A world record breaking day!

Two weeks ago a few friends and I ventured to the base of Mt Fuji, to Fuji-Q Highlands. Fuji-Q Highlands is one of Japans most popular theme parks and is best known for its recorded holding roller coasters and elaborate, thrilling rides and attractions. Since its establishment, the park has strived to be at the forefront of theme park entertainment, and it is constantly opening new rides. Approximately every five years, the park aims to build a new record breaking ride.

On the bus

We knew we were in for a good day!!

Considering how popular the theme park is, it is very competitively priced. We purchased a bus and ticket combination for 6 300 Yen (£40). We jumped on a bus right outside Mishima station which took us right to the entrance of the theme park ready for opening time (8:50am). There is a pay as you go system for the rides, but you have to pay an entrance fee (1500 Yen - £10) and the big four are all 1000 Yen (£6.50)  each so the cost starts to mount up.

Alongside the world’s scariest ghost house, the park currently has four major roller coasters (we did enjoy a few others, but they are not worth blogging about to be honest!) with the majority of the rides designed to give you a spectacular view of Mt Fuji.  The best view of Mt Fuji is at the top of Fujiyama, right before you drop 79 metres at a 65 degree angle, followed by further big drops. It is the parks most famous roller coaster and it is the centre piece attraction, and one of the longest in the world so its keeps bringing the thrills. It continues to rank as one of the best in the world. I think this picture shows how much we loved it!!!! 

Fujiyama 

The photos taken whilst you are on the ride can be printed of for a mere 500 Yen (£3.50), which I think is a bargain when you think the Alton Towers likes to charge ridiculous amounts.

Next we went on Eejanaika, a “4^th dimension” roller coaster. It has the most inversions of any roller coaster in the world and the seats rotate within the car.  You have nowhere to rest your feet, and it throws your body around like a pendulum. First you start off being pulled up backwards, then straight down at 90 degrees into a vertical drop, then it’s reversed, then a flip, then a corkscrew, and anything else you can think of before you quickly come to a halt.

After a quick ice-cream stop, we dashed over to Takabisha. It is the newest ride in the park and is the world’s steepest roller coaster with a 121 degree free fall drop!  You start of in the dark and alongside the terrifying “nose dive” you also have to endure many major twists and turns. This one is definitely not for the faint hearted, and was for me the best ride. By the end, my hands were shaking!

Eejanaika

Takabisha

It was time for lunch, and the park offers many restaurants and fast food options all of which are actually competitively priced.  We grabbed a Moss Burger (American chain burger restaurant) meal deal which included a huge burger, fries and a drink for 1000 Yen (£6.50).

We took a break from the big for and our next stop after lunch was the ghost house which has been recognised by World Guinness Book of Records as the scariest haunted house. We joined the 2 hour queue to enter the haunted house this was nothing compared to the 5 hour wait it can get to in the summer.  It is a notoriously long wait because they only let a few people in at a time to ensure the place doesn't become overrun with people and therefore ruin the experience, especially the surprises.

Queueing outside the haunted hospital 

It is a big, old hospital where those who enter have no fixed route and can walk around freely. Before entering you are constantly reminded not to attack or hit any of the actors that jump out at you. Now for those who know how competitive and confident I am, this was very difficult. Anyone who accidentally harms an actor is liable to pay their medical expenses.

Before embarking on your adventure through the hospital you are shown a couple of rather creepy and gory video clips about the history of the hospital. Each group is given a small touch and are allowed to enter the hospital in intervals. Since I had the touch I became the point women, checking the corners and various rooms filled with jars that had organs inside, rooms with medical equipment etc. the place definitely had the look and feel of an abandoned hospital. Dummy corpses were placed in random areas and air jets shot out here and there. The actors are really good and had detailed make-up and were often well hidden. Some actors had little instruments in their mouths that made the strangest clicking noise.  The best was when one zombie actor crept up on Ali and breathed down his ear, none of us heard him creeping up behind us!! They actors came up very close, but never made physical contact.

Half way through the hospital you have to give back your touch, naturally rooms appeared much darker. The rooms were incredibly were designed and really made you feel on edge, at one point you have to open a door and walk down a very narrow corridor with doors on either side. It makes you think back to the clip you are shown in the movie at the start, where patients are in the corridor and desperately trying to get out of their cells.  Finally you enter a big room, with sacks hanging from the wall with “bodies” inside. Suddenly two zombies/patients chase after you and you run through a door bringing you back to the entrance where everyone is queuing to enter. Naturally, everyone is laughing at you screaming!

Occasionally there were pink doors that said “retire”. These were for anyone who felt they could no longer continue.  Overall, great experience and worth a visit!

Finally we had one and a half hours until our bus left and one last big ride to take on! The queue for the ride was one and a half hours so obviously we risked it. Our bus was leaving at 5:10pm and at 5:03 we got on the ride. Dodonpa is a world record holder for fastest acceleration.

Dodonpa

In 1.8 seconds you reach speeds of 172 km/h (106 miles per hour)! The suspense builds as you listen to a countdown while waiting in the dark before shooting out screaming at the top of your voice. Great ride, which resulted in losing my voice for a couple of days!

At 5:07pm we got off the ride and ran through the park perfectly making our bus on time! It was a great day, and I would highly recommend a visit. Ride queues get extremely long in the summer, so take a risk and go in the rainy season (hopefully on a day with no rain) when it’s a little quieter.

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently, I have been extremely busy and temperatures have risen to a crazy average of about 34-35 degrees so I tend to spend my time off trying to cool down! Last weekend I went to Ito for a traditional tub race down the river, I am currently starting art work for that and I will blog about it early next week!

Have a great weekend!

Marion