Japan PTR - Part 9: Monkey Park and Higashiyama Zoo

[Hixee]

I've always thought Nagashima Spa Land looks like one of the best parks. I think there's a part of "young enthusiast nostalgia" about it, but the flying coaster, Steel Dragon and White Cyclone do look great. Especially White Cyclone - that structure is magnificent.

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the rant about the operations. I was laughing by this point:

I just feigned stupidity, sat in the back row anyway, immediately pulled the restraint down (nobody in Japan does that until they’re told) and stared silently ahead until they just got the f**k on with it. Not today.

Amazing.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

Hilarious! I kinda want to go back to Legoland Windsor as an adult (I need one cred) but it's only worthwhile if you have a Merlin annual pass.
Sounds like a lot of things were closed at Nagashima Spa land!

 

[Gavin]

^ Yes and no. It was only the ultra twister and Intamin free fall that were down the whole day - personally I reckon they could be on their way out.

Arashi was open for a while in the morning, and the looping star later in the day, but would have been closed for most people.

It's only the ultra twister and free fall that were properly closed.

For all their faults, Japanese parks are good at getting stuff open. Himeji needn't have bothered with their free fall seeing as how the park was dead, and Nagashima could easily have not bothered with the looping star since there were only a handful of people left in the park by that point.

You can be the only person in the whole place, and they'll still have everything running.

 

[Gavin]

No major parks in the final couple of days, but some places that are rarely visited for the most part. The parks done on this next day were basically a “maybe” since they were a bit out of the way. I had plenty of time left in Nagoya though and, nice as the city was, didn’t have anything else to really do there.

Hamanako Pal Pal

I decided to go here first as it was the furthest away of the two parks, figuring it made sense to head to the second one on the way back. It’s really not a “Nagoya” park at all, being close to a two-hour drive away. It took me about an hour and a half to get to by using a bullet train followed by a 45-minute bus, costing about 40 quid. It would have been possible to use regular trains, followed by the same bus, which would have been about half the price, but that would have taken over an hour longer.

The glorious view from the bus stop:

You enter through a small shopping mall / amusement arcade, with the rides areas leading off on opposite sides.

The main reason for coming all the way out here was Mega Coaster, a Togo monstrosity which I’d wanted to get for years.

I was here for opening – again no need, but I’ll never learn – so had the train to myself. The station is accessed via the Pride stairs.

Fab Togo train. Very Fujiyama looking at he front.

I’m pretty sure this is the only other coaster apart from the one in Las Vegas (whatever it’s called this month) to have this roll-over loop thing. Take another look at it in all its glory.

It was fab! The rollover thing was totally fine as well.

There was a +1 in the same area.

But who cares about that when you have this:

A couple of other people had arrived and decided to ride by this point.

There was another coaster to hunt down somewhere. There’s a whole other area, which is actually a lot nicer, on the other side of the entrance mall, on a hill overlooking a lake. I hadn’t bought a wrist band, figuring I just wanted to get the creds and leave. I got a second ride on the Togo on the way out, which still made the overall cost cheaper, but not by much really, so I should have maybe just gone with the wristband and tried a bit more stuff out.

The final cred was actually down on the other side of this area, next to the lake.

+1 obviously.

I did a reride on Mega Coaster and went back for the bus to get back to the train station. I’d only done about an hour here, but I had a two-hour journey to get to the next place. I’m glad I made the effort though.

Lagunasia

It was the same 45-minute bus back to the train station I’d arrived at, Hammamatsu, this time taking a local train to a very small station followed by a 20-minute walk to the park. I’m sure there would’ve been a bus, but the walk was easy and pleasant enough.

It was looking quite impressive from the outside, but once you were into the courtyard, it all felt a bit dilapidated.

I opted for the wristband here since the entrance ticket alone was quite expensive and there wasn’t much in it. There were a few shows scheduled in the evening, roughly between 6:00 and 8:00, so the high entrance charge was no doubt to cover those.

I thought this was a toy shop at first:

But it was actually the entrance to a dark ride. The queue had a small animatronic show.

Then you board one of these:

The ride is called “Magical Powder” and I felt like I’d definitely taken some.

There’s probably a “FREAKIN’ AWESOME INSANE CRAZY JAPANESE RIDE” video on YouTube if anyone’s bothered, but I’m not going to look for it or link it. I probably should have given it a second ride and filmed it, but I didn’t think to really. I can never be arsed to film stuff.

Aqua Wind was up next, a Gerstlauer Boblsed thing.

It was very good as well for such a small coaster. It was literally the only thing I had to wait for, at around 15-minutes, since a load of kids on a school trip were waiting. They must’ve been just moving as a group and doing everything together since there was literally nobody in any other of the queues. Plus, as usual, they all left at 2pm.

The 3D cinema had a bunch of different films on rotation. The Dinosaur one was about to start, so I did that and went back later for The Room, which had a 16+ age limit. I was literally the only person in there for the second one.

After leaving the Dinosaur film in the 3D cinema, there was pretty much nobody left in the park and I ended up finishing the rest up being literally the only person on everything.

The log flume was f**king epic to be fair, with a really extensive dark ride section, including a backwards drop and a semi “rapids” section, before the main drop at the end. Well, maybe “epic” is a slight exaggeration, but there was way more to it than I’d been expecting.

There was another coaster, Pirates Blast, right next to the log flume. From what you can see of it, it looks crap.

That’s only the very end of the ride though; it’s mostly an indoor coaster, and is, again, a lot more extensive that I’d thought based on what you can see of it and that I knew nothing about it.

There was a new VR option as well, which I did after riding it properly. It was such a poor idea to put VR on an already well-themed coaster, especially when they had this sitting right behind it:

There’s a fairly big lake in the middle, along with an outdoor boat ride and some kiddy water areas which weren’t open.

There were actually people waiting to go into this show, and it was about to start, so I gave it a go.

There was a strict no camera rule, but it was f**king bizarre. Firstly, I was the youngest person in there. The rest of the 50 or so audience members were mostly pensioners, seemingly on some day trip. It was some kind of love story, which I couldn’t really follow, but was clearly some traditional Japanese thing, with typical Japanese music and costumes. The performers all sang live, but it was mostly long spoken sections.

The entire cast of about 15 were female, with 4 of them taking on the male roles, but still with typical “female” show makeup. The “male” aspect came from the costumes, hairstyles and putting on “manly” voices, including during singing.

Now, I don’t know whether these performers were actually well-known, but whenever one of these three from the poster appeared, they got an automatic round of applause. So, were they actually famous, or were people told that they were “famous” because their names were on the posters and so acted accordingly? No idea.

So, the Japanese love story crap finished after a mind-numbing half an hour, but they weren’t done there. Next was a load of unconnected song and dance numbers, including a bunch of slutty air hostesses chasing around the “male” pilots, massive Vegas-style feathered headdresses and some Flamenco thing at the end. At some point, without warning, everyone in the audience, apart from me, simultaneously pulled out foot-long electric glow sticks and waved them in time with the music. Where did they get them? Where had they been keeping them? How did they know when to use them? Why was I feeling self-conscious for not having one?

This insanity went on for another half an hour, bringing the total showtime to an hour – AN HOUR - after which the gang of old folks disappeared and I had the park to myself again.

This was listed as an evening show, but as I’ll explain later, I didn’t hang around.

Back at the main entrance area, there was a bunch of indoor stuff across a couple of levels. The 4D cinema was f**king appalling. Again, I was the only person in it. It was a bunch of motion platforms facing a screen. The ride op told me “no seatbelt” as I went to fasten myself in, which I thought was strange, but it turns out it’s because the motion platforms are actually all f**ked and don't move, so I sat there for 10 minutes watching a piss-poor 3D cartoon about some bees.

The shooting dark ride was actually quite fab though. The cars are on a suspended track which curves up and down to different levels. There were some decent effects as well, including a really impressive projection-mapped dragon thing.

Some show area:

You can see just how packed the place was.

I followed some signs down some corridor to go for a slash and ended up here:

There were a bunch of decent-looking nighttime shows, including some projection-mapping/fireworks thing around the entrance area and a fountain/laser show on the central lake, but there was a good couple of hours before they were due to start. Unlike a lot of Japanese parks, this place had a re-entry system, so I thought about maybe heading over to the shopping mall across the street for a bit and coming back, but decided I couldn’t really be arsed and that I’d rather just get back to my hotel and relax for a bit, so I ended up just leaving.

In hindsight, I would’ve left a couple of hours later that morning and/or got the slower, cheaper train - not bothering to get to Hamanako Pal Pal for opening – to arrive at Lagunasia in the late afternoon instead of lunchtime. I wanted to like the place because it was all quite quirky, but to be honest it was just very run-down and I felt uncomfortable there since I was, literally, the only person in the park, though there were a handful of people hanging around in a restaurant near the entrance, obviously waiting for shows to start.

One more day left of this with another 2 smaller places.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

I remember seeing pictures of Aqua wind a while ago, but had completely forgotten it existed until reading this. That toilet is fab though

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Good to know Lagunasia has a fun set of dark rides. Appeal just went up.

Were the staff not friendly there? Only time I've experienced that uncomfortable feeling in an empty park is when the staff are unhappy/dicks about it as well.

 

[Gavin]

No, they were fine. I don't know what it was, but I just felt really awkward, maybe because the staff were too attentive and it made me feel self-conscious that I was the only person there?

I was alone at Misaki Park as well, but there weren't as many staff around, so I didn't feel as weird.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

I have to say I really appreciate your effort planning and going to those remote places. (Well, very remote for me anyways) It's a little sad to see those Japanese parks fading and liveless.

Glad to hear your opinion on Mega Coaster though! This ride is quite iconic and unique with its twist n' dive inversion. It's odd that Japanese Togos are reportedly much smoother and enjoyable than their (gone) American counterparts. But I guess that's one more (minor) reason to visit Japan eh ^^

I didn't even know there was a Gertslauer Bobsleigh in the region Looks fairly decent and exciting.

 

[Gazza]

It makes me sad to think that Lagunasia used to have that "Treasure Hunting" EMV Dark Ride but they replaced it with that pirate coaster.

 

[Gavin]

Glad to hear your opinion on Mega Coaster though! This ride is quite iconic and unique with its twist n' dive inversion. It's odd that Japanese Togos are reportedly much smoother and enjoyable than their (gone) American counterparts.

They really are. It always annoys me when you see the constant "Ugh, Togo" comments from people who've either only done that awful standup at King's Dominion, Manhattan Express (which is actually not that bad) or nothing at all. It's lazy and wrong. If there's a Japanese manufacturer that deserves way more hate, it's Meisho, who've built nothing but crap, but they don't have coasters outside Asia.

It makes me sad to think that Lagunasia used to have that "Treasure Hunting" EMV Dark Ride but they replaced it with that pirate coaster.

Yeah, but cred. Also, in my experience any EMV ride that's not at a major park is usually pretty piss-poor - step forward Leofoo Village.


Final day then, with two smaller parks.

Japan Monkey Park

This place was a last-minute addition since the original plan had been Legoland for this day, but I’d managed to get that done earlier by heading to Nagoya earlier than originally planned. It was just a relatively short train ride out of the city to Inuyama Yuen station. Look for these steps with a sign with a monkey on it:

It’s a pleasant enough 10-15 minute walk.

Always a good sign to see one of these if you’re not sure where you’re going.

CRED!

I was at the North entrance to the park, which is much smaller than the main entrance, but was also where all the rides were, so it worked out well.

I just got a basic entrance ticket and paid for the coasters separately, figuring that they all basically just +1s. Highway Coaster is the most substantial, quite a bit bigger than I’d been expecting, but it didn’t do much.

There was a powered coaster right next to it.

Didn’t to the log flume, but gave the Ferris wheel a go, which is definitely worthwhile for the views. The location of the park is really nice.

Bits of other stuff that I didn’t do.

There was another coaster off in a different area of the park.

Go Go Banana Coaster.

No idea:

The actual monkey area was near here as well. I wasn’t going to bother really, especially since it wasn’t included in the basic entrance price, but even with that it still worked out cheaper than the wristband would have, and I had loads of time.

There was a walkthrough with squirrel monkeys.

Who should I contact at PETA to sell this photo to?

The best thing here was a fab walkthrough lemur enclosure. Because of the time of year, there were s**tloads of babies. You’re obviously not supposed to touch them, but they tended to jump on people anyway.

I think I must’ve stayed in there about an hour.

The actual monkey park area is at the main entrance:

Rather than trek all the way back up to the entrance I’d come in at – uphill and the place is pretty big – I exited here and used a different station, Inuyama, to get a train back into Nagoya. Either station is fine, but it’s easier to find the park from Inuyama Yuen Station since you literally just go up those steps and walk straight. Inuyama is a more residential area and a much bigger station.

There was one more place to knockoff.

Higashiyama Zoo

This place has its own stop on the Nagoya Metro, so couldn’t be easier.

The amusement park section is just on the left as soon as you go in.

I’ll get back to this piece of fabulosity in a bit:

First up was yet another non-eventful Japanese jet coaster thing. They’re so s**t.

Crappy powered coaster:

Another Ferris wheel ride.

The chimpanzees were looking rather wistfully over at Slope Shooter, no doubt arguing with each other over whether or not it’s a cred.

I rode it, obviously, and yes, I’ve counted it. Every coaster site lists it, and if you were to make a list of what qualifies as a coaster, it actually ticks pretty much all of them off. My personal rule is that if I have to massively justify it – if I have to really convince myself – then I won’t count it, but I honestly didn’t feel the need to that when I rode this thing.

I had a look around the zoo for a bit, which was al fine, but mostly quite generic other than the koalas.

There was a massive botanical garden area, and an observation tower, but I couldn’t be arsed by that point.

So, obviously nothing spectacular at either park in terms of rides, but Slope Shooter is pretty unique at least and both places were actually really nice and easily accessible.

All-in-all, this was a really good trip. The standouts were obviously Universal Studios (probably in my top-ten parks if I were to make a list) and Nagashima Spa Land, which were both revisits. Greenland was pretty fab, and most other parks were really nice, even if there was nothing standout with most of the coasters.

The aim was always to knock off some smaller parks since I’ve got a feeling that a few of them are likely to go the way of Space World and Nara Dreamland sooner rather than later. Having said that, a lot of these places seem to have been dead for years, with no real investment, and they’re still clinging on, so who knows?

Highlights in terms of coasters were Flying Dinosaur, Acrobat, Mega Coaster, Milky Way and finally getting a Togo Ultra Twister, plus of course getting back on Steel Dragon 2000.

+49 to the count as well, which was more than I’d expected thanks to adding in a couple of places that weren’t originally on the cards. It would have been a nice, round 50 if it wasn’t for Nagashima’s spiteful Ultra Twister. Stupid f**king thing.

 

[davidm]

+49 is not at all shabby for some "minor parks". Good work!
Quite like the look of that Highway coaster - something about it running all around the edge of the park I like, kinda like Bandit (but obv. nothing like Bandit in terms of the ride).
I was spited by everything at Higashiyama by rain when I went (on a Saturday of all days) so I don't have that coaster-moral dilemma of whether to count Slope Shooter - as well as ticking several "yes its a coaster" boxes I think it also ticks several "no its not a coaster" boxes. Ahhh goon-dilemmas

 

[roomraider]

It's been years since I've seen a report from Monkey park. I've always really liked the look of the coaster there. Even if its not spectacular its very aesthetically pleasing. Almost a mini Bandit (not just due to the colours) by the way it heads off in a long looping layout. Of course it looked a lot better before they refitted the trains with those horrendous pink Cadillac things.

 

[Hixee]

Thanks for sharing Gavin! Sounds like you had a great time, and ending on a high with Slope Shooter. I think I'd count it too - I suppose it's no different to a bobsled coaster - but I can see the objections. It's a hard life as an enthusiast!

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

I think it also ticks several "no its not a coaster" boxes.

Road surface being the biggest no.
For me it's a step too close towards taking part in a soap box derby to up the count.
Then we'll be paying each other to be pushed down a hill in a trolley.

Always thought it looks like great fun though. Maybe riding it would change my mind.

 

[Hutch]

I love that Slope Shooter ride. Definitely a cred!
Really enjoyed reading the report and the sarcastic humor. The settings of some of those small parks actually look really nice. Obviously their coasters don't look that great but Slope Shooter and the Togos look special.

 

[peep]

Finally got round to reading all of this, excellent report as always.

Urgh, that Togo sounds so out of the way but it looks fab. Totally agree that they get such a bad rep, I don't think I've ridden a bad one yet (I even liked the one at Kings Dominion).

I think I'm over Lego parks now, you're spot on about them just being horribly over-priced.


Sounds like you had a great trip though and +49 in a country you've already visited before is really good going.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Monkey Park looks so cute. In fact, both those final parks do. One of the things I like most about Japan is all the greenery everywhere and they both seem to have lots of that.
I can't wait to get back to Japan again and more culture/parks in the Nagoya area are a must. Totally agree that some of those smaller parks need snapping up soon before they go the way of Space World.