Photo TR: Canobie Coaster's World Adventures

^ Thanks! No problem, I enjoy writing them up. It lets me recount the (usually awesome) experiences at each park.

Washuzan Highland

Washuzan Highland was an odd park. And odd may be putting it mildly. I don't even know where to begin with this one.

A Brazilian park in Japan. Who knew?

And it was located in the Holy Land of Jeans.

Actually I do, the park is themed to Brazil. Of all the things to theme a Japanese park to, this park picked Brazil. I'd say I should be surprised, but this is the same country with Parque Espana. The theme is pretty loose outside of Brazlian themed music and height check signs of Brazilians.

The park had plenty of flags but not enough soccer balls.

Yeah mon, you're tall enough to ride.

We were a bit worried the bad weather would keep the coasters closed, but the park assured us they’d run any operating attraction in the rain. Awesome! Not awesome was the fact that half the park’s rides seemed closed. That unfortunately included the rare Togo Ultra Twister and jet coaster on the mountain. It was certainly a bummer to miss Ultra Twister, but fortunately Nagashima Spaland still has one as well so I have one more shot this trip.

Ultra Twister sat there teasing us.

The park is aptly named Washuzan Highland, as you have to climb almost 400 stairs to reach the park’s highest point. It afforded me the opportunity to work off the Japanese BBQ and gyoza. Plus the views of the surrounding area was breathtaking. Japan really is one of the world's most beautiful countries.

The top of the hill included several attractions. Beyond the closed jet coaster, they also had an observation tower and a drop tower, both of which were unfortunately closed. That left two operating attractions. One was a terrifying looking Bungee Jump. Beyond the height, it was pretty disconcerting after seeing the rust of the park’s coasters and that the operator was also the bartender from the nearby drink stand. Still I probably would have risked death had it not been a steep upcharge.

Right this way to some more closed rides.

Some spare parts for the jet coaster?

Neither tower was operating. I was sort of looking forward to riding in the dense fog.

The upcharge bungee jump was open though.

The other attraction was the Sky Cycle, an odd self-powered monorail on the edge of the mountain. On ET Adventure, you ride things looking like bikes. On this, you actually ride bikes complete with the saddle, pedals, and hand brakes. The view was fantastic and it was a pretty frightening experience considering the bikes shifted side to side a bit on the turns. 8 out of 10

There's the nice view we were promised!

There was one coaster operational for us and of course it was the backwards Togo. Those are two words sure to make any enthusiast cringe. I mean they can barely make a forwards coaster that doesn't kill you. The rusted appearance of the coaster certainly didn't instill confidence that I'd come off without a concussion, but I remained optimistic.

And in actuality, it was reallyy good! Basically it followed the same layout as Kings Dominion’s Shockwave. The first drop had some good floater air and the subsequent vertical loop was forceful and extremely disorienting in reverse. I braced for the worst on the helix, but headbanging never occurred! After the helix came the best part of the ride, the bunny hills. Most of them gave weak pops of air, but the final turnaround surprised everyone with a strong pop of ejector airtime.

I rode it 4 times in a row before I started to feel a bit nauseous. It was one heck of an intense coaster. Because of the rain, the stand-up train they also run was out of service. I was intrigued to try it standing up, but I also wanted to have kids someday so it was a win. Maybe the secret for Togo is to only run their coasters in reverse. I'm sure that'll fix Manhattan Express. 8 out of 10

That's quite a bit of rust.

If you told me a rusty, backwards Togo would have been good, I would have called you a liar. Turns out I was very wrong!

I wanted to try the park’s intriguing looking walkthrough, Cavern Quest, but on my way I was solicited into participating in the park’s Samba dance show. I'd say the odds of being randomly chosen are slim, but TPR members were literally the only parkgoers in the two hours we were there. So I was quickly reminded how terrible of a dancer I am.

In retrospect, it's not surprising I was picked to participate considering the size of the audience.

I didn't quite make it to Cavern Quest this time, but maybe in a future visit. It looked intriguing.

Washuzan Highland had a beautiful setting and a nice staff. While they were completely transparent about their closed attractions, it still was a bummer to see almost half the rides closed for maintenance. Still we had a solid time thanks to a backwards Togo looper. That is a sentence I never thought I'd write.

Great report of indeed a very odd park.

It is a shame most of the rides were closed, but it seems like you still had a good time. It is kind of disturbing though that the operator of the bungee jump was also the bartender from the drink stand. Oh well..

Thanks!

That backwards Togo really was one of the surprises of the trip so it was indeed still a solid visit. And I'm sure the attendant was a bungee jump operator first and a bartender on the side, but it was still quite funny to see him running on over.

Finally got around to reading everything... great stuff. Really looking forward to getting to Silver Dollar City one day. I didn't know much about it outside of Outlaw Run (and now Time Traveler). Looks like they have a bunch of other great rides too I wasn't aware of. I'd also love to go to Japan, but closed rides always seem to be a theme. Granted I'd enjoy more than just the theme parks, but still. Looking forward to hearing and seeing more about the Japan trip! Tokyo Disneysea is on my bucket list...

Thanks!

Silver Dollar City doesn't have any weaknesses. It's truly a park you want to spend a few days at. Not that it's necessarily needed, but it's a park you don't want to rush through. At one point I could have said Silver Dollar City may have been the best park I visited, but that discussion has been put to rest after visiting Tokyo Disneyland. I was absolutely blown away by everything at that resort.

Between rain or maintenance, basically every park had at least one ride down. But on the bright side, it gives you incentive to return, not that it's really needed since Japan is awesome anyway.

New Reoma World

I'm sure you've all visited a park where you set the bar low and then it exceeded all expectations. For me, that happened with New Reoma World. I saw that they had some intriguing coasters on RCDB, but I wasn't expecting such a cute and well-themed park.

Unlike the last park, TPR was not the park’s only guests. We were joined by 2-3 other families. I was impressed the park was even open on such a low-attended and rainy day, but Robb pointed out Japan’s full-time employment policy which is a stark contrast to the arsenal of seasonal workers that form the backbone of Six Flags and Cedar Fair.

I guess Tails is the park mascot.

Our first stop was the park’s largest coaster, Vivace. Approaching the mine train coaster, it was hard not to notice two things- the coasters beautiful setting over a pond and the large, sweeping first drop. And that first drop did deliver. It feels even faster than it looks and the high-speed turn immediately after pulls some decent Gs and even had me starting to greyout. The middle of the layout isn't much to write home about, but the finale has two tight helixes, one downward and one upward.

I got two rides on Vivace- one up front and one towards the back. I preferred the latter for the added Gs on the turns. I was expecting some shaky transitions like an Arrow mine train, but Vivace was remarkably smooth and reridable. 6 out of 10

Have I mentioned the park has a gorgeous setting? You have mountains in the background and a few ponds in the park.

Vivace is all about the drop if you ask me. It's surprisingly big for a mine train.

On the way to the next coaster, I passed a few dark rides. The first was Battle Beasts. I suspected it was a shooter based on the name and my assumption was correct. For a smaller park, I was shocked they had a video in the queue giving the ride's story and some alien theming straight out of a Ridley Scott film.

The ride itself was much better than expected. I figured this would have cheap cardboard cutouts like Boo Blasters, but this had countless full-size statues along the course. Most of them were static, but I was willing to give them a pass because of how nice they looked. For the finale, a few of the larger ones did start to move as a bonus.

The targets were large and the laser sights on the guns were clear. As a result, I scored well over 220,000, which got me a sticker to honor me for protecting Earth from the alien invasion. This may have been the park’s best attraction and it's one of the funnest shooters out there. 9 out of 10

This shooter had way more theming than expected. The entry area looked like a set from Alien.

They even had a special newscast to set the story. I would have watched if it weren't a walk-on...or in Japanese.

Dark Side was an interesting haunted walkthrough. For the most part it was extremely dark, but there were two noteworthy scenes. One was a creepily desserted church. Another was a well-done screen with projection mapping effects. I'm pretty shocked other parks haven't utilized this more with their haunts, but I'm sure it's coming down the pipeline. Then there were 3-4 scenes with scare actors, but the strange part was that it was the same dude running scene to scene wearing just a hockey mask. There are definitely better haunts out there, but this is pretty good for what it is. 6 out of 10

The Japanese parks really do love their haunted houses.

The most WTF attraction at the park was the innocently named Rainbow Bandits. If I did acid, I’m pretty sure this would classify as a trip. You ride in suspended ships a la Peter Pan and then pass scenes reminiscent of It's a Small World. Except instead of little dolls from around the world, there was the Tin Man, Garfield, Elsa, cross-eyed male Maleficent, ans dragons. If that sounds random, that's Rainbow Bandits for you.

We had no clue who the rainbow bandits were, but it didn't matter. The ride was very well done despite its randomness. Like Battle Beasts, the figures far exceeded what I expected from a smaller park like New Reoma World. It was impossible to come off Rainbow Bandits with anything but a smile. Ok maybe it is, but you're probably one of those people who hate puppies. 9 out of 10

It looks so unassuming, but your mind is about to be blown by Rainbow Bandits.

It's so colorful that you can't help but smile.

It's like Peter Pan's Flight and It's a Small World had a baby.

The ride I was most anticipating was Spaceship 2056. The ride is a clear Space Mountain knockoff, but I was even more intrigued after seeing that riders never experience the lift hill on this coaster per RCDB. Would we have to climb a million stairs a la an Arrow launched loop? Thankfully no! There was a well-themed shuttle elevator to take us to the (space) station.

Before getting to the ride, I have to remark just how awesome the queue looked. Take the space station inspired tunnels of Space Mountain, but also mix in a cool star tunnel and some additional props. As long as the ride wasn't a painful dumpster fire, it was already a win.

Cramming a trainload of Americans was a bit tricky. Due to the loading and exiting platforms being multiple stories apart, riders must place any loose articles on the floor between their legs. This was a challenge for our taller riders, so I did my fair share and crammed 4 bags below my seat. We then sat there waiting to be dispatched until we were instructed to hold the lap bar- not the padded portion, but the metal bits next to it. Odd, but I wasn't going to complain.

The layout was reminiscent of a slower version of Disneyland's Space Mountain. The first half was a never ending series of right-hand turns. But then the second half had a few slopes where the train built some solid speed and they were immediately followed by tight turns that pulled a few Gs. It's not an intense ride for sure, but it's a well-themed experience from start to finish and offers a smooth coaster to boot. 7 out of 10

And there's Space Mountain...err Spaceship 2056.

The queue actually beats Space Mountain. It has this trippy mirror/star tunnel, an elevator, and other random space theming.

But Space Mountain wins for the coaster portion. Not to say Spaceship 2056 is bad though; it's a fun ride.

On the way to the next two coasters, it was hard not to miss the Ferris Wheel. For one, it was probably 150-200 feet tall in typical Japanese fashion (they love their big wheels). But what really caught my eye were two specific cars. Instead of the usual gondola, this wheel had 2 cars without outside facing seats and OSTRs. If I had more time, I definitely would have tried it solely for the novelty.

Putting OSTRs on a Ferris Wheel shouldn't make it more desirable to me, but it actually did for sheer uniqueness.

As you'd guess, the Kids Coaster was the park’s kiddie coaster. The layout was unique and the coaster was smooth, but that's about all I can say. For better or worse, it offered a completely mundane ride free of any tight transitions or roughness. Like Cosmoworld’s kiddie, this one also only offered 1 lap, a stark contrast to how similarly sized coasters are operated in the US. 2 out of 10

Did we ride the kiddie coaster?

Of course we did!

The final coaster was an odd duck, the Lady Bird Coaster. While the layout definitely isn't what I’d call a kiddie coaster, the single person trains definitely were a tight fit. In many ways, this was a wild mouse with a few added tricks.

For one, it began with a decent sized drop. The subsequent curved turnaround looked terrifying, but the train navigated it smoothly. The rest of the coaster was a series of hairpin turns, some of which were particularly aggressive. Though the most aggressive part of the ride was the final brake run. All I have to say is brace yourself. I didn't think a 1 mph stop could be so abrupt but on this coaster it is. Overall it’s probably better than the standard steel mice from Mack or Maurer because of its uniqueness. 5 out of 10

The Lady Bird Coaster is undeniably cute.

Each of the 1 person cars was themed differently.

With only a half hour left, I debated trying the Bird Flyer, but I have a star flyer twice as tall at my home park. Conversely I don't have a Space Mountain knockoff and shooting dark ride, so I prioritized a last ride on each of those attractions.

I'll save my birds eye view for my next visit to New Reoma World.

New Reoma World was a very pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much beyond the coasters, but it really was a charming park with some well themed rides and park areas.

That looks impressive as heck!

^ It was especially impressive considering this was a smaller park! A lot of Japanese parks had dark rides, but this one had really elaborate scenes.

Your Report made me check RCDB to find the location of this park, those dark rides are very intriguing. Sadly it looks a bit further south than the trip I would want to do but I guess that's the benefit of doing Japan with TPR, you get to do it all!