Tokyo April 2009

[MichaelD]

White Canyon

They REALLY REALLY don't want you to pick your seat.

Do we dare?

[MichaelD]

In my opinion, this is a credit.

Brake Run!

First drop. This is SOOO much a credit now.

Station fly-through.

Second bend.

Lift Hill!

First turn.

Investigating further. Yep, it's a bike ride.

Hey wait a minute, is that a LIFT HILL I spy in the distance?

Pedalling away merrily.

The sky bike ride entry.

[MichaelD]

Hidden credit near the ferris wheel. OK, so it's a bit of a dodgy call.

It's rolling, but it's not quite coasting.

Looks like a track to me.

Looks like a train to me.

[MichaelD]

Amazing theming for a kiddie ride (amazing for a park that's NOT Disney, that is).

Ride entrance.

Now this just ramps the cuteness factor for this ride up to 11. (Note to those that haven't ridden the trains in Japan - you see real versions of this sort of sign on all the railway stations.)

Even more.

More really nice theming.

Really nice theming.

[MichaelD]

Observed on the way home from Yomiuriland - yes, they have women-only carriages on some of the express trains.

Just the sign. Those with Y chromosomes need not apply.

Women-only carriage sign with explanation.

[MichaelD]

Day 7 - Cultural Day + Yokohama Cosmoworld Attempt 2

 

Today was the second of our officially decreed cultural days (the official in question being my wife). Her cultural task for the day - get us to experience a Japanese Tea Ceremony. She went to one back in Australia (in Dubbo of all places - a country town) and enjoyed it immensely, and wanted us to experience one in Tokyo.

 

A bit of a search on the 'net turned up the Hotel Okura in Minato-ku offering a Japanese Tea Ceremony for 1,050 yen, clearly focussed at foreigners as the website was in good English. This was an acceptable price for what we wanted, so off we went to the hotel. We did get lost whilst walking to the hotel from the station, but a map soon put us to rights, and had us walking past the US Embassy, awkward-looking high security and all. That in itself was an interesting cultural experience.

 

Ultimately, it did not matter one iota that we got lost - we stumbled across many other interesting sights on our meandering way to and from the Hotel Okura, including a non tourist trap temple.

 

Our host spoke excellent English, and managed to clear up at least one Japanese mystery for us. Two Japanese coins have holes in them. One is silver and marked with a 50, so there's no mystery there - that's clearly 50 yen. The other is a goldish colour and has no number on at all. We were under the mistaken impression that this was also a 50 yen coin, but our host informed us that this was in fact a 5 yen coin. This explained why the vending machines did not take these coins and why when we used them to pay for things we often got puzzled looks from vendors who would then select the 50 yen coin from our proffered handfuls of change.

 

In retrospect, I think it's telling that not once did we ever get taken advantage of by this - only the correct amount was ever taken from us.

 

On the way back from the tea ceremony, we stopped by a 100 yen shop - everything (more or less) in these stores is priced at 100 yen. Actually, it's priced at 105 yen (including 5 yen sales tax), but 100 yen shop just rolls off the tongue so much better.

 

My wife had this on her list of cultural things to do (?cultural), and I actually wanted to stop at one of these to pick up some plastic sleeving to protect paper theme park tickets.

 

When we visited Toshimaen earlier in the trip, we were issued with paper tickets, which had become quite worn by the end of the day with being taken out of my wallet all the time and shown to ride operators. I was aware that at least Disney also had paper tickets, so felt it would be wise to protect these tickets in some way.

 

ID card holders proved perfect for the task. A bewildering array was on offer in this full-to-the-rafters and tiny aisled shop. At least 20 different ID card holders were on offer, and I was able to select two perfectly suited to the task.

 

These proved to be a wise investment when we went to Disneyland and several other parks, and are a recommended prerequisite for any trip to Japan.

 

Having completed our cultural obligations, we enthusiastically headed off to Yokohama Cosmoworld. My wife declined the trip, preferring to wander the streets of Ikebukuro and Shinjuku instead.

 

Easy enough to get to, although a fairly long trip away, Yokohama Cosmoworld looked phenomenal as we approached. It was my plan to arrive soon before dark, so we could ride both pre-dusk and at night.

 

Unfortunately, the lights were on but the gates were closed. A thorough wander around the park failed to shed any light on the mystery as to why the park was closed, so, bitterly disappointed, we returned home crushed and defeated by our first credit-less day.

 

A quick check of the web site revealed the problem - Yokohama Cosmoworld is closed on Thursdays. I HAD noted this on my trip sheet for Yokohama Cosmoworld, but somehow simply didn't notice this when deciding on this destination for today.

 

Mea culpa, and at least we could be relieved that the park had not closed for good under our noses, so we would try again another day.

Wouldn't want to meet the iPod owner who could fit these into their ears.

Epic fail!

Yokohama Cosmoworld looks stunning from afar.

Japanese Tea Ceremony, with our patient and gracious host.

We stumbled across this temple smack bang in the middle of the chaos of Tokyo. An amazing sense of serenity and tranquility immediately enveloped us as we passed under this gate. No swell of tourists here, just an oasis of peace.

[MichaelD]

Day 8 - Hanayashiki Park + Yokohama Cosmoworld Third Attempt

 

Part 1 - Hanayashiki Park

 

A couple of days prior, my daughter had spotted Hanayashiki Park from the Senso-Ji temple, to which we had been ordered by "she who must be obeyed" for our cultural enlightenment. Clearly this was a sign that we were required to visit this park, so given the very good progress we had made through our itinerary, today was allocated to visiting this park.

 

By now, a 3 train journey was a push-over, and we arrived in good time. Getting into Hanayashiki Park is a two-step process. Outside of the park, you need to buy a park entry ticket. Once inside the park, you then need to buy ride tickets or an unlimited ride pass. Both steps were cash-only.

 

I was confused at the entry gate by the repeated mention and anxious gesticulation towards the rollercoaster in the English version of the map. Being the sole credit in this seemingly tiny park, I wasn't overly keen on entering if it was out of action today. My trusty phone translator came up with "zekkyoumashin burokun" for broken rollercoaster, but this did not sit well with the girl in the booth. All I was able to discern was that there was a problem with the rollercoaster, but that broken didn't seem to be its correct status.

 

On this basis, we took the risk and went in anyway.

 

At first sight, Hanayashiki Park is TINY, but don't let this fool you. This park has an immense array of interesting attractions, all remarkably efficiently packed into this very tiny space.

 

Our first mission was to head towards the rollercoaster. We could see the train tantalizingly parked at the station, but sadly there was a maintenance sign at the entrance and maintenance people working on the train. For the moment, we moved on to the reverse drop ride.

 

My daughter is not a huge fan of reverse drop rides, so she played with the working model of the drop ride (yes, really - see the photos below) whilst I went on it.

 

Following this we went on a couple of elevated rides to get an overview of the park. I'm quite glad we did this, as it revealed just how layered this park actually was. It really pays to climb every stairway and explore every nook and cranny of this park.

 

Now, it was time to fully ascertain the status of the rollercoaster if I could. The maintenance sign was still present, but I managed to come up with "sumimasen zekkyoumashin konnichi" - excuse me, rollercoaster today? - which managed to get the English response of "later" - fantastic! With that worry behind us, we continued to explore this park.

 

There are just so many rides and attractions here it's amazing. There's a ghost train which somehow goes on forever and ever; maybe the door leads to a tardis? There's a gruesome haunted house walk-through. There's a cool maze with several unexpected surprises, all uniquely Japanese. There's an AMAZING audio-only experience which, whilst only in Japanese, is absolutely tremendous and had me grinning from ear to ear. Don't let the lack of English deter you from this great attraction.

 

I will, however, mention one ride which I didn't like - it's called Little Star. I wondered why the height restriction for an innocuous-sounding and looking ride like Little Star would be 120cm, but it's because you spend an awful lot of time upside down on this ride. Not my cup of tea at all.

 

Anyhow, by this time the rollercoaster was running, so off we went to score this credit. This coaster is billed as the oldest steel coaster in Japan, and the seats are TINY. I barely fitted into this coaster - I'm 176cm / 5'9" - and my knees were firmly wedged against the front of the seat. If you're taller than I am you are going to struggle to get into this coaster. Consequently, the ride isn't the most comfortable, and I was only able to ride it a few times before my knees started to protest. Despite this, I was very happy to have ridden this coaster as it does give quite a surprisingly wild ride.

A shot from the exit of the Disc-O showing just how densely packed this park is. In this shot you can see; a flat ride called Carnival, Surprising House, the Taxi Ride, the Sky Ship ride, the Helicopter ride, and the Roller Coaster lift hill. That's a lot of rides in a very small area.

Little Star does not convey the intensity of this particular flat ride, or should I say upside-down ride. Caveat emptor.

Mr Hanayashiki?

Yep, that's a little shrine in the theme park. Fascinating juxtaposition.

Hey I know that website!

Mini golf course visible from the roller coaster. Not part of the park.

I guess if you're the first roller coaster in the country you don't need to come up with an imaginative name.

Found locked up in the maze. When my daughter wondered why my hands were entering the cage I had to explain that I was scratching her nose. Yeah, that's it. Her nose.

Expensive taxi fare.

My daughter absolutely loved this taxi ride.

See. It really does work.

Don't like actual rides? Just play with the elaborate working model instead.

Roller Coaster is not ready to come out and play yet.

Hello Roller Coaster. We see you.

[MichaelD]

Day 8 - Hanayashiki Park + Yokohama Cosmoworld Third Attempt

 

Part 2 - Yokohama Cosmoworld

 

After finishing at Hanayashiki Park (before closing time, incidentally), we made our way back to Yokohama Cosmoworld. Was this park finally going to succumb to our desire to visit?

 

We were delighted to find that, yes, it was indeed open. Yokohama Cosmoworld does not have an unlimited rides option, with everything pay-per-ride. It was by far the poorest value for money park of this trip, and cash-only to boot.

 

3 credits and a log ride are on offer here. I had chosen in advance to buy ride tickets worth 2800 yen (which gave us 3500 yen worth of rides), so spent $42 Australian on each of us ($28 US dollars each).

 

This gave us;

1 ride on Diving Coaster: Vanish

2 rides on the log flume

1 ride on the Spinning Coaster

1 ride on the Family Banana Coaster

1 ride on the pedal ride, and

1 trip through the ice house

 

I coughed up another 1000 yen each to be able to go through the mirror maze, and that was it for the Cosmoworld budget.

 

Diving Coaster: Vanish - this looks stunning, but the restraints are the heaviest, most uncomfortable restraints I have ever had the displeasure of using. The ride is rough - even the dive underneath the water is not enjoyable due to the severe shaking making it impossible to focus on the theming present. My daughter HATED this ride, even more than she hates Arrow Corkscrews.

 

Spinning Coaster: A standard spinning mad mouse ride, made a little more enjoyable by being located several stories up.

 

Family Banana Coaster: Strictly for credit whoring purposes.

 

The log ride was, for us, the ride highlight of the night, so much so that we rode it twice; once in the late afternoon and once at night.

 

The ice house was interesting...and COLD, but attraction-wise, the highlight for us was the mirror maze. It was expensive, but was a significantly more difficult maze than we had seen before, so it took us quite some time to complete it. Basically it involves you finding your zodiac symbol, a surprisingly difficult task in this maze. My daughter managed to win a fluffy toy prize at the end of this maze, which pleased her no end.

 

A mandatory trip to pay homage to the "Meat Cow" machine was the final item on our agenda, but sadly we couldn't get the machine to dispense for us, so had to settle for the nearby Human Body Part machine and a model larynx (voicebox) instead.

 

By this stage, my wife had rejoined us having toured the surrounding area and also having been underwhelmed, so we sought sustenance in a nearby retail complex called "World Porters". It looked impressive from the outside, but one step inside, and...

 

"Hold on a second. Why is there so much SPACE inside here? Why are there so many tourists in here? Why are the prices so high?"

 

Yep. TOURIST TRAP.

 

Kinda sums up the whole Yokohama area, really. Looks great, but is way overpriced for what you get. Come here if you have the time, but don't feel bad about skipping this one - you're not really missing out on much if you do. If you do come, however, plan to arrive late afternoon as the area DOES look spectacular at night.

Best part of the day - the busker we came across back at Ikebukuro station.

Since Meat Cow was unco-operative, we had to settle for Human Body Part machine.

Yay! Meat Cow machine. We couldn't get this to work for us.

Yay! Finally we get to Yokohama Cosmoworld.