More Japan Trip Questions

[MrMorgan]

hey alveys. do you realise how many japan trips you've inspired? you should get a commission from the japanese board of tourism er somethin.

anyhoo. i will be visiting a friend who lives in tokyo september 12-21st. i'm not on an unlimited budget, and i need to relax a little on this vacation, too. after reviewing your park planning guide and trip reports, i've decided the parks i'd most like to see are

 

Disney/Sea

Fuji-Q

La Qua

Nagashima Spaland

Sea Paradise

Yokohama Cosmoworld

Tobu Zoo

Aquastadium in Shinagwa

 

i'd like to do 2 days of disney towards the end as sort of a "finale". although my friend lives there and is willing to accompany me on some of my coaster excursions, he hasn't been all that gung-ho about helping me make an itinerary and i can't find like a "guide to the locations of amusement parks in japan", so i can't get a grip on exactly where the parks are and how close they are to each other, etc. so, my questions are

 

1) what is the most logical order to visit these parks, and why?

 

2) is there something i'm missing, like "well, if you're going to .... then you might as well go to .... cuz it's on the way anyways."

 

i know i can do Sea Paradise and Cosmoworld in one day because they're close, (right?), and La Qua is a half day thing anyways. also, my friend says the Aquastadium park is less than an hour from his apartment, so that one's not a problem. i guess i just need some help making sense out of where they all are and a logical plan for getting to all of them with a train pass and travelling back into tokyo to stay with him whenever possible. thanks for any suggestions!

 

ps. hope you had fun in the dells. i was just there last week! i still think avalanche is debatebly the best coaster. hades is pretty awesome, though!

[MrMorgan]

my poor japan trip question, sitting here all alone while all the other questions get more attention from the alvey's. poor, lonely question.

[SharkTums]

I'm sorry!!!!

 

I totally missed this thread! Let me think about it and I'll respond back soon I promise!

[MrMorgan]

yay! thanks. lonely japan question, be lonely no more!

[COOOOLkid]

I think you should go in this order:

 

Arrive at Tokyo

Shinagawa (Aqua Stadium)

LaQua

Nagashima Spaland (It's kind of a bit away from Tokyo... about 2 hour train ride)

Fuji-Q (again, it's not that close from Tokyo)

Yokohama area (Sea Paradise, Cosmoworld)

then those Disney parks.

 

I'll try to make a map of Japan with "major" parks located, so you can think about which additions you can make.

 

 

And you NEED to get one of those JR pass since it'll save you a ton, and you can even reserve seats for the bullet trains, just not the "Green car", which is more spacious. You will most likely be using bullet trains all of the time, by the way.

[SharkTums]

Ok here we go:

 

Go to Tobu Zoo for opening, and you can hit LaQua in the afternoon.

 

Sea Paradise and Cosmoworld can easily be done in the same day. (they are about 20min apart via 2 trains) Depending on hours you might also be able to squeeze in Aquastadium, which I believe is on the way to/from those two parks.

 

Fuji Q needs it's own full day

 

Nagashima needs a full day (if you're traveling from Tokyo), if you're going to be in the Nagoya area you can finish the park in a half day if it's not crowded.

 

So I guess I need some more info from you. Are you ONLY staying in Tokyo or will you be taking some overnight trips? Will you have a Japan Rail Pass? Are you interested in just credits, or seeing the parks too? Are you a disney fan, cause in that case you might want 3 days at Disney. If Joypolis reopens you'll want to head there too because it's a really cool little park in a nice area.

 

Hope this helps, please write back and tell me what else you'd like to know!

[MrMorgan]

good morning, LA. ok. to answer your questions. i'm totally up for an overnight trip, or a few nights over someplace. i just wanted to be sure to take advantage of his apartment whenever possible.

i will have a railpass.

i am somewhat of a credit whore, but the next couple of months/half a year of work are going to be really stressful and this is my last vacation before march, at the earliest... anyways. what i'm trying to say is i can't go crazy trying to travel around and get every credit possible because i can't go back to work when it's all over "feeling like i need a vacation". know what i mean? i need to relax and enjoy it a little, too. plus, it's going to be hard to get my friend, (who's not an enthusiast, but does like parks. in fact, now that i think of it, he's in my "best movie ever" contest video! he's the "other guy" in the denmark and germany sections)anyways... i could see him bailing on me if it's a hardcore enthusiast schedule and not more of an average tourist schedule. know what i mean? i don't know, maybe he'll end up getting really gung-ho about it once i'm there.

i am a huge disney fan, (before i saw you guyszs trip report, i was originally planning on ONLY going to disney and fuji-q), and would love to do 3 days at the parks AND stay there, but there's no way my friend's gonna go for that, and i would feel like a loser staying and going to the parks alone when a good friend of mine lives less than an hour away. knowutumsayin? and even though it may be the happiest place in japan, it's definitely not the cheapest. i really want to make disney the "finale" of the trip, so i'm planning on saving two days at the end for that, but they'll have to be sunday and monday, (i arrive early on september 12th and leave early on the 20th), or if 3 days does work out, saturday sunday monday. but i don't know, is it stupid to go to disney on the weekend when it will undoubtedly be super crowded, just because it's the end of my trip?

well, i'll stop rambling now. thanks a lot for your input and advice. it's great to hear from people who've been there and done that. i look forward to your reply/replies.

 

morgan "also a vegetarian and worried about starving while i'm there cuz i don't like fish" o'brien

[SharkTums]

^There are plenty of noodle things to eat without fish, so don't worry! Fuji-Q has some great veggie foods and noodles in the "stadium" food court.

 

As for Disney, look on their website to see how crowded the parks are supposed to be those days (I think it was in the Park Hours section). If you want to end with it go for it, even with psycho crowds the park really knows how to deal with it and they do a great job!

 

I would stick with the schedule you have now, you're not really going to be 'near' any other parks that would be anything but a credit run, and I agree that you want to somewhat take it easy.

[MrMorgan]

thanks for your help. i'm so psyched! 10 more days to go...

[rollermonkey]

I wish I had seen this thread ages ago!

 

I live in Japan, and although my ship will be out to sea while you are here, I've been living here for about two years, so I can advise as well. I've been to all of the parks you want to hit, and I can suggest more relaxing 'touristy' things as well, if you'd like.

 

PM me, and we can hash out stuff like train schedules, which train stations are particularly difficult to negotiate, finding ATM's, or anything else I can think of.

 

Chris B

[MrMorgan]

hey. just got back from my trip a few days ago. it was AWESOME!!! thanks for all your help and advice. we had a blast.

 

the only disappointment of the trip was RAGING SPIRITS. it's just as lame, if not lamer, as indi in paris. imo, it's like a boring looping galaxy and will always suck, no matter what themeing they build around it.

 

and i have to disagree with you guys on a few points.

1st) i loved fujiyama! the last stretch to the station throws you around so much. thank gawd there's no ots restraints, right? we loved it.

2nd) white canyon at yomuriland: loved it! it was rough, but it was like "traditional woodie" rough. i was just in the dells a few months ago and found zeuss to be WAY rougher than white canyon. one unfortunate thing is the wierd-ass trains that they always load from the front so you can't sit in the back. it was really empty, so we never made it further back than the 5th seat. we even tried flirting with the ride attendants, but they were strict. haha. just kidding. anyways. i would rather ride that again than regina. i found the roughness on regina more of a problem than white canyon.

[philcoaster83]

1st) i loved fujiyama! the last stretch to the station throws you around so much. thank gawd there's no ots restraints, right? we loved it.

 

Couldn't agree more. this was the best that I rode in Japan - and far better than Magnum XL200 which was rough as hell (went on both within a month of each other)

 

 

 

would rather ride that again than regina. i found the roughness on regina more of a problem than white canyon.

 

Are you kinding? Regina was wonderfully smooth and gave such a rush. White Canyon was aweful - though not as bad as Mean streak

[SharkTums]

^^Will we get to see pictures and a full report!?

 

Glad you had a good time, I'd love to hear about your whole trip!

[MrMorgan]

i could definitely do a mini trip report, but i don't have many pix because i mostly made video, which will be skillfully edited together and set to music. are you interested in hosting a video or two? i'll post some pix when i get them from joe. i'm sure there'll be some funny stuff. we always have a good time together. he's the guy from my "best movie ever" video in munich and kopenhagen.