21 October 2016
We had spent the evening out on the town in Osaka, visiting some amazing architecture at the Umeda Sky Tower, before getting on the sake at a restaurant below the building. I unknowingly chose a place to eat that allowed indoor smoking. Justine was rather amused since she knew how little tolerance I have for smokers. I loved many places in Japan that made the smokers stand in a little cubicle like lepers, instead of smoking on the street. The more I drank the less I cared however, and there were lots of laughs that evening.
The next day, Justine went to see what the fuss was about with Himeji castle, so I headed off solo to the final park on my list, Himeji Central Park. This park was part Safari, part Fun Park. I skipped the safari section, though was pleasantly surprised to see that the animals were at least able to enjoy some beautiful lush scenery in a more open range style zoo.
The tradition of having one coaster closed at every park continued, and this time it was the Hurricane. This looked like an old school looping coaster, and truth be told I was trying to minimise my upside down time considering how seedy I was feeling.
There were four coasters on my list at Himeji. The first was a mad mouse coaster called Labyrinth, and the second a relatively flat but fun Jet Coaster. No great thrills on either of them, but I did enjoy the view from the Jet Coaster which crossed over the car park in to the forested area on the other side.
My cold heart warmed a little with my second Free Fall coaster on the trip. This one never gets old, and guarantees a bit of stomach dropping action. The train travels up through the centre of the steel tower, then moves out over the edge before dropping vertically. Weeee!
The last coaster was the main reason I had selected this park…Diavlo! This suspended coaster had the same set up as the Batman rides at the Six Flags parks in the US, but felt a lot more intense. I suspect that was mostly due to my hangover. It was probably the first time in my life I wished that there were lines. Alas there was no wait time, and because I could jump on again and again, my health went downhill quickly.
I called it quits fairly early, and went to meet my sister in Osaka. We decided to finish the day back in Kyoto, to check out the Rokuon-Ji temple (Golden pavilion) and have a wander through more gardens.
The trip was over so quickly, and I wish we had another week because there were still so many fun parks I had not visited. It was a tough call not to include places like Cosmo World and Space World, but I think I was most bummed about missing Nara Dreamland. The funny thing is, the fun park is actually abandoned. How could someone be so cruel to shut the doors and walk away? The photos I have seen on the web are simply magical, and I would have sold my soul to get a tour of the place. Seems like a missed business opportunity that locals haven’t started up a business to see rusting coasters getting eaten by the landscape. From what I could find out online, it was all boarded up and illegal to enter (although many have snuck in.) I was trying to convince Justine that if we illegally entered on the last day and got busted that it would be ok. We would probably just get deported, which was fine since we were leaving anyway. I didn’t win that debate, but we had a really nice afternoon in Kyoto anyway.
The following morning we visited the tallest building in Osaka, Abeno Hurakas. It was a nice way to farewell the city and the country, as we flew back home that afternoon. Thank you Crust Pizza for the holiday of a lifetime! I experienced 27 different coasters and many more rides. My sister and I had survived our first trip together as adults, and we had acquired copious amounts of Kit Kats to share with family and friends. Japan you rock! You gave us so many fun parks, so much shopping, beautiful landscapes, a lot of craziness, and now I am totally in love with the music group Sekai no Owari.
Roller Coaster Ramble 