Fuji Q

Fuji Q was another park that we visited on the previous trip and it took the wooden spoon in terms of service with me not able to get onto everything that I wanted to and the club actually making the National News by breaking Fujiyama, the park's big coaster. (Not me personally, I was just about to board the next car when it happened). So for me, this would be a mop up trip.

Last time I had a hotel room that overlooked the park, this time I had the mountain and once again the cloud spoiled the view.

Like Universal the park was pretty busy with people queueing up in anticipation of the gates opening. In fact we were anticipating quite a crowd for the next few days as Japan was having a week of National Holidays. Being guests of the hotel we were allowed to sneak in ahead of the public and made our way to the first of the coasters.

First coaster of the day was Eejanaika, which has a colloquial translation of "aint it great" and it was very apt! Knowing that this ride would have pretty awful throughput due to its design the majority of the club headed here first and waited patiently for the ride to open, the time being spent with the locals.

We were first to board and made our way to the rear of the train. I'd ridden the only other 4D coaster in California back in 2002 (X at Magic Mountain) and found it an extremely confusing ride. For those that don't know how it work the seats are on arms sticking out of the train and they rotate whilst the train navigates the track so you might be sitting up, flying, upside down etc.


Rather than trying to explain it's perhaps better to watch it, although you still might not comprehend it. Here's some footage who managed to smuggle a camera onto the ride.

So how was it? Hilarious! Everyone was coming off with that adrenaline surge that is hard to get when you've ridden hundreds of coasters. Unfortunately having gotten off the first train there was a healthy queue so rerides were out of the question.

Up next was Fujiyama, the ride the group broke last time! Did we get to ride it this time? Yes we did! Was it a lot of fun? Yes it was! It's not a stellar coaster but it's sheer size made it worth the queuing. The best bit for me was the half pipe ending where you hit a succession of banked hills weaving from left to right.

After Fujiyama there was just one major ride left to ride. Dodonpa. This ride blew me away back in 2006 and I couldn't recall the launch at all (it does 0-108mph in under 2 seconds - a literal being shot out of a cannon) so I was going to make sure I remembered it this time, and it is just as exhilarating as I remember with the launch spectacular and the most insane airtime on the hill. The trains have had new paint jobs, but they still have a "no glasses" rule, which disappoints. It also took a few hours to get through the queue line on this one, but it was worth it.


Another local smuggles a camera onto the ride.

Following Dodonpa I decided to ride the mouse, the last of the coasters I hadn't been on before. Being the largest of the family orientated rides this also had a queue but compared to Dodonpa, Eejanaika and Fujiyama, 30 minutes didn't seem that bad. Fortunately the throughput was pretty good and ate the queue line. The ride was actually not too bad. It has a custom layout and is quite large for a mouse. I guess that makes it a hippopotamouse coaster then.

The park has some hilarious adverts for Power Rangers playing around the park that illustrate how to be a good park guest. These clips included the classic "it's not good to ride the big wheel naked" with the part of the lead being played by the masked Red Ranger wearing just his mask, cape and boots (I kid you not). Some of the rangers could be found around the park. I couldn't find pink and green but boy did yellow look bored!

Very bizarre theming in the toilets.

An even stranger advert for a new coaster featuring mating grasshoppers.

So whether this advert for a new airport is serious or not I wasn't sure. A check when I got home showed that it was true. Shizuoka Airport opened earlier this year. It's 50 miles away though.

Fuji-Q is a busy park that has such unique rides that the throughput can take a hit. If you're visiting the park plan for two whole days and you might manage to get around everything. Last time I did the Haunted Hospital and I was keen to do it again this time but didn't have the time in the end. That is a must-do, as are the majority of the rides.