gisco

2nd park of the day, Wonder Rakutenchi Culture credit and on to the next park Awesome view number 2 Awesome view number 1 What is Richard doing? Oh yeah, the car broke down and he is going to have to walk back up the hill Same credit Credit Duck races, My duck came in 2nd. Joe would be proud. Grat view from the top Everyone out! Incline railway

Ok, If I was a mailman or a retired mailman I would have plenty of time to update this thread. Day 3 Today was a 3 park day. Harmonyland featuring Hello Kitty overload, Wonder Rakutenchi with a cool incline railway and Kijima with a not so great woody. The highlight of the day? Ask Chuck what happens when you push the red button when your on a train. A clue, It doesn't flush the toilet Bye Harmonyland .. more in a minute Not a credit The park from the wheel Shane loves the front Train full of coaster geeks Hi Wes While waiting for the train, what is that I see? Cool theming from below Almost a credit. The train takes you to the lower section of the park Cool theming Home to Hello Kitty over load, she is the one on the left. Harmonyland Think chuck is a little tired of the red button jokes? nahh, neither do I ... this button does what again, Chuck? This button flushes the toilet and ... Chinese fire drill. When the train changes direction you have to get up and turn the seats around. It went a lot smoother the 2nd time when we came home that night We get a few words from our leader and Robb had a few things to say too. Once again we take a bullet train

After spending half an hour trying to do an update only to have the fucking web site knock me off, tonights update will be attempted again tomorrow. Does anyone else have this problem?

Mega Blitz at Coney Beach

Taken last month at a Starbucks in Tokyo. You can see a little bit of Thunder Dolphin track

I hope you mean mini Japan 2008 because Japan 2007 was last month. As for airfare, it is a little early to be looking. I just checked United for next September and it is $1000 from the west coast and $1200 from the East coast. Prices will flucuate but that should give you some idea what to expect. I paid just over $900 from the West coast for Japan 2007. What I usually do to book a ticket is go to the discount sites like travelocity and see what is available and when. I then go directly to the airlines web site and book. I like to choose my seat and if there are any changes to be made to the ticket I find it easier. Others have no problem booking form the discount places Sign up for the trip, you will not regret it

And what fun would that be?

Aaaahh ... Yeah right Barry. On to day two. We went to 2 parks today, Space World and Uminonakamichi. Both were fum parks that would be worth going to again. For some reason I didn't take many pictures on this day. and your funny urnals Goodbye Uminonakamichi Why does Ryan look so excited Tom is coming his way? .. but twice! See chuck step into the water not once ..... See the ladies and I use that term loosely, cross the scummy water with out falling in. Credit, now for the real fun Uminonakamichi, home of the off road Go Karts which I don't have a picture of. What's a dust box? As we left Space World I pondered the question that I am sure is on everyones mind .... Geek photo There is 3 funny things in this picture, The Golden Gate Bridge, Stealth from Thorpe and a freeway that just stops in mid air. Some of the transitions were pretty rough It was down hill from here I thought this was the best part of Titan We chose the wet side and did get pretty wet. The log flume that had a gentle side you could take a squirt gun on or the wet side. No Chris, it is not a real space shuttle Venus and the Space Shuttle. Not feel well - Get drunk - I'm sure that wasn't a problem for some in our group. Nice dark walk through that had this cool warning sign .... I didn't get the connection between snowmen and flying soucers. Where half the train faces forward and half backwards. I have no clue which way this train is going. This is the station to the very strange Boogie Woogie Space Coaster Weeeee! .. a family coaster! They look a little stiff walking up to ...

How's that now Larry?

Wow, another great TPR trip. Robb & Elissa have out done them selves again. Japan is an awesome place and it is hard to describe to people what a great country it is. The Japanese are so nice and polite. The country is clean and I always felt safe even walking the streets alone at night. This was my second trip and I’m looking forward to going back again. A weird fact, I have ridden more coasters in Japan(115) then I have in the US(112). A funny thing happened on the way to Japan. Barry was supposed to meat up with me in San Francisco. We had seats next to each other for the flight to Japan but I never saw Barry at the airport. When I got on the plane there was an Asian guy next to me but it wasn’t Barry. Gus was on the plane too and after getting into Tokyo we made our way to the hotel. The look on Elissa’s face was priceless when we showed up with no Barry. She knew Barry was supposed to be with me. She couldn’t believe he had missed the flight. She was all excited. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on who you are, her excitement was short lived. Barry had got a flight out of LA and was only about 6 minutes behind us. But for 6 minutes she was very excited and happy! On to some pics. ... but can someone tell me why no ducks are allowed on the rides? That's all for now ..... on a bullet train. We had a 16:14 train to catch to Fukuoka Back on the small train to go get our bags at the hotel because we were heading way south. Why are Japanese so thin, they like to ride bikes. This is a common sight outside train stations. I approve of this park and it is time to go. Because Brian and Bill didn't shower last night. See Chris use the hose that is supposed to be used to fill the guns. Why do these people have water guns? See, and it is working this time! Anothe picture from 2 years ago. Since then they have invested heavily in theming. They took down the California flag. This picture was taken 2 years ago and they have really spruced up the place since then .... White Canyon. I expected this to be rough. It wasn't to bad this time. SL Coaster is so cool looking. But looks are deceiving. The park with Splash Bandit, more on that later First stop with the whole group, Yomiuriland. You het to take this cool sky way to the park. Next morning. We would see a lot of train stations on this trip! This was the only picture I took the first night before the tour started. Now this is more like it. The first leg of the trip was on a really small plane to SFO

Whos idea was it to ride Aquatopia..... CHRIS!

I miss Alton Towers. That was my favorite park when we were in the UK last year.

So when are you going to work at Cypress?

The splash on the drop is not what got you wet, it was the wave coming through the door area.

I'm watching "Survivor: China" to get me excited for the trip!

Yesterday I talked with one of the partners developing the park. He is very excited about the project and it looks like it could turn out to be very nice. I was caught a little off guard when he called me back so I forgot to ask a bunch of questions I had lined up. He was very interested in what I thought of the rides the have procured so far. Asked how I liked the log rides, shooting dark rides and such. They are still not sure how they are going to handle the modifications to the old MGM coaster because the land it is going on is flat. If the layout remains the same, they will have to modify the supports. I'll have to ask next time if they plan on dropping the Arrow addition and go back to the original flatland layout. I asked about the other coasters going in. They are calling the disko a coaster. He thought it might be like the one at PGA, Survivor so they are calling it a coaster too. The Disko is on site and it looks to be a regular disko and it appears to be new. The third coaster has not been announced yet because they are still negotiating a price. He did say it was going to be bigger then the MGM coaster if negotiations were successful. We will see. I went out to the site today and they are moving dirt and putting in the infrastructure. The disko is there and a couple of containers. On to some construction pictures. The area was not very secure. I could have easily walked on to the site. Looking to the West Looking back Southwest Looking back Southeast. Disko is behind the containers Yeap, it is a disko Looking Northeast. I see disko parts The whole area is Granite Park, No idea what the amusement park name is yet

Fuji-Queue I don't care if I ever go back. I have been there twice now and on both occasions I have had enough time just to ride the coasters and do nothing else. The multiple hour waits on a number of the rides were unacceptable.

Why do people always want to design coasters? What I want is a job that would pay me to ride them!

I just got back from Japan with TPR and there was 6 in the little group that I hung around most of the time with. 3 were in their early 20's and 3 were in their 40's. We got along fine. Elissa will also try and match a room mate to you that is close to your age if possible. If you get along with them, then there you go. On the 2 trips I have been on, people always seemed to have others to hang around with unless they wanted to be alone. I wouldn't worry about it and just get your deposit in. You will have an awesome time.

Rested? I have been back over a week and I'm still beat!

Yegads, who peed in your coffee then? All I noted was that the chosen time eliminates everyone in Europe with a job, and given that some 40% of those in Korea were from that part of the world (including myself) then perhaps there might be a better time of day. There's no need to be so aggressive about it. Having said that, earlier in the day would eliminate all Australians, so perhaps it was a case of which is the lesser of two evils...! You didn't answer the question, when do you think would be a good time to have the chat? Instead of whining, take some responsibility and come up with a solution. My solution would be to inconvenience a majority of the people who are likely to go on the trips so a few whiners can get their beauty sleep from across the pond or they could just read the chat transcript and e-mail any questions they have to R&E.

Stupid Seattle, they had dibs on the coaster but couldn't put the project together.

1am? Damn, looks like I won't be in the chat either then. Also, putting back the deadline sucks, because now they'll be even less chance of me going on the trip, and now I'll be getting more anxious. Dude, Chill out. EDIT: Darn you Peter for typing faster then me! As far as I know no one has been turned away from a trip that has had their deposit in by the deadline. There are always drops during the year as people figure out there vacation time and money situation. I know it is tough to wait but R&E will do everything they can to get you on the trip. I'm sure Robb will post a transcript of the chat. Read it the next day and then ask any questions that weren't answered.

^ I think your title kind of fits. It is really funny that you would ask for a title change when the post right before yours gave you the rules.

Shane- Go ahead and post the pics. -Bob