AMAZING ride! It's a shame only for of these were made and I hope we see more at some point! Other highlights of the day include: - Being handed a basket with a guinea pig. - The "Cheese Wheel" that was better themed than 95% of the rides at amusement parks in America - The most awesome tortoise ever! - More Yakitori! Here's a video of Kawasemi we shot a few years ago so you can get an idea of how awesome this ride is! Onto some photos! Hooray! We have arrived at Tobu Zoo! Like many theme parks in Japan, they will not allow you in if you have visible tattoos, especially to the water parks. You need to cover them up if you want to enter. Gotta love all the awesome vending machines filled with a variety of drinks in Japan! Thad meets one of his roller coaster idols - Joe Schwartz of www.joyrides.com - Thad will go through many tissues tonight due to this moment. Yes! Kawasemi is open for us for the next hour! Awesome ride! Here you can get a sense of the layout - airtime hill after awesome airtime hill! Takashi from Intamin Japan came out to ride with us! Every one of these hills produces awesomeness! The was the first big coaster of the trip for many! I don't think it disappointed! Gotta love those yummy curves! Yes, Thad was very excited to ride, he could hardly control it. More airtime, please! The return run to the station is totally out of control! We got in about 10 or so rides this morning before the park opened! And it kept going... Was nice to have a very small group and we just barely filled the train! The first drop is only about 90 feet. But this proves that you do not need to be the tallest or fastest to produce an amazing ride. Kawasemi - Love it! Let's go check out the rest of the park. There are only four wooden roller coaster in Japan - Regina is one of them. Regina is also only one of very few roller coasters themed after a woman! The layout is fairly massive and very impressive! The ride is a bit rough, though. Not like Voyage or Mean Streak rough, but it does shake you around quite a bit. The layout is great, though. It produces some good airtime and some interesting laterals! lol Love the Japanese arcades with funky things like the "walk the dog" game. Here Kristen is controlling the Japanese rail system. This is probably not going to end well! lol That little bear had NO CHANCE at all with Thad around! There is a fairly new powered coaster. It was closed due to weather. Not that I would be credit whorish enough to ride it anyway. Oh, look, ACE is here today, too! Tobu Zoo has really cleaned up their animals section and its really nice! These elephants were making a HUGE mess! It was amazing! This tortoise was... AWESOME! One of the highlights of the day was being presented a guinea pig in a basket that you could hang out with and pet! This is the one Elissa chose. In this enclosed area, you walk in, point to a guinea pig, they put it in a basket and give it to you! You are trusted not to torture it, kill it, or leave the building with it! Never in America! lol Awww, this one was mine, he's so cute! Next up was the rabbit area. Same kind of thing - you want a bunny to hold? SURE! Next we went to play with the chicks. ROBB! DO NOT EAT THE CHICK! IT IS NOT ON A SKEWER!!! These guys were awesome because they eventually become amazing food! "Hello little guys...you will one day be awesome dipped in sauce!" The sign says "chicken" but I see "yakitori!" Yes, there were crazy looking owls here, too! The kangaroo area was kind of fun. This guy had a few too many peach sours the night before! No comment here... Seriously, this tortoise totally kicked ass! Yay! Penguins! And wherever you have camels, you also have a serious case of... CAMEL TOE!!!! Here's the map for Tobu Zoo. Interesting laid out park. Everything is Japan is required to be happy and cheerful! This is the awesome "Cheese Wheel." Yes. It is a Ferris Wheel themed to cheese! The ride has a complete back-story... themed elements in the queue... And an on-board audio track! Yes, this ride is better themed than most rides in America's amusement parks! Hey look! The powered coaster is open! And this makes Joe VERY happy! Even the kiddie powered coaster has some cute theming to it. Some of us will ride powered coasters, some of us will take pictures of people riding them...and laugh! This was a really fun walk-through! First you had to hold this metal thing and remember how much you thought it weighed. There were REALLY SCARY aliens along the way. And then one of the craziest mirror mazes I've been in! (Honestly it was really cool!) You then had to handle some balls (yes) to guess which ball weighed as much as thing you held earlier. If you suck at ball handling, you don't move on... Robb fits in perfectly with the rest of the Galaxy Walkers. What a great day we had at Tobu Zoo hanging out with friends and riding roller coasters! Hey look! We found a hidden Mickey! So funny how Disney is really part of every-day pop culture here. Even moreso than in America. Next up...more yakitori! These chicken meatballs on a stick with some miso sauce...OMG! My goal is to have either katsu curry or yakitori (or both) every day of the trip! We love introducing people to yakitori for the first time. It never disappoints! Soooooo good! One of the best sights ever...lots of empty skewers means this was a GREAT night out! We went and checked out the Mandarake shop in Shibuya for all your anime needs. Some REALLY bizarre stuff in this store. But it's all really awesome! OMG! Pterri from Pee-Wee's playhouse! "Why did my Atari 2600 game have to suck so bad?" Um...someone want to explain this one? Shibuya is one of my favorite places in Tokyo. It's famous for the crazy "pedestrian crossing" where thousands of people all cross the street at the same time going multiple directions. It's also famous for this dog Hachikō, who is remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner which continued for many years after his owner's death. The episode of Futurama "Jurassic Bark" was based on this story. And we will end with this totally awesome ad for what we think is some sort of deodorant or at least a PSA to remind woman to wear it. This is the look of someone who hates Ferris Wheels...HATES THEM...but has been dragged on them! (This is only one of many, Jack!)

^ Two Ferris Wheels, yes. Drop Tower, no.

Great report! I really miss this park.

Where did you see this? If you post something like this, please post the source. Found it. I see the article has been updated.

Where did you see this? If you post something like this, please post the source.

It's VERY possible.

Was just reported that a child was air-lifted from Six Flags Magic Mountain. If you hear anything more, please post it here! http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/06/12/child-airlifted-to-hospital-from-magic-mountain-unknown-if-ride-related/#.VXt5-aCkFLo.twitter

The next stop for us was a look at the new upgrades for the Polynesian Village Resort. This has always been one of my favorite resorts on WDW and the upgrades have made it even better! Holy cow! The expanded pool area, the new Trader Sam's Tiki Bar and totally over-the-top Bora Bora Bungalows now make this one of the most interesting and best properties at Walt Disney World! Check out some photos & video: This is most certainly a tradition when coming to the Polynesian Resort! Check me out, I'm Hawaiian now! lol I absolutely LOVE LOVE the new entrance lobby area for the resort. It feels fresh, updated, but yet still keeping the traditional theme of the resort. First stop is Trader Sam's! This was a popular Tiki Bar at Disneyland Resort in California and Polynesian was the perfect place to introduce the location here at WDW. The detail inside the lounge is amazing! There are interactive elements in the bar depending on what drinks order. Trader Sam's serves food & drinks and you can get the same menu both inside the bar or outside on the patio. The patio overlooks the pool area and is also very well themed! Inside Trader Sam's...yes there is fire! Here are some of the themed drink glasses you can order. All of them are very fun... really detailed... And fit the theme perfectly! And just like Pokemon, you gotta get them all! Depending on what drinks you order inside the bar, sections of the theming come to life! You'll find little hidden easter eggs throughout the bar. Here's an overview. Such a cool place to hang out! The bar is small though, so come early to get a seat! Olaf feels that you cannot visit the Polynesian Village Resort without getting some Dole Whip. I agree! The new pool area looks FANTASTIC, but we'll get back to that later. The Bora Bora Bungalows really are the star of this new expansion! Now, i'll be honest and say they are VERY expensive, but if you have the means, OMG they are just over-the-top amazing! First off, they sit right out in the water and each one is your own private cabin. The artwork inside is themed to a tropical paradise. It's a small apartment suite including two full bedrooms. In the living room area there is a pull out bed as well so they can sleep up to 8 guests. But the view...OMG! THAT VIEW!!! The level of luxury is just nuts. I could hang out here all day! The view from the patio even looking at the other bungalows is great! There is a foot pool in the back so you can hang out here and watch the fireworks! Here's how it looks from the other buildings at the resort. Magic Kingdom's Cinderella's Castle is your backdrop, and yes, they pipe in the Wishes fireworks music into your bungalow so you can get your own private viewing across the lagoon! The rooms are insanely details and well themed. And you can have a nice relaxing bath in here! The bathrooms include "TV in mirror" screens so you can watch Disney programming while you do your business. Just fantastic! More little Disney touches throughout the rooms. Beautiful! We highly recommend these new rooms for the *perfect* Walt Disney World resort stay! Here's another look at the new updated pool area. The pool is huge! Yes! The back side of water! And of course there is a slide. This new kids water play area looks awesome! Olaf agrees, this is the COOLEST way for a snowman to spend Summer!

^ I believe the only coasters running RMC trains are Outlaw Run, Goliath, Medusa, Twisted Colossus and Wicked Cyclone.

WARNING! THE FOLLOW UPDATE CONTAINS LOTS OF PICTURES OF OWLS!!! So we had heard about this "owl cafe" thing in Japan. What is it you ask? Well, it's as small cafe that has owls, duh! In reality, the Owl Cafe, also known as Fukuro no Mise in Tokyo down some side street near the Tsukishima Station in just a small room where, yes they serve drinks, but it's function is to be able to house lots of owls that it's owner has raised and kept, so all of us can hold them, pet them, and take pictures of them. It was truly one of the weirdest coolest things I've ever done in Japan! We are live tweeting from Japan! Follow us on Twitter @themeparkreview - We arrived at the Owl Cafe early to make our reservation. They only allow 15 people in per hour and it sells out QUICK! As you can see, it's kind of a non-descript location and you wouldn't even know what this was unless you knew about it. The owl cafe opens at 2pm and they suggest getting there at least an hour early to make your reservation to get in. They start taking reservations for the day at 1pm. We got there at 12:30 and was the second in line. By the time 1pm rolled around, there were probably 40 or so people in line. Here's some info about the owl cafe. As you can see inside it's TINY! Some owl info... One of the staff members explains to us how to hold the owls. And what to do if the owls start to fly away! lol Here is the "bar" of the cafe. Really, I think it's just called a "cafe" and serves random drinks like lemonade just to say they are a "cafe" and no be zoned as a zoo or something like that. Well hello owls! Kristen is LOVING THIS!!! And so is Elissa! There are at least 15 to 20 owls in this place. These are the "smaller" owls and most of them can't be more than 6-8 inches tall. You can put them and hold them... Robb, you cannot eat them! This was one currently on a "diet" and he seemed pretty pissed off! (I would be, too!) The girls are loving holding the owls! This really was one of the more bizarre things I've ever done. Yup, we just went around holding random different owls. It costs 2,000 yen each to get into this place, or about $20. Money VERY well spent! The owls are all VERY tame as they have been raised since babies by the owner. ROBB!!!! DO NOT EAT THE OWL!!!! That is NOT yakitori! All of the owls have small leashes on them that you have to hold on to...they are birds after all! You get to spend a good 45 minutes doing pretty much whatever you want with the owls. The staff will help you to do things like put them on your shoulder, etc. I have probably seen more species of owl in the hour I was in there than I have seen in my entire life! Yup, I'm an owl! Hello, Mr. Owl, I'm talking about you! This was was born blind. Poor guy! "Just hanging out with some owls..." You can see the talons actually do dig in a bit! This one is trying to escape because of Robb. The owls are separated from the "big owls" and "small owls." This is a big owl... This is a big owl on Elissa. This is still a big owl on Elissa. Kristen liked the little owls better! They were more her size. Again, you can see here just how small this place is! Yup, I'm an owl... It's like attack of the clone....owls! Owls, Owls, everywhere... This one greets you as you come in the door! We all agree, the owl cafe was a hoot! This crazy place is HIGHLY recommended! Mental note - don't fall on the tracks! Someone care to explain this one? We took a quick trip over to Odaiba. Love this building! Kristen is in heaven at Toys R Us with all the anime toys! And I found the perfect toy for me, too! Full size Lego Darth Vader was in here! Cool! What's interesting to me is the presence of each video game company in Japan... While this small shelf is all they had for PS3, PS4, and PSVita combined XBOX doesn't even have a presence at all. Loads of games and accessories for Wii U... Even more for Nintendo 3DS... Kristen is just playing with a robot dinosaur, you know....because Japan. Funny just how popular Nintendo is in Japan (which is a good thing, IMO!) Would you like to own a cat in Japan? This one is only about $4,000! Pets are most certainly a luxury in this country. We are at the place where we first saw Tsum Tsum! Yay! This arcade still pretty much kicks ass! Not sure what was going on here, but I love it! Yay! I won another Frozen Fever Snowgie! Hello Joypolis! We will see you again in a few days... It was a good Japanese food day! It started out with some delicious Katsu Curry... And then ended up with my all-time Japanese favorite... Yakitori!!! Wasabi Yakitori is to die for! And the final picture of this update... BACON WRAPPED asparagus! Because anything bacon wrapped is AWESOME!

So we did the "owl cafe" which has to be one of the weirdest coolest things we've ever done! Japan never ceases to amaze me! I'll post more photos and a report later but for now...

Now to answer your question, it's impossible to me to say how much weight you need to "lose" because everyone's body is shaped differently. I've seen guys lighter than me not fit into some rides I can because they are a different shape. My advice to you is this: if you feel you need to "lose" weight to fit on roller coasters, why don't you shed a few pounds because it's the more healthy thing to do? While I'm not the lightest guy myself, I've lost about 20 pounds in the last year and I feel much better overall.

Yeah, it's funny, I came away liking it this time around more than I had in the past (I hadn't ridden in since 2008), but I really think timing had a lot to do with it. In 2004, we rode it after having ridden Expedition GeForce, Goliath, all the Superman coasters when they were fairly new, Millennium Force and then Thunder Dolphin. Had we ridden them on the opposite order, I probably would have felt different from it. And then in the last ten years, I feel there have been a lot of "meh" B&M hypers out there that did even less for me than Thunder Dolphin, so putting it all into perspective now, it was more enjoyable than our first experience with it. But that trick track part is still incredibly dumb!

I think a lot of the members of this forum could have really benefited from KidZania as kids!

You know, I'm honestly getting so sick of people not READING our reports and then posting something as though it's new information. WE MENTIONED THIS IN THE REPORT IF YOU WOULD HAVE BOTHERED TO READ IT!!!!! And it's KidZania, not "Kidsmania"

So today we kind of took it easy. Made a quick trip over to LaQua to do some research, wander around the mall there and play some games. Then wandered over to Shinjuku to see Godzilla. Really today was just one of those "hang out" days, but it was totally fun! We are live tweeting from Japan! Follow us on Twitter @themeparkreview - Our morning started out at rush hour on the trains. It's just a sea of people coming out of the station for like the next hour! Crazy packed trains. Used to it, though. And it's always fascinating just watching how Tokyo's rail and subway system works so efficiently with so many people! I love being in a place where Animal Crossing exists in daily pop culture! And speaking of Animal Crossing, getting 10 street passes at a time in a common regular occurrence when carrying your Nintendo 3DS around Japan! Yay! We made it! Took a ride on Thunder Dolphin today. Had more fun on the ride today than I last remembered, but it's still my least favorite of the Intamin hyper coasters. Not sure if it's because when I first rode it in 2004, it wasn't that long after riding Expedition GeForce, Supermans, Goliath, Millennium Force, etc, and this one isn't as good as those... ...or if I've just been on so many lackluster and boring B&M hypers since then that going back on Thunder Dolphin made me appreciate that while it's not the best Intamin hyper, at least it's not a forceless B&M hyper! Ride is fun. It certainly holds its speed the whole time, but that whole funky trick track pointless bit is just one of the most anti-climactic endings of a coaster ever. Love this view! Random robot just hanging out at LaQua! Hello Thunder Dolphin! You're better than I remembered, but still not as amazing as an Intamin hyper should be. Oh, Japan your ability to create new weird plush characters based on food is always entertaining to me! Story time! Moments after this picture was taken, a Japanese staff member came over with her tambourine congratulating Kristen on her win. She said a bunch of Japanese stuff that I'm sure translated into "OMG! You are so cute! If I could give you free stuff I would, but I can't, so instead I'll open up this other machine filled with Frozen buttons and I can place them in such a way that you will immediately win them." Which she did. She opened the machine, asked Kristen what we favorite characters were, places those buttons near the edge, Kristen put in a coin, knocked four buttons into the hole and the tambourine girl erupts with excitement again!!! I love Japan! Um, so apparently this is some sort of weird video game where the controller is a bunch of sand?!??! How long would this even last in America??? Never get tired of rows and rows of capsule machines. Having a delicious pre-lunch snack! Yakisoba noodles and some sort of charred animal flesh! Yum! At this restaurant at Tokyo Dome City (Where the big Tokyo Baseball stadium is) they have gyoza buns in the shape of baseballs! Amazeballs! I love that the Japanese do Chinese food better than the Chinese! lol That fried rice was sooooo good! While Japan actually does have some VERY good pizza, this is not one of them! Neither is this! Took a trip to Shinjuku. One of my favorite places to hang out at in Tokyo. Been here many times and I feel like I have not even scratched the surface of the random fun stuff you can find here! Nothing but awesome Japanese stuff as far as you can see. LOL! There is some sort of demon here! Why? Who cares! It's Japan! They are allowed to have random demons on buildings! Ahh, we are almost at our destination... GODZILLA! Yes, they constructed this Godzilla head, and at the hotel you can even get "Godzilla view themed rooms." The Taito Game Station is still one of my favorite arcades in Tokyo. 5 floors of awesome stuff! Gotta win this "Super Mario clock" at some point... If you are into anime, the claw machines here and TONS of stuff you can win. Lots of pachinko here... All of these machines look amazing I just wish I knew how to play them! This dude is drawing something??!?! First you buy a Tsum Tsum mini character from the capsule machine... You place the character on the machine like you would in Skylanders and your character appears on the screen. With this Tsum Tsums card, it saves all your data so you can take your character with you to another machine and either level up your character or play battle mode against someone else. Ok, I was totally blown away with the Tsum Tsums arcade game! I didn't even know this existed! And if you're not into Tsum Tsums, you can go to another random claw machine and win these mini-sausage looking things! Just so random! This arcade is one of those that has a "girls only" floor so girls can escape their horrible men on double dates! Here is an exclusive peek into the "girls only" floor! I know you all want to go, right men? More random Japan tomorrow! Yay! There's our new Tsum Tsum in the game! And then you play the game very similar to how it is on the iPad! A few new extra feature are included.

Bump

^ This is why we can't have nice things.... Except for in Japan. They have nice things in Japan because they don't act this stupid.

Here is something that just happened which further shows why we just love Japan... Moments after this picture was taken, a Japanese staff member came over with her tambourine congratulating Kristen on her win. She said a bunch of Japanese stuff that I'm sure translated into "OMG! You are so cute! If I could give you free stuff I would, but I can't, so instead I'll open up this other machine filled with Frozen buttons and I can place them in such a way that you will immediately win them." Which she did. She opened the machine, asked Kristen what we favorite characters were, places those buttons near the edge, Kristen put in a coin, knocked four buttons into the hole and the tambourine girl erupts with excitement again!!! I love Japan!

^ Things like this happen all the time. Rides get delayed, sometimes contracts get moved to other parks that the owners have in their portfolio, etc. Just look at a ride like Gold Striker, that was delayed YEARS and almost cancelled but it still happened. I have been assured by the park owners that this ride will happen, but maybe not quite in the timeframe they originally wanted. Nothing that is going on here is really that out of the ordinary, we just don't hear about these issues that often.

^ You should take her! I'm sure you'll both have an amazing time.

JA Bizztown is "like" this, but it is nowhere NEAR on the scale of KidZania and is operated totally differently. We have one in Tampa. We are well aware of what it is. Saying that JA Bizztown is similar to KidZania is like saying Six Flags America is similar to Tokyo Disneyland. There are lots of different museums and educational children's learning centers that have similar activities (Discovery Center in Binghampton is another one) but when you walk into KidZania, you'll then realize there is *NOTHING* in the US that compares to it. What you are talking about and what KidZania is are two totally different different things. If you would READ our report, you'll see that they did try this exact same concept here once, and it didn't work. I hear that they do want to try it again, but I fear that it wouldn't be the same, or would have to be a more dumbed down version of the attraction to work around the challenges of an American audience.

We're not on a tour. We're just hanging out in Japan with some friends. We aren't doing tours this year.

Please READ the report! I cover this!!! Pretty much the exact reason why you asked this question is the reason why it won't work in the US!