Nrthwnd

^ Why do I get this feeling the TPR Europe trip is going to have a lottery for it? (I am hoping it fills totally up, believe me.)

But would you/me/we go back to Fuji-Q and get the other credits and rides/attractions, if it was on the schedule for a future TPR Japan trip? I would. Simple. Don't do Eeeej. Or DoWop. Or that indoor one. I will go for the rodents, and the Haunted Hosptial. And damnit, get my squid-on-a-stick before they run out of them!

Well when I get back to Fuji-Q I can easily skip one or two of the main credits, and then enjoy what other attractions the park has to offer including that Haunted Hospital walk-through, heh heh. The total of four+ hours in two lines did not help in our touring planning etc. there. And so it goes...

^ Do you put them into a display book, or just keep them gathered together, and sometimes take them out, spread them out - and look at them? And remember when and where you got them?

That's what I did with Universal Osaka, and the sidetrip to EXPOland. Not leaving one to do the other. Even though I really REALLY enjoyed NS a lot, at the time we (myself, Robb, Shane, Miles and....Barry???) sort of decided to hit the zoo, I was ready to go anyway, lol. The only thing that might have kept me there longer, is if they opened the right side of the mouse pair. But they didn't. Their loss, heh heh.

I just remembered - when we first went on the stand-up part of those "racing coasters" (wink), I remember being behind Ginny And seeing her RISE UP in AIR TIME! More than once!!! That was pretty freaky to notice, only because she couldn't quite reach the shoulder harnesses at first. But she sure did, on those hops, LOL!

Noted. And awesome touring with you again, Barry. Looking forward to seeing you in Europe next summer?

^ Not bloody likely, mate! And on we go here...... Set E - Winding it up, Just before... Parks visited: Lagunasia Hamanako Pal Pal ~ ~ ~ BUT FIRST - a word about our Hotels. They were all great but out of the three, our third hotel, the Sofitel Cypress in Nagoya deserves special mention. The room was spacious, it had a separated sitting area, the vanity was separated from the tub and toilet room. And complimentary bottles of mineral water, and (loaned) kimonos to wear while we were guests there, AND English daily intermational newspapers shoved under our doors! Add to that, a nice lovely and workable breakfast buffet we unfortunately didn't get to use every morning we were there. But a couple of times, it was really, really a nice thing to come down to the lobby and enjoy, lol. This was also the hotel, where my collection of souvenirs started picking up speed, in growth and collective --- ness, heh heh. The first photo shows the Ultimate Start up of.... it. ~ ~ ~ Lagunasia was a neat and more flat version of Parque Espana, with a lot less attractions, but interesting and certainly out-of-the-ordinary for most of them, lol. The water park was in the middle and everything else of the park surrounded it. A coaster was now in place of the Indy-Knockoff some of us have read and seen earlier pix of from past TPR reports. They replaced it with the coaster weaving through some of the old scenes of the original ride. odd but it worked, somehow. Also a flume ride that gets you SOAKED inside of it, rather than at the flume drop's end, shudder... The Aqua Wind coaster was great and ghad a coupkle of intense corners and good pops of air in spots. The other coaster was blue - and somewhat blah compared to the others, lol. Also another shooting ride, something I still am not good at, nor will I ever be, even with Buzz Lightyear's version, lol. And a bizarre little kids indoor ride, all about this Magical Powder. Believe me I would and could never make up something as strange and bizarrely heavily souvenired on, no matter what I smoked, LOL! And most of us experienced this strange, strange little ride. It was a trip - literally! Hamanko Pal Pal had us arriving there just a couple of hours before the park closed! And, it looked like rain was possibly goign to fall. Haveing already experience one of "those days", we all got out tix and rushed into HPP getting our credit business done (where was that @&%# BatFlyer again?) and THEN we also enjoyed some other of the park's flats and indoor rides... Including a very rather tame flume, although A$$ise Rich would beg to differ I've "heard"; a dark ride that seemed to cross Pinnochio with a Lobster and got - sparkly lights lady/faerie/person! A nice space wheel (alo, Lousie) ride; another shooting ride (ick); and these odd foot massager things you couldn't pay me to put my feet into, LOL. And a LOT of arcade prize games things ELISSA nearly sold the baby, playing! But The Best Thing EVER There had to be the PARATROOPER ride! It's been video-ed, we've already gone ape over describing it. Every park should have one of these, incuding my crappy old park! Awesome flat. And the ride op too, was awesome, who made sure we got some good "spin" on our seats, heh heh he. A nice couple of parks to take in, before we get to....... (to be continued...) A much nicer view on the Space Wheel. But wha- HEY YOU TWO down there. Stop That. Right now! Sigh. Ah Louise, it was a nice ride... together. Smile. From the Space Wheel at HPP - looking over at two coasters and arcade building in front of them. The - Best - Flat Ride - EVER. GRIN... I said two times on Barry's video? I know I rode it at least four times!!!! Yes! Red Dawn Awesome Ride. GRIN. Hamanako Pal Pal - and the lame flume drop - not really a scary wet ride, although some would disagree? (grin) But it was right beside.... Looking back towards the building holding Pirate Blasters (Indy Knock-Off replacement), and the flume of wetness - and the waterpark in the middle somewhere there... Blue coaster left of bldg. - Aqua Wind right of it. This is what replaced that "Indiana Jones Knock-Off Ride" in Lagunasia - not too bad. I liked it. I also liked the frozen crepe I'm holding there. Yum! On the vanity - at the Sofitel Cypress Hotel, Nagoya - the collection "begins"..... bwa - ha - haaah.

Thought I wouild go "retro" with one taken of us back in ... 2001? On The MINDBENDER in Galaxyland, in West Edmonton Mall, Alberta, Canada. And this was one of The Last Times my other half, he's there on the left me on the right - us bikers? - chose to ride a steel coaster of any kind/type. Although I did get him on the ones at Disney Paris, once was it for him on most of those, heh heh. But - I have this great keepsake of a very intense coaster ride. For the both of us, LOL! Don't we look like we're having fun there? THis was a very intense coaster, no doubt about it. And we rode this, after 29+ years together! Insane or what?

^ Yes they did, thanks for asking. Mom actually started up a very early form of "Parents & Gays" group which tried to meet weekly, or whenever it was needed, lol. It sort of slowed down on her, and eventually stopped happening, and I still don't know why to this day. Another group started up and went full steam into a now-still-exisiting operation I believe, a chapter of PFLAG?

Sometimes captions help identify things in photos. For instance, what was the "lineup" in the daytime all about? Sorry, I read through as much of your coverage as I did, but couldn't find a reference to it. If there's one there, my mistake. (Edit: And I think I found it! The Texas Chainsaw Drill Team? My bad, lol.)

^ Ohhhhhhh. Silly bear I am. I don't think he has it working - but you never know, with David and his computer room, lol. Thanks for pointing that out. And Barry? You're off the hook, lol.

I have a Birthday Tiara, I could bring along on the Europe tour.... "Just in case." (Edit: And a pic to prove... hee hee hee.) Ain't it somethin'??? All plastic and tiny and all? Laugh.

^ Um, Barry? I think whatever you are smoking now? - you should stop immediately, lolol. The tv is from (I am pretty sure) the 90's and the wood-grain side panels could be one of two things. Either the mantlepiece which is a long piece of wood itself. Or the long, huge wooden (har) cabinet that the tv is sitting on. A ton of VHS vids in there, needing sorting, re-watching or.... throwing out. But I don't think our tv is from the 80's. Sorry. (Edit: I forgot. There's also that somewhat-cheap-looking fake wood panelling on the living room wall that the fireplace sits into. You might be seeing that on the right of the tv, hmm?)

Thought I would wrap this up even more, by first mentioning there is actually a TOP PICK above all Top Ten Picks Lists I post here. And that's my huzband David, who I have had the joy of sharing life together for over.... 35 years now! Not too shabby huh? And he's not even into these coaster tours, although I have managed to get him to enjoy others parts of theme parks - like the shops, the non-thrill rides, landscaping - DisneyParis is one of his current faves, heh heh. So a Top Ten HUG to my other half for letting me do what I do, when I do it, whenever I usually want to! One more photo posted of some of my more interesting souvenirs from the trip. The menu from the Blue Bayou is going to be framed, while that black fold-down "box" from the New York Deli in TDS is already up on the entry stairwell wall, under my new TDL silhouette already framed at the park. And then there's my little "travel luck charm," something from Japanese culture, but bought in Munich Germany last October! And it's a fridge magnet too!!! Eh, you find them where you can, yes? No? So, I filled in one of it's eyes before leaving on the tour - and filled in the other eye when I got back home, as per custom of the charm. Easy Good Luck, huh? And I think it served us well throughout the journey we TPR-ers all took together. Filled in the right eye - or was it the left eye? - when I got back home on Sept.17, 2007... The travel luck is finished (for now) and complete! Taken back in March. A little scruffy, the both of us - but we're survivors, lol! A nice menu (and great price too), a fold down eats box, small dolls, collector things and.... fans! Grin.

^ That's definitely open for discussion, lol.

I do agree that the Thomas Town area at Fuji-Q looked great. I was rushing around to get the coaster credit (any credit, after the &^%$# lineup at Eeeeej) and managed to grab the one at Thomas Town. And I caught a glimpse of Elissa and KT enjoying the train-turny ride. She looked so happy riding it. So did Kristen, too. And then, I rushed through Thomas Town to get back to the entrance, for the re-scheduled meeting time. And Dipping Dots! (my first Dots ever, yum) It looked really nice, Thomas Town did, from what I remembered seeing. So why again, can't SFMM put something like this in, instead of a schlock couple of rides at best?

I think I used the single chair lift five or six times, to get back and forth across part of the park, to save some walking. It was great to use, again and again! Best memory of seeing somebody else on it: Jeff sitting lotus-style (cross legged at least?) on the chair, gliding serenely over it all. Very nice to see, that.

Stupid Seattle, they had dibs on the coaster but couldn't put the project together. Really. (But understands why not....sort of.) Now I know WHY my Japan'07 Tour Roomie was "up near you, in Seattle" a while ago... Ahhhhh.

^ That's great! Your Mom and Cold Stone Ice Cream, I mean! Man, my mom threw me out of my home (when I came out to her at age 16) and it took my dad to calm everything down between us. The three of us actually, as I later found out, he wasn't too thrilled by my coming out, either. The good old days - back in the 60's! But Hearty Congrats on your momentous ocassion with your mom.

Great TR Chuck! Thankfully, you cover entire parks-ful of stuff that's all been blurred (or watered down, depending on the attraction) in my mind since the tour... ended (sniff) Lots of stairs in that (meh) horror Hotel or what-ever the f it was. The toilet was OMGWTF I must say, lol. But for my Yen, the best pic in these sets... Jeff and Barry indeed, LOLOLOL!

^^ Pretty much all of the wooden coasters we saw and rode in Japan were very impressive in size and layout spread, but... Man, they needed to... oh, I dunno - re-track (or whatever, for a smooooother ride) a bit here and there on all/most of them? Would certainly help, IMhO.

^^ Sometimes, Barry.... (But yeeeaaah, we were all thinking that, hmm yes?)

^ From the boober. The boobee. And of course, the boob itself.

Not till..... May, 2008 .....maybe? Our final schedule and parks list for Japan didn't really come to us, until (literally) the tour package arrived at our doorsteps, AND in the final week before the tour started. You'll get a general overview of several parks definitely part of the tour, as this goes along. But nothing finalized, IMhO until at least into the new year. Patience.