Maruyama Kidland

Back in Sapporo we headed to Maruyama Kidland, which is part of the Maruyama Zoo complex located in a wooded area out to the West of the city. Entering the zoo and the rides are round to the right-hand side. On the original itinerary this park was going to be done on a fairly hectic last day so we agreed to squeeze this in. It did mean that we only had 20 minutes to get in and out, so this was the only credit whoring part of the trip.

First coaster was the loop screw coaster called because of its two inversions. Having little cars made this different to most rides of the type. Tobu Zoo's had the loop but not the corkscrew so was different too. The surprising thing was that it was actually a really nice ride and worth the trip.

The other ride was a standard dragon, something I'd ridden many times on this trip.

The rest of the rides are kid-friendly ones.

Having got around the park nice and quickly (there was an advantage to arriving in the last quarter hour of opening time) we spent the last few moments checking out the zoo.

These kangaroos were having a wicked kick-boxing fight and were soon broken up by the zoo keepers before being led back into their enclosure for the night.

The most popular attraction were these Red Pandas, which were extremely cute. One of them was happy to laze about and the other was a complete contrast running all around the enclosure.

In the very brief time we had here I could only forge a very quick opinion of the park. The Loop Screw coaster is unique and decent enough ride to justify a trip here. You can get to the park on the Sapporo city metro: Maruyama Koen is on the orange Tozai line, 1 interchange and 4 stops from Sapporo station and its a walk up the hill from there. Due to us wanting to get there quickly we took a taxi and not the metro.