rollermonkey

^Needs, no, CRAVES a hot dog... \/ Hasn't been to St. Ives, or travelled to the fair.

All Within My Hands Metallica

Opa!

Two things: 1. I think the BIG TURN will be slightly overbanked. 2. There's still something going on at that end. Why are there extra footer bolts? Any ideas or something I'm not seeing?

(Showing my age...) I remember riding the old kiddy steel coaster at Canobie Lake Park in the mid 70's. Can't remember the name or type, just where it was in the park. I also remember white knuckling the railing in the queue for Yankee Cannonball about the same time trying to keep my parents and cousins from getting me on the big scary woodie!

Ah, So I'm not the only one pleasantly surprised by this park! The Deja Vu clone wasn't finished yet when I went and there wasn't nearly as much greenery yet, but it was a really nice park. Glad you had a good time, Robb and Elissa.

Nice update, really Robbtacular! I'm of course a dumb@$$. I went to Madrid and skipped this park. I guess it WAS before Tarantula, does that excuse me?

I really don't think that this one will ever valley. The elements get smaller and smaller pretty quickly. ^Thanks for the support folks! Next update should be next month. I don't know which weekend yet.

The site was getting a little hinky on me, so I submitted. To continue: The last photo posted is the first one I took. The station is more than just a little bit vertical. How do they put the track in after the station is done? Hey! Those supports are drunk! That profile is sexy from both sides! Crane fight! Stu and Flo don't know it yet, but they are about to be separated forever! It's sadder than Shakespeare! These supports are for the brake run. See, they go into the other side of the station. Hey, look this one's only slightly bendy. Maybe they are saving the straight track for last. Staring down the barrel of the outside raven turn DerekRX, there isn't a vertical loop on this coaster, will this work for you? I guess there's a little method to the madness after all. There's a full-full in there somewhere... Another picture of some complicated supports. The world record breaker for shortest vertical support column is Cecil there in the middle. Speaking of W - I - D - E supports. This was taken from under the shoot the chutes. These supports are kind of W - I - D - E, don't you think? This is one of the coolest photos of a full-full ever taken by me in Japan! All Japanese 4D's have attached catwalk and nubbins! Those ladders don't look ACE'r friendly. Why are there so many of them? For the lift hill enthusiasts out there. The crates contain bags of the finest Korean nuts. Far superior to other nuts. Probably some bolts around here, too. Another one. Still pretty cryptic. Crate label. Sure doesn't tell us a lot. The track will rise high over this end of the park. Eventually. Track and supports. The steel plates are so the cranes don't sink into the mud. This footer is still wet after the support was erected on it. Hard at work. (Have you ever tried to get steel aroused? It isn't easy!) This update has lots of 'nuts and bolts' pictures. Here's a ladder! Is it me, or is that an odd place for a footer? Looking up the lift hill. Assembled but flaccid A-frame support. My nominee for strange support of the year. I will pet him and love him and call him George. Why's he in the handicap parking space? The side of the station where the train comes out. Hmmm, I though the Japanese were typically considered neat. I guess that doesn't apply when It Comes From the 4th Dimension! MORE lightning rods? WTH? Maybe electrical work isn't as far along as I thought. There's something else going on, but I can't figure it out. The station is looking pretty big. This is what they were working on while I was there. They lifted it, but hadn't stood it up yet when I left. Does X have a dropping floor? This also shows that there will be a single load / unload position. I didn't see the really tall cranes today. I guess the lift hill track isn't ready yet.

deleted for continuity.

I just finished resizing all my photos from yesterday. I left Yokosuka late, so I arrived at Fuji-Q about 12. I went immediately around back and parked behind the Highland Dormitory again. After a couple quick pictures, I entered the work site, wearing the blue hard hat I had borrowed from work. All the workers were sleeping in the trucks except one. I asked him if it was OK if I took pictures, and he referred me to the office. I went up to the 2nd floor and asked the guy there if I could take pictures. He said OK. I walked around and under the coaster for about 40 minutes. As I was completing my 2nd lap of the site, the site foreman asked me what I was doing. (All conversations were me in English with a little Japanese and they spoke Japanese with a little English.) I told him the "manager" said it was OK to take pictures. I asked him a bunch of questions, and he answered the ones he could. We went to the office together and he confirmed that the guy in the office said I could take pictures. I thanked them and then I left the site to get pictures from inside the park. I moved my car to one of the official Fuji-Q lots. As I walked by the site entrance I realized I forgot to ask the name of the company assembling / erecting the coaster. When I reached the gate, the guy from the office was there. He made lots of the "NO" sign at me and refused to answer the question. Oops, I guess I got him in trouble! The site foreman probably was nice in front of me, then chewed him out after I left. I felt bad, but I think you'll agree that several of the photos taken from inside the coaster are pretty cool. So, although I had permission to take these photos, I probably won't be allowed this kind of access again! I hereby revise my previous assesment and declare that this will be an X clone modified by the full-full and other minor changes to include the curve between the station and the lift. Other factoids learned while speaking to the site foreman: Cost: 3,600,000,000 yen Trains: two Design company: S&S Power (He actually said an American company from Utah, but confirmed S&S when asked specifically.) Steel fabricated by: Meisho Target date: 15 July 2006 Taken from near lot #2. This is the view that now greets visitors arriving by train. The station is about two inches from the rear entrance to the park. Patio picture of the incomplete BIG TURN. What a sexy profile! I waited like three minutes for Dodonpa to launch before realizing it was closed for the high winds! D'oh! I need a wide angle lens! They added lightning rods to two places: The dip and the inside raven. It is getting hard to take overall shots! The twisted full-full from the wheel. Another cRAzy support photo. Zoomin in from the Ferris wheel, you can see how the outside raven lines up with the big fan turn exit. The next track pieces are lined up, but not attached yet. As previously noted, track has been attached to the outside raven turn. I tried to make the drop look like it was connected to the inside raven turn exit. I guess I failed. Inside the park, I took some pictures detailing the CrAZy supports. Looks like it already needs a new paint job! Hey, Jeezus Juice, remember ice skating here? In other news, the shoot the chutes has entered 'summer mode.' It was 44 degrees! ...but do you have levitating supports, Robb? ...and levitating cranes... We got levitating trucks, too. This TPR EXCLU&SIVE photo is to make up for the "not very vertical looking" shot from the last update.

Does it count as being on a coaster if I stood on a footer? Update in progress... It's so cute...

I'm back. However, due to insane traffic I'm very late and I am going on a date with my wife in about 6 minutes. Just know this: I was INSIDE the footprint and took 73 pictures while I was there today. A select few will be exclusive to TPR, RCDB and First Drop until the ride opens in July. So if you want to see all of them, you're going to have to look around a little! I'll be posting first thing tomorrow morning, so to you guys it'll be late Saturday night. I touched it! I even stuck my head between the rails! It really is BEEFY and MEATNORMOUS!

Underway for Fuji-Q in 14 minutes!

The world's largest 'out and back' is rumored to reopen this year if you are interested in a trip to Nagoya, Japan. You know I'll be posting if Steel Dragon 2000 reopens before I leave Japan!

Wow, dude that is pretty odd. Usually the folks they film on coasters have a little better time than that. I will agree the electric shock thing at the end isn't normal, even for Japanese TV. I'm asking the wife about this one when she gets home tonight! OK, Mayumi says that the girl in the video used to be on a morning talk/news show. She is part of a girl group and this was something she did outside of the band. She was supposed to announce new release DVD's while she was riding the coaster. Since she failed to complete the announcements properly she was punished by being electrically shocked by the device. This was a regular segment from a local station. (Not national.) I have NO clue what was up with the bunny! (Apparently a mascot character of the TV show, because Yomiuriland's mascot is a white dog with rainbow stripes and wings.)

Did NGTom teach you all the details about Dorking, or was that something Elissa did during college?

Why am I getting motion sick!?! I'm not even moving!

I think I said that this was one of the coasters I was most looking forward to this year. I change my mind. This is the coaster I'm most looking forward to with only one small exception: the new 4D at Fuji-Q, but only because I'm going to get to ride that one this year!

Tonight I was in a bar near the base in Yokosuka and I saw a show on MTV Japan that featured a band named High and Mighty Color. The feature was shot mostly in Fuji-Q Highland amusement park and included POV of Dodonpa, Fujiyama and the Haunted Hospital walkthrough. If you have access to MTV Japan, it will air again on the 7th at 7PM, the 9th at 3:30PM and the 11th at noon. (All times Japan/Korea standard time) Band website: http://handmc.jp/pc/index.html (This is where I got the future airings info. The bar was playing CDs, so I don't know what kind of music it is!) Robb, I guess you have to be MTV to be allowed to bring a camera on Dodonpa! You could see one handheld camera in the second row. Additional cameras were pointed at the band members for reaction footage. I have seen footage from Fujiyama before on Japanese TV (I think it was FujiTV, but never Dodonpa. Chris

^ Forgot what he forgot < Is going to Fuji-Q this weekend! \/ 's Indian name is Dances With Monkeys

Track 4, (Star Bright?) Static Prevails, Jimmy Eat World

Yuparoo! 464 and going strong! Are you wearing underwear?

I don't like crunchy, so no traditional tacos or taquitos for me thank you. I miss being able to have a chorizo breakfast burrito! (Not too much Mexican food is available in Japan!)

I'm righty, but I drink lefty. I don't do much else left handed, but I have been told that when I was young they thought I was going to be lefty and sort of grew out of it. (I'm actually pretty bad at everything with both hands!)