Space World

Kokura is home to Space World, a park I recall seeing years ago and wanted to visit ever since, I think the same was true for the majority of the people on the trip.

Some far off shots of the park with the infamous Shuttle theming over to the right. Like throwing a midget of a yacht the park had gone just a little overboard :)
To the left was Zaturn, a copy of the Stealth ride in Thorpe Park back home and in between them the park's big wheel.

Perhaps not a surprise the park is space themed, which meant that in addition to the usual park food you would be able to get foil packed food like this...for a price.

The park mascots are these two lunar bunnies.

Like Verne Troyer heir Halloween theming was a little unusual.

First coaster, and in fact the only one open when we got there was Clipper, a Rollerskater ride hidden nicely in an overgrown garden.

Second Coaster was the ridiculously named Boogie Woogie Coaster, odd for two reasons. Firstly some of the rows had had their seats turned around for a backwards riding experience and secondly the ride staff had the riders perform some weird dance before they'd despatch the train.

The Venus coaster still had a little while before it opened so we thought we'd kill time by visiting the space museum and watching a Space 3D show nearby. The museum was great but it was a big mistake to watch the show. It went on for too long and sent most of us to sleep.

By the time we'd got out of there a small queue had formed at the Venus 5 ride and we joined that. The ride was a lot of fun with a very unique tight layout and a very loud ride operation team that had another pre-launch ritual.

The rapids ride was supposedly pretty good but we chose not to do it.

Seeing a small crowd gather in one of the auditoriums we decided to join and watched what had to be the most bizarre show of the entire trip. Japanese Cheerleader Bingo was its name and its exactly as it sounds. The audience can buy bingo cards and the cheerleaders between doing their routines call out numbers. Very very odd indeed but fun to watch :D

No sign for a disabled robot unfortunately.

Black Hole Scramble is the park's indoor coaster buried away at the back of a large play area. It was alright.

Beneath that building is a full sized ice rink. The photo is a bit blurry because it the whole thing is a giant freezer and I was shivering.

A rather strange sign to have for an exit but it could have been "See You Next Tuesday" I suppose.

The large coaster called Titan wasn't open today, supposedly it hasn't been open for a while. Perhaps a victim of the post-Expoland legislation changes.

The log flume rides in front of it were open and having been recommended to ride it by others gave it a go. It has some unique elements including an entire enclosed section with no flume, just open track.

Cute robot.

Even the coin operated animals were space themed.

and the elevators.

The only coaster left to ride was Zaturn, the launch Stealth copy. This ride was a blast with superb ride operations, a decent sized crowd with an excellent attitude. Earlier in the day some of the group had spent an hour over here riding this non-stop. That would have been fun but sometimes its better to ride it with the public too and with just two of us in amongst the Japanese throng we were the ones outnumbered.

Because we were repeat riding, trying to ride in every row, we were getting some odd looks and it was cool of the ride operators to explain who we were and how stupid we were.

Back to the auditorium and another show was taking place, this time with pirates, and yes you've guessed it...more bingo.

Don't stare at this for too long, it'll move. It's the floor to a very cool haunted walkthrough with a couple of genuine scary moments. One involving a floor filled with sponge and another with a large full sized mirror. I'm not going to spoil them here. You'll have to go and find out what I'm on about.

Inside the big wheel the park have added a nice touch. A guest book for riders to sign.

A view of the Venus coaster. You can see how twisted the layout is.

Leaving the park and another shot of Zaturn.

From the park we made our way back to Kokura this time to catch the bullet train to Osaka. A nice quick ride, as you'd expect and a bit of a laugh in getting off. The train only has one minute before the doors close and two of us decided to get deliberately stuck in the door. After a little manhandling from some others we were thrown from the train laughing.