RoCo

So glad I saw Robb's tweet today about this report; love it! WHEN DO WE GET TO HEAR ABOUT THE "3RD FLOOR?!?!???!?" This is info I need. Looking forward to more!

Just letting my Secret Santa know that your box o' ChrisHanKwanSivus magic has arrived! I'm a traditionalist, so I'm going to wait until ChrisHanKwanSivus morning to open it, but thanks in advance! Can't wait to see what's inside!

That in and of itself sounds like an awesome ride enhancement. You are very welcome and while this trip was so full of amazing TPR experiences, the Spidey tour was definitely an incredible high point. As I am. It's really a horrible oversight that will be corrected on my next visit.

^Not spending any money in that gift shop is about the only regret I have from the entire trip. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

I am awed. This is so on my Halloween calendar for next year. Fantastic report; thanks so much!

Thanks, everyone! The movie? If so, do yourself a favor and see it IMMEDIATELY. Seriously, drop whatever it is you are doing and go buy it. Now.

Continuing: Thanks to some appropriate piece of paper in our wad of express tickets and special passes – or for some other reason I'm forgetting, anyhow – we were able to run right back around and grab another ride facing forward. Decent high jinks for sure because MUSIC + ROLLER COASTER is always equal to or greater than GOODNESS. Backwards was my fave, though, and I think that was the case for just about everyone. Way to go, Universal and B&M! (The trains, by the way, looked fairly sensational even in the drab light of this day, with all their sparkly lights twinkling magically. I will come back and try this ride out at night. Maybe they could have gone more Art Deco or Streamline Moderne with them, all shiny black and chrome, more "Roaring 20s Hollywood," but whatever, they look very Japanese as is, so they're just fine and I'll shut up about it.) We walked out through their CityWalk, which was almost a little too familiar. Familiar or not, I love this neon guitar a bunch. And the big blue gorilla, too. That night, we made our way to another part of the area for a big group dinner. It was this yakitori joint and the meal was out of sight. Delicious, with beer and saki flowing freely. Mr. Kitagawa, our host at Yokohama Cosmoworld two days hence, joined us there as well. Next day, Harikata! To be continued.

Continuing: Had it been a warm, sunny day, we would have gone back for another spin for sure. Sleet, hail, sharknado, doesn't matter: if you're fan of rampaging thunder lizards, do not raincheck this JP river adventure. It did get pretty dank off and on. But the New York area looked even more authentically captivating in the grey weather. We ducked into Back To The Future: The Ride and Backdraft during some particularly heavy sprinkles. You don't need me to tell you how awesome BTTF:TR is, right? Of course, you don't. It cheered my soul to see Biff Tannen-San and the good doctor again (and all the practical effects! Doug Trumbull is a god among men.). Backdraft dried us off a little. Fire good. There's an indoor kiddie credit in the Peanuts area, ideal for an irksome-climate whore stop. If dogs ran more movie studios, would movies generally be better than they are now? I think the argument can be made that, yes, they would. I was pretty certain that Snoopy's Great Race was a Vekoma Roller Skater, but it's actually from our good friends at Senyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. And it's fast and fun! We're actually the stars – well, maybe just supporting players – in a movie Snoopy is directing. At this point, when we zoom around a curve, Snoopy gets a sweeping action shot; the camera boom actually follows us through the turn. And you can see the backside of Woodstock, operating the camera, sort of. That's some fine kiddie coaster theming. I had to leave the project, though... "creative differences." No, I went full Lohan, always late for make-up, trashed my trailer more than once... When I drove us through this billboard, that was the last straw. But I'm in a program now, doing really well, going out on auditions again, I feel like this time it's going to stick... No, but seriously, it is a very nicely put together attraction and even though it's not as fast as this photo makes it look, it's a totally worthy credit. There are also games, which I think are movie-making related? I didn't play any, so I'm not 100% on that. Yes, I was tempted to make a joke about adding the letter "F" and I am ashamed. Looking back, Charlie Brown had a much lower presence here than I think is appropriate (Snoopy is awesome, but Chuck owns him, lit and fig, dig?). There is this nifty snowman in Charles' trademark shirt... It only took her ten minutes to help me realize that I have an unhealthy fixation with Milla Jovovich. For a pre-teen, Lucy is frighteningly astute. If this photo doesn't make you smile, you're dead inside. What's dimensional, and what's a painted surface? A little hard to tell, right? If anyone can tell me why the STOP sign is yellow, I'd love to know. I have a feeling there's a reason for it, but maybe it's just a transcultural gaffe? [EDIT: Thanks to JK Grence for pointing out that STOP signs were indeed yellow until 1954! Who knew?!] Speaking of yellow, can't someone design a taxicab that functions like a modern automobile, but looks like these classic early 20th Century "Yellow Taxi" cabs? That would be so rad. Anyway, the V.V.V.I.P. Spidey walk-through was scheduled for early afternoon so we left plenty of time for lunch and made sure we were not late. Missing this would have been tragic. As you likely know from reading other trip reports (posted in a far more timely manner), the taking of photographs was forbidden during this tour, with only one exception: in the maintenance area where we got a good look at the SCOOPs. So, there you go, a SCOOP, eagerly "presenting." Well over a decade old, and this ride system still blows my freaking mind. Have you been on a Spider-Man since the digital media conversion? I rode Orlando's a while back, with a few of the scenes already upgraded, and they looked extraordinary. But to see the whole show running the all-new projections, looping over and over, was revelatory. Unbelievably sharp, and simply crammed with so much more visual information, it really is Spider-Man 2.0 and merits a ton of re-rides to pick up all the new details. Plus, walking through those sets was a sickeningly cool privilege. PLUS, our guides had so many amazing stories to tell, I wish I still remembered them all. Our collective geek-spaz registered on seismic equipment throughout the Osaka prefecture. Later in the afternoon, there were rumors floating around that Hollywood Dream might open up after all. The rain had stopped and crowds were gathering in front of the entrance. Could we be so lucky? We'd done just about everything else, including a third ride on Space Fantasy, so hanging out for a bit on the off chance was fine with our troop. Going backwards on a roller coaster for more than a little bit doesn't really appeal much to me. Shuttle coasters are awesome, and some full-circuit attractions that have a section of reverse travel – like the Revenge of the Mummy rides – are among my favorites. When the whole thing goes bass-ackwards, though, I'm sort of queasy and grumpy by the time it's over. And: this Bolliger & Mabillard layout didn't look very exciting anyway. But: music. And also but: "Backdrop" is sort of pretty clever. Anyway, it did open and we got on and I'll be damned, but going backwards was not only really fun, it was better than doing it vanilla style. Like Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, Hollywood Dream allows you to choose your musical accompaniment; unlike HRRR, there is only a handful of selections. For my first ride, backwards, I went with whatever J-Pop selection was on the list. When in Rome... Turned out to be a swell, upbeat song, and I suspect that some editing was done to better time it to the flow of the ride. The seats are comfortable (B&M, duh), the audio is crisp and loud (with no aural spillover from any of the cars near you), every drop and turn is a terrific surprise when you don't see it coming (funny how that works, duh), and I never felt queasy at all. Yay!

Directly from The Guidebook: "June is the height of the rainy season for the main and southern island of Japan. It will be very hot, humid, and quite dreary with a lack of sun and plenty of rain... Understand that most roller coasters will close in rain." It was further explained on the TPR trip boards that this nationwide rain policy is definitely more extreme than anything U.S. parks enforce. For instance, if anyone at a park in Japan starts whistling "Purple Rain," things shut down. It's pretty extreme. The night before our day at Universal Studios, Elissa warned us that the forecast was for heavy cloud cover and steady rainfall. But, of course, as most of Uni's rides are indoors, the only roller coaster we could miss due to naughty weather interference was Hollywood Dream: Backdrop (which, frankly, I wasn't all that keen on), and we'd still get to enjoy almost all the park's other attractions. We also knew well ahead of time that Spider-Man would be closed because the park would still be swapping out ye olde projected film media for newfangled high-def 4K digital eye candy. Worst case, we'd get to ride Jaws, and Back To The Future, and Jurassic Park, and the Snoopy coaster and Space Fantasy: The Ride. That would be a very, very good day, worst case. SPOILER ALERT: We didn't miss any credits (and this day was the only day sky-water fell steadily during the entire trip; thanks again, Mother Nature, for being such a stand-up gal!). And we got a super-special walk-through of Spider-Man, with the new digital media running on the show screens, which was flipping bonkers-awesome. AND Space Fantasy, seriously, what the holy hell is going on in there; I have no idea, but in the end, I don't care, because Space Fantasy: The Ride is a tremendous pile of Japanese ass-kickery. Part Three: Universal Studios Japan After our wondrous day at Tobu Zoo (...Ah, Kawasemi...*dreamy sigh*...), we took a 700 Series Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. The picture of the bullet train nose above was not taken that day, but it was the best shot of a bullet train nose I got, so I'm sharing it here. And how about that bullet train nose, pretty damn sexy, right? Amtrak, please go punch yourself in the face. You can argue the point all you want, but I'm counting this as a credit. Rides on rails, goes really, REALLY fast, is fun and awesome and thrilling in its own way. I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest, but if people count powered oval kiddie coasters, well, then, there you go, I think that's all that needs to be said. Joking aside, bullet trains are freaking sweet. It's like flying in business class, but better because you are on rails, and you can keep your smart phone and other electronic devices on all the time, and you never need to wear a seatbelt, and you are in Japan. Amazing. (Also, yes, I'm padding out this report a little because I didn't take very many photos at Uni due to the rain.) We arrived in Nagoya after dark and after checking in to the Meitetsu New Grand Hotel, a group of us went out to get something to eat, and to take a quick look around. If we didn't have a big day at a theme park less than 12 hours away, I would have been more inclined to spend some time at a few of Nagoya's "entertainment centers." Not just Joy, but Joy Joy, and 24 hours a day of it, too. Clearly, there is a huge Joy surplus in Japan. I do not know what goes on in this facility, but I am compelled to return and find out some day. After dinner, many continued on for some late night revelry, which included the consumption of more alcohol. And horse meat. In hindsight, I'm sorry I missed the chance to eat some Trigger, but I no longer have the stamina of my college years, so I clocked out for the evening. This famous portal always gets me excited, especially when there's a big roller coaster right through it. How many times have you seen a photo that looks almost exactly like this one? Eleventy-thirteen bazillion times? I tried to snap it so that Japan was visible, but most of it is hiding behind the "S." As soon as we arrived that morning, we were ushered into a private meeting room in the executive offices and given a very cool presentation on the history of the park. This gentleman spoke at length about all the changes at the park since it first opened in 2001, which included a refreshingly sincere catalog of problematic issues and subsequent corrections made. (Just one example: finding the right marketing tone and scary-for-teens/fun-for-families balance for their seasonal Halloween events took some adjusting over a couple of years.) But successes have far outweighed the missteps and this park – already one of the world's most popular – will no doubt become even more popular when they open their own Wizarding World next year. This photo was just a gag, but I'll bet you that Japan offers real flying broomsticks for sale before anyone else does. Hearing this talk was a rare opportunity and was certainly one of the major premiums of the trip. (Dan Cuffe, one of the trip participants, helped to arrange both this presentation and the Spider-Man walk-through; thanks so much again, Dan!) And before we were let loose into the park, Robb handed out a whole bunch of Express passes and other V.I.P. materials that pretty much assured that we'd wait on almost no lines that day. Sick. On the one hand, much of this park will look familiar (at a glance) to anyone who's spent time in a U.S. Universal park. On the other, "Biohazard" is what the "Resident Evil" games and movies are called over there and why doesn't this poster feature my girlfriend Milla Jovovich? That's just not right at all. Rain or shine, you can always spend time shopping up at the front of the park, thanks to this fairly stunning glass and steel canopy. My photos don't capture how big that structure really feels when you are under it. Very neato. But you can see, minus the canopy, this area does look very much like a Universal park, but with a far greater level of detail than we're used to here in Southern California, that's for damn sure. The rain was a bit of a drag, but it did mean that the park was not very crowded at all. Here's our group walking along one of the New York streets. With a mild drizzle working up to something wetter, Hollywood Dream was indeed closed, so the first order of business was getting our butts wedged into this park's newest and truly one-of-a-kind coaster. Put a roller coaster in a big box and throw down with whatever environmental design you can afford, even just a few flashing lights, and I'm as happy as a clam. So I was primed to enjoy myself on Space Fantasy. Little did I know. We all say things like this, don't we: "Coney Island's Wonder Wheel is a Ferris wheel ON ACID!" Or: "Chocolate Bacon funnel cakes are normal funnel cakes ON ACID!" And so on. Most of the time, it's jokingly over the top. I've never taken acid (it's on my bucket list), but from what I've been told by the experienced, things have to be pretty trippy to be like something else "on acid." While I can't say with certainty that Space Fantasy: The Ride is like something else "on acid," I've little doubt that had it been built in America, it would be the only roller coaster listed as a Schedule I substance by the DEA. Look at the picture above and tell me that isn't something you'd expect to see during a hallucinogenic episode. And that is just a little pre-show moment in the exterior queue. It gets way weirder inside. There are space crystals and space fairies and a space princess and space fireworks and all kinds of wacky, glowy space junk and lasers and mirrors and you spin and there are buttons to press that do nothing or something we never figured out and planetary rings you fly right under and music and more space junk and more three-limbed flying emoticon-bots and more visual and auditory stimuli than a human brain can process in one serving it's insane and wonderful and so many pretty colors DUDE IT'S ABSOLUTELY DERANGED. Yay, it is mission success! Happy Sunfairy wishes us most joyful memory capture photo purchase! Space Fantasy is simply unmissable. I hope listening to some Japanese voice-over actor portraying Edward Furlong is missable, because our group did pass up on T2-3D. I sure adored this attraction during its first seasons, but with poor Eddie really going through some rough patches and Arnold... criminy, man... Plus, Terminator: Salvation left SUCH a bad taste in my mouth, but I won't burden you with that particular rant. I love Uni Orlando's Wizarding World and ...Forbidden Journey and I'm very much looking forward to Florida's enormous, audacious, park-straddling mega-land. But did they have to take out Jaws? Bean-counters and focus-group testers and all kinds of starched-shirt management types who are paid to keep emotion out of decision-making all probably assert that Jaws is over and Harry Potter is not. And the cost of operating and maintaining the attraction, and blah, blah, blah. I won't argue with them. So thanks for all the good times, Bruce; don't let the door hit ya. I have a framed print of the original Jaws movie poster because it was and always will be on my Top Ten list. So I would not have missed Japanese Jaws for any reason. We had a powerfully enthusiastic, and totally adorable, female boat captain and it was as bitchen as always. Great White sharks are still effing scary things, yo. I hope Japan gets to keep their Jaws for a long time to come. Okay, so Japanese Jurassic Park: this was a HUGE surprise. I figured we'd get a kissing cousin of the rides in California and Florida, and we did, pretty much, until we got inside the big pumping station. There's, like, a whole second ride in there! After the lift up to the top, the sequence before the big RRRRAAWWRRR finale is much longer than our stateside versions, totally boss.

So glad this has become an annual tradition: IN ALL THE WAY, BABY!!! (International shipping is fine with me.) HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY!!!!

I'm feeling sad that this fantastic set of reports is over, too. There were so many great details in your photos of TDS that I missed entirely... Amazing. Thanks! (And when do we go back?!?!)

I haven't been on Maverick since 2011 so my recollections of it are not nearly as fresh, but I think the airtime on Kawasemi's hills - ALL of them - compares favorably to any airtime on Maverick. But they are such incredibly different rides, esp. with the different types of restraints. Maverick is a blast, but for sheer, total airtime fun, Kawasemi wins, IMHO. Totally agree; they are easily among the best things Vekoma makes.

This is the first time I'm learning that the 10-inversion coaster will have only the lap restraint: FANTASTIC! (And I also love that "looking down the barrel" photo of the four rolls. Beautiful.)

Fixed - and - silly me. No worries at all, my friend! Neil and I have talked about swapping identities for awhile now. QFT. They are like chocolate and bacon funnel cakes; EVERY park should have them.

That would be a flyboard. I only just learned about these a couple of weeks ago. They look ridiculously fun: http://flyingwatersports.com/ Awesome photos! I've never been to this park and Steel Eel looks and sounds fantastic,

^ Loving these reports! I'm putting Taiwan down on the list of places to head to with TPR. As long as there is a stop at the place with the unlimited Haagen-Dazs buffet. And that "Whack-a-Butt" toy is amazing. As is that freaking spider. Can't wait to see more of Gravity Max!

Hey, everyone, thanks again so much for the very kind comments! PLEASE DO! We all did and saw different things (per Elissa's comments above, now I'm definitely going to see Tobu's zoo the next time I'm there) and I am personally addicted to TPR photos and stories from Japan. A mighty oak grows from the smallest acorn. WE CAN DO IT! I had forgotten that there are at least two Mega-Lites in China!

Continuing: Or maybe it's better to have to travel great distances to experience something as wondrous as a Mega-Lite. Keeps them special, makes the devotional pilgrimage a real event. No, screw that. I want a Mega-Lite down the block from my house. Kawasemi, baby, you rocked my world. Right to the very end. Who do I have to bribe/kill/sleep with to get a Mega-Lite into California?! TELL ME AND I'LL DO IT, JUST TELL ME ALREADY. Look at these expressions; THAT'S a trainload of satisfied customers. Alan, front row on the left, is clearly having a moment. Ready for another ride, doods? HECK YEAH!!! Anth also recommends... whatever this is. Thanks, Intamin and Tobu Zoo, for revving this trip right up! On the way back to Tokyo that afternoon, Steve told me I really should grab the Galaxy Express 999 credit at Aqua Stadium, which I'd totally forgotten was in there. Derp. We did have a little free time before catching a bullet train (!!!) to Nagoya that evening, so I ran over to Aqua Stadium and hopped on. Going in, I knew very little about the GE999 mythos, except that it is super-popular in Japan, has been developed into TV series and movies and other media, and features a train that travels through space. And stars some kid, and a tall, wan, depressed-looking blonde, and a little floating character in a train conductor's outfit, which I presume is the train conductor. Fortunately, you are forced into watching a ten-minute pre-show that totally brings you up to speed on the story, as long as you understand Japanese. Those are ten minutes of my life I can't ever get back. I kid, but it is awesome that they put so much effort into theming this indoor, launched looping roller coaster, which was actually kind of rad, if pretty shaky. Had there been time, I'd have gone back around for another run. Maybe. Steve and I literally ran by a couple of other Aqua Stadium attractions on our way back to the hotel. This sea-critter carousel appears to be Disney-quality; gorgeous. Returning to Aqua Stadium is required. And holy mackerel, look at their indoor swinging boat ride, WOW! To be continued.

Continuing: Almost every park we visited, except for the Disney parks, offered these ride-able mechanical animals. I somehow managed to never get one of these credits. FYI, Tobu has a ride called Fantasy Elephant. These little guys were on a roof along the monorail path; cute! I wonder what the sign says... "We Think We Are Cows, But We Are Not Sure!" I really do love the Tobu doggie. I didn't seek out any Tobu doggie souvenirs and I regret that now. Check out what's right under the opposite winged-horse-monorail station?! SWEET! A film crew was setting up a shot out in front of Strange Street, and from the make-up and costuming on the actress there (the taller one with the jet black hair under the umbrella), I'd guess it was a ghost story of some kind. Very sweet. This was a walk-through and out of the many, many spook houses we encountered, I'd say this was the least memorable. Because I remember almost nothing about it. But I chalk that up to the fact that there were so damn many on this trip, and I was still pretty jet-lagged. Still, Tobu has a haunted attraction, so hooray! And they have their own Surprising House, too; double hooray! Tobu's was fun, but again, the best of these was still a few days out. Other than Special-K, I think this dog ride was my favorite. Because it was just this long row of seats that went round and round in a slow circle and bounced up and down a little. And it barked. That's what led us over, the barking. Round and round, woof woof woof! Hell yes, we rode it. I have no pictures of the lakeside go-kart "safari" ride, but we rode that, too. The "safari" elements were pretty weak, but go-karts are never a total loss. Heartful Farm is Tobu's newest "land" and it is where you'll find the park's second big wheel. Can you see the windmill that fronts the other side? Nice touch. Each car is air-conditioned. Oh, and the views way up high are great, too, sure (I took lots of photos on this wheel). But: air-conditioned. That's the really important thing. We didn't spend too much time at Heartful Farm. The kids' rides look very nicely put together, though, don't they? Very farm-y. One more random note: I had the chicken curry at the place where we ate lunch; it was damn tasty, and the first of I don't know how many plates of super-yummy chicken curry I ate over the following days. No, wait, sorry, another thing: we rode the pedal car monorail doohickey up front, too. Just a big square, very whatever. Enough foreplay. OH MY FREAKING GOD. By modern standards, Kawasemi is a wee morsel. Its highest point is just above 100 feet, and you travel less than 2,500 feet from lift hill to brake run. There are coasters three times as big that can't muster even half the thrills this mofo delivers. My first ride was all it took to know that Kawasemi had not been oversold, in the slightest. And after I got off (pun very much intended), all twitchy and giggly, someone said "Not bad, but it needs to warm up." Holy damn freaking damn it to hell, did it warm up fast. I rode in the front, in the middle, and in the back; we all did. Doesn't matter where you sit; it's an airtime ass-whupping like almost no other roller coaster I've been on. That said, I do believe the front row is where I was ultimately turned into Kawasemi's eternally devoted, eternally submissive love-slave. Take a good long gander at that layout. Every hill, every twist, every turn is just where it should be, like a perfect melody, every note flowing from the one before it, setting up the one to follow. And I like how many trim and block brakes there are, which is none. There's a train full of professionals, man. TPR in da house! Some of the locals may not be as hardcore, may try to hold on, but no one can escape the wrath of the negative-G gods, not on Kawasemi. Yep, the front row, that's my favorite. This ride has it all: camelbacks, bunny hops, low-slung turns, all manner of surprising twistiness, except for inversions, though, and if you ride Kawasemi and say to me, "Needs some loops," we're going to have trouble, my friend. The consensus seems to be that no park in America would have the stones to build a Mega-Lite and let it run wild, certainly not a corporate chain park that needs a lot of capacity and/or a "big number" ride for marketing purposes. I don't know... an independent, family-owned park, a park that has already shown a proclivity to build very intense roller coasters... there's gotta be some park like that in the U.S. where a Mega-Lite could find a good home. And if not, dadgumit, let's just pool our resources, do a Kickstarter or something, and build that park ourselves. WHO'S WITH ME?!

John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" is one of my favorite movies, of any kind. I think it's the scariest movie I've ever seen, and I've seen hundreds of scary movies. Maybe the original "Alien" is just as scary, to be fair. They are both masterpieces of sci-fi horror; we can all agree on that, yes? Anyway, one of my best friend's nieces loves scary movies and this best friend and I both urged her, frequently, to see "The Thing:" the dog transformation scene; the "blood test" scene; Kurt Russell owning it all over the place; best practical horror effects EVER; best sci-fi horror movie ending EVER; and on and on and on. She finally watched it and was thoroughly – and I mean thoroughly – unimpressed. "Lame," she called it. Lame. I'm still trying to figure that out. Did we oversell it? I guess so, but to this day, I don't see how that's possible. A dude's head turns into a spider! Anyway. If anything was ever at risk of being oversold to me, it was Intamin Mega-Lites. Theme Park Review is filled with testimonials to their brilliantly compact, twisted layouts, their diabolical airtime, their ability to cure erectile dysfunction, yada, yada, blah, blah. For years, we've been hearing this kind of thing, over and over, am I right? Well, get ready to hear it some more. Part Two: Tobu Zoo with an Aqua Stadium chaser Before the official start of the trip, there were three "add-on" days, and Tuesday marked the first official day of the add-on portion. Most everyone who would be on the trip proper had elected this "super size me!" bonus pack, which I had initially thought I'd exclude. Thank god I changed my mind, because Kawasemi and Harikata and a BUNCH of other stuff. Moral of the story: if you are presented with the option for more Japan, and can afford it, you choose more Japan. Always. So when I went downstairs that morning for the buffet breakfast (again, so much and so good), there was a nice, big crowd of TPR folks meeting and chatting it up. Another thing about TPR trips I'm sure you've already gleaned from previous reports, and/or first-hand experience: the people who go on these trips are just the kind of people you'd want on these trips: people who love parks and coasters, who love to travel, who love to have a good time. These are my kind of people. (And they were from all over the world, which was mega-awesome.) Breakfast out of the way, we gathered in the hotel lobby, lots more excited chatter, Robb and Elissa greeted everyone, handed out the TPR tote bags filled with helpful supplies and snacks and goodies, holy crap, this is really happening, after all the months of dreaming, of planning, of desperate waiting: GAME ON. Here's how you get to Tobu Zoo from Tokyo: make sure you are traveling with TPR and do exactly what Elissa tells you to do. See how easy that is? This park is a bit of a walk from the nearest train station and honestly, I'd love to tell you which station, but I don't remember at all. ("Someone else appears to be doing all the mental 'heavy lifting' here, so I'm just going to shut down everything but my pleasure receptors for a couple of weeks. Laterz!" - My brain.) It was neat to get a little taste of this more sedate, suburban part of Japan, after a day in the hyper-urban dynamism of Tokyo. Lookit, there it is! The first park of the trip, officially! Yay! Here's Robb setting us up for the day; to his right is an Asian rep for Intamin (super-nice guy, can't remember his name, either) who was instrumental in helping to arrange this morning's ERT session. Yeah, our first morning, our first park, the very first official ride of this trip, an Intamin Mega-Lite. Not too shabby. Tobu Zoo, as its name would lead you to believe, is a zoo with real, live animals. I'll warn you now that the only animals you're going to see in this report are either artistic representations of animals, like the fantastic hippos above, or rides that are made to look like animals. I did not get to the zoo portion of this park; the hour or so my group went off to check out the animals, I spent taking pictures of Kawasemi (a ride which is named for an animal, a cute little bird that can really haul ass, apparently.) The Japanese certainly do cherish their big Ferris Wheels. This is one of TWO of them at Tobu Zoo. We rode the newer one, which I'll discuss shortly. I love the happy Tobu doggie. Several rides were not operating today, including G-Max, the Intamin drop tower. Boo-hoo, I guess we'll have to console ourselves while we're riding one of the most insane roller coasters in Japan, I'm sorry, IN THE WORLD. Life is so unfair. Should I start with the slobbering worship now? Nah, you know what, I'll keep that for the end. Tobu Zoo has another big coaster, Regina, one of the very few woodies in this nation. Looks pretty decent from above, right? It was pretty decent, and according to Robb and some of the others who've ridden it in years past, it was in pretty decent shape for this visit. Not super-great, but decent. Regina means "Queen" in Italian; you can see the little crown over the "R" in the logo. Why they referenced an Italian word, I don't rightly know. Is she the queen of monsters? Because there's this monster here, like a little pet or something... ...and then this big one ARRRRGH! I got the impression that these were sea monsters, or lake monsters, or monsters somehow related to water, but now I'm not sure why. Maybe because there's a big pond underneath much of the ride? Theming aside, Regina was designed by the Stand Company, who also designed Nagashima's White Cyclone, another woodie we'd be sampling down the pike. All the landscaping around Regina is quite lovely, with an abundance of shady trees and green vegetation. I wish I'd taken a shot of the rambling unpaved path that leads to this ride's queue; it's like they built a big wooden coaster in some quiet corner of Central Park. But I'll leave it to the two photos directly below to say most of what needs to be said about this ride. Keep in mind, we'd all just staggered away, sweaty and spent, from the Kawasemi ERT... No one looks miserable. I see a couple of smiles even, Nozzy and Caroline, Sean in the back there... Steve, I think, is just wiping his brow, not slapping his forehead in disgust. I think. But really. Are these the faces of riders who can't wait to get back in line? I submit that they are not. (I only rode once.) It was fairly hot that morning, so anything that looked like it might be air-conditioned was getting our business, including Star Cross Meteor Attack! The waiting room just outside the pre-show, man, it was nice and cold in there! JC and Steve examine the outer space storage shelves. Star Cross Meteor Attack was a little CG sci-fi movie adventure with space ships, and meteors, and lots of PEWPEWPEW KABLOOIE! It was fun, if pretty incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't speak Japanese. But the air conditioning, THUMBS WAY UP! Speaking of space ships: TPR Astro-Fighter takeover (not really)! Cary, Priscilla and Steve are ready to go to infinity and beyond (which, if you think about it, is kind of a silly concept, like "infinity plus one" and I guess that was the point, to give Buzz something kind of silly to say. But I digress.) PEWPEWPEW! Many of the walk-throughs in Japan have some sort of interactive, competitive gaming element, and Galaxy Walkers (snicker) was my first exposure to this type of attraction. You could choose to be part of the "red" or "blue" team, which meant following a particular path and doing particular things, none of which stick in my mind. I think my team lost. But the point is that the Japanese are all about science fiction and robots and space ships and ray guns and all that jazz, which is just more to love about the Japanese, far as I'm concerned. PEWPEWPEW! To get from Tobu's East Gate area (where we came in) to further west towards the zoo section, you can either walk, or take this suspended "Pegasus-powered" monorail ride. The wings on the horses actually flap, a detail I much appreciated. Here's a shot from my car looking back at some of the others. The carousel was under repair, but I liked that they built it on a platform over the water.

Thanks, man! I'll be working on those shrieks for when I we hit that fair together, some day soon, I hope. You're killing me. KILLING ME. (But have an AWESOME TIME!) Very interesting question, and I have no idea! Good catch and I hope someone else can answer this question; now I'm curious, too.

First, thanks so much for all the kind replies, everyone! I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying it. If I can convey even 10% of the joy I got out of this trip, then mission accomplished. That's one of my all-time favorite movies and that did not occur to me. Now I won't be able to think about anything else. I did not, and it's definitely a place I'd like to see when I go back. I think at one time during the 80s' peak of Japan's economic bubble, the land under the palace was the most valuable real estate in the world? Thanks! The Vapors rule. I sure would love to research and write an entire book on the parks of Japan. Any publishers, if you're reading, let's talk. Bill, that bumper car graphic is AWESOME.

Thanks, Chuck! Tokyo was endlessly fascinating, and I think I only saw about 4% of it, in total. Definitely need to go back and stay for some real length of time someday.

Continuing: Again, I am completely illiterate in Japanese, but I'm pretty confident that the bottom row of symbols reads "Thriller Car." Reason No. 68,302 Japan is better than [iNSERT THE NAME OF ANY COUNTRY YOU'D LIKE HERE]: every park in Japan has at least one dark ride and/or walk-through. Well, okay, I don't know that for sure, but every park on this trip sure as hell did. Every. Park. Even Sea Paradise! And almost all of them had more than one; some had SIX! Hanayashiki has more than one scary attraction and for a park so small, that is simply miraculous. Best of all, one of them is really, really good. Thriller Car is not the good one. But I'm of the opinion that there are no truly ugly babies and there are no truly bad dark rides. Even the "bad" ones are a hoot, and when they are "bad" and in Japanese, well, you've got something special. Thriller Car is, indeed, special. Right out of the gate, Thriller Car takes you through this I don't know quite what to call it, this "patio furniture" tunnel, with two big openings on the left-hand side (the photo above is taken through the second of them). You think they could have made this tunnel fully enclosed, a little darker, edged it a little further towards being, you know, "thrilling," but that didn't happen for some reason. Maybe if tiny kids start to freak, parents can toss them out to a non-rider, before the ride actually does become "thrilling?" Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, it does make a right turn into the mountain and for a little bit, it is pitch black, and there are some loud noises. Not "Persons With Heart Conditions Should Not Ride" thrilling, but moving in the right direction. For the next few minutes, we trundled around in the dark, passing by several stunts, most of which were so poorly lit, they could hardly be seen. But there were some ominous sound effects, and some Japanese muttering and groaning and wailing, and it was goofy and silly and AWESOME. I rode three times, yeah, that's right, go ahead and laugh, I don't care. This is the entrance for the walk-through, the Haunted House. If you like the scary, do not miss this attraction. For my money, Haunted House is the best reason to visit Hanayashiki. (It's in the building over the Shounkaku Gate, on the second floor? I had to go up stairs to get there, I think.) As luck would have it, I went through alone (pretty certain that I and the poor guy sitting out front were the only two people on the whole floor). To get from one space to the next, you have to find and then slide open a door, like a classic Shoji screen, closing it again behind you. And it is DARK in there. I had so much trouble finding the first door, I almost gave up. Seriously. And that got me very jumpy. But I made it in, and for realz, my heart was pounding. Moody, super-creepy, and genuinely frightening, I came out of there shaking like a leaf. And I'll never respond to the sound of a crying baby the same way again. SWEET! There is at least one more scary attraction here (!!!), called Ghost Mansion, but that, too, was closed. Turns out we did get to experience a number of these types of things on the trip, which are simply dark rooms where you sit and listen to a spooky story with "surround-sound" audio effects through headphones. Some were better than others, but all were good for a few kicks. I imagine that Ghost Mansion would be at least okay, at worst. Last, there was a 3-D theater that the map included as part of the "Mystery and Panic" selections, but it was down as well. Still another reason I'll come back to Hanayashiki some day. So four scary jobbies, at this teensy-weensy little park. That KICKS ASS. All in all, I had a swell time here, a nearly perfect way to ease into the insane amusement park dork-orgy that the next two weeks were going to be. Mid-afternoon, I realized I was starving, so I went right over to this noodle shop about a block away from Hanayashiki and had a 600 yen bowl of heaven. It was gone in ten minutes. Feeling much stronger, I set out for the Skytree. It turned out to be about a half-hour hike that included taking a bridge across the Sumida River. There were many quiet residential streets on the other side of the bridge. I loved how they painted the names down the middle of each lane. It was about 20 bucks to go up to the observation decks and I didn't bother (but we did get some amazing views of Tokyo the last weekend of the trip, from another very tall building, so those photos are coming). The Skytree itself, though, is pretty damn wicked. It is tall, 634 meters to the tippy-top. That's almost half a mile up. Zooming in on the upper decks. I'll bet the engineering behind this thing is really fascinating. At the base of the tower is a very upscale mall, I'm sure very much like so many other upscale malls all over Tokyo. This one did have a confectionery shop called "Tokyo Banana Tree," and the stuff they sold in there looked mighty appetizing. And there was this place where you could have your own custom candy made right in front of you. Suck it, Cold Stone Creamery. Inside the mall, there were lots of places to find out more about the Skytree itself. I think, somewhere, it said how many of these units were used to put it all together. Like, a trillion. Or maybe less, it was a lot, that's for sure. At the J:COM Wonder Studio, there was some kind of robot demonstration going down. The robot was called "Zac," or "Zach," or perhaps, "Zack?" And this was the best picture I took of said demonstration FAIL. Had a cup of Joe while relaxing in the plaza at the Skytree's base. One end of the plaza overlooked this nifty-looking park of some kind. I thought the triangular grass panels had a bit of a Logan's Run vibe. On the way back to the bridge across the river, I passed another shrine, this one called Ushijima and it had more excellent komainu. There was almost no one here, so it was really quiet, really tranquil. This is right across the street from another unassuming row of apartment houses. Incredible. Had I not been so wiped out, I'd have spent more time here, just chilling. But I had a ways to go before I got back to the hotel. But it was a nice little stop on the way back. Japan. I mean, come on. The best. I'll spare you more a whole lot more yawn-inducing photos of city streets, except for this one with the pink lanterns. And a few more... So I'm walking along, figuring I'll just head generally in the direction of the train station, not worrying too much about following any particular route, when I come upon this row of buildings that look... unusual. Moulin Rouge. Interesting. Looks like a club of some kind, with some live entertainment, perhaps? Wait a minute... THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT! IT'S STILL HERE AND I FOUND IT! By chance, totally, I swear. Really. (Can't lie, though: I was very curious to find out what was going on in a place called "Violence Soap." But also a little afraid to find out, because I've seen my share of manga and hentai... you know what I'm saying...) I did also pass another club called something like "American Cheer Girls," but I figured conspicuous picture-taking, by an obvious foreigner, might be an un-good idea, so I put the camera away for a while. After some more aimless strolling, it became clear that I was pretty lost. But good old Skytree was a terrific landmark by which to navigate and I did manage, eventually, to get back to the Asakusa train station. Had a quick dinner at a little steakhouse near the hotel and went upstairs and collapsed, again. Big, BIG day the next day, my first Intamin Mega-lite. I do! And always will! To be continued.

Continuing: This is the "Nisanbutsu," or "A Pair of Buddha." And these critters are "komainu," or "lion dogs." They stand in pairs, generally guarding the entrance to shrines and such, and I saw a goodly number on this trip. They are all, to the last, mega-awesome. See? Mega-awesome, no question. Super-freaking mega-awesome. Okay, time to move on to Hanayashiki. (FINALLY, right?) If you're anywhere nearby, you'll find Hanayashiki; just look for the S&S Space Shot tower or this unique "floating candy shack" contraption. It's been around since 1853, which makes it Japan's oldest amusement park, and one of the oldest in the world. So you could argue that it's a culture credit, right? Or maybe not. Anyway, there are two entrances into the park and this one is the Asakusa Gate. The other is the Shounkaku Gate. FYI, they sell a POP wristband for somewhere around $22, if I recall correctly, and on a slow Monday afternoon, you'll have no problem getting your money's worth, and then some, in an hour or two. The Space Shot is fun, if unremarkable, save for the view at the top. I was facing in the direction of the Skytree, which rocked. There are a few things just for the ankle-biters, like the adorable Swan ride... ...and the "Kiddy Taxi" ride, which looked from above like it had an interesting layout. I kind of wanted to try it out, but after seeing how small the vehicles were, I gave up on that idea. They really cram the rides and snack stands and tiny outdoor theater and whatever else into a very small footprint and that gives the park a real honkytonk, urban atmosphere. But Hanayashiki does have this nicely landscaped little "mountain" in the center, with a pond and a bridge and stuff. I'm only guessing, but I'd say that this part of the park goes way back, perhaps to its earliest days even? The bridge is actually called "The Bridge of Happiness." And hidden away inside the mountain is the Thriller Car dark ride! There's a kind of cave through it, too; you can see one end of the cave in the photo above. Here's the "cave" from the other side. The things in the walls? No clue what the deal is with those. Whatever this ride is, it didn't look like it was going to open while I was there. Roller Coaster, that was down, too. Disappointing, but only a very little. I knew there were credits aplenty in the next two weeks, and there's no question I'm coming back to Tokyo, and this park, some day. Plus, there were several goodies that made up for it, the first of which was: The Surprising House! Do you dig Vekoma's "Mad House" attractions, like Great Adventure's Houdini's Great Escape? I do, very much. Turns out they have these mini-Mad Houses at a fair number of Japanese parks ("Surprising House" seems to be the generic in this country). Hanayashiki's is themed to the Three Little Pigs and it was a blast. (There's an even better Surprising House at Hokkaido Greenland.) The "floating candy house" ride is actually called the Bee Tower, and you can't not ride it because it's a terrific way to scope out the general area, and also because it's very Japanese. I wonder what the rent is for one of those apartments over there... Anyway, is it called the Bee Tower because if you built a little shack out of candy and flowers, it would attract a lot of bees? Or because the candy shacks fly in the air like bees? I didn't have the language skills or the nerve to ask anyone. This photo only begins to illustrate how they don't waste more than an inch of space here. The Senso-ji Temple pagoda, and a floating candy shack. I love Japan so much. This multi-level structure is where you can find four rides: the Roller Coaster, the Space Shot, the Sky Ship, and the Helicopter. The Sky Ship is a hanging pirate ship ride, which was also closed. And the Helicopter is a pedal-powered ride, another type of attraction we found at several parks. Hanayashiki's Merry-Go-Round, with the red and white top, is to the right. This is the park's rooftop Shounkaku Shrine "Burabo" and had I realized I could have gone up there, I would have. Next time fo shizzle. Another photo of Senso-ji Temple and the Skytree for no good reason at all.