Day Nine - Hirakata, Nara Dreamland
Day Nine - Hirakata, Nara Dreamland
Owen Rees
The park felt as if the dream was near to the end. The train ride was full size locomotive with an interactive tunnel. The jungle boat cruise was quite good. Loads of air time on the woody.
John Gerard
Nara Dreamland was a nice park but a little sad, too. Unfortunately, the best coaster on the trip so far was here. Aska was incredible - great power and airtime. The Bobsleigh ride was fun, too, just don't lean into the mountain if you want to keep your head! I hated to leave so early.
andycoasterboy-san
Another park :) which today is Dreamland - a Disney clone with an absolutely amazing amazing airtime machine named Aska - mega smooth airtime and sooooo much fun
Lee Bennett
The best woodie so far from begining to end ASKA was a complete airtime machine !! Row three was excellent !!
Brian Sisk
Aska-the perfect reminder of why I love coasters. Smooth, fast, air-time. Everything a coaster should be. My only complaint is that it is not in Southern California. So wrap it up. We'll take it with us.
Ric Turner
Greetings from the altermate universe Disneyland. Nara Dreamland is what Disneyland had become if someone went back in time and changed history. Aska is awesome. Easily the best of the Cyclone clones. I owe 1,000,000 thanks to the wonderful staff of Dreamland, expecially the fellow on the swinging cages who knew where I could find my missing camera bag.
Adrian Whitcombe
Today is what the trip is all about. You're going along quite happily when all of a sudden one of the world's best coasters happens to be in the park you're in that day. Worth a second mortgage on its own.
Ian Booth
ZZZZzzzzzzzzz.....
David Cornell
We are on our 4th 10-coaster day of the trip. Dreamland was great with Aska as you have heard. The Disneyland replica was cute. off to the next one...???
Anneliese Heiner
[Aska] I see London, I see France; I see 1-2's underpants!
Paul Tooke
Nara Dreamland is an excellent park, kind of like a downgraded Disney with an excellent coaster in Aska. Rode it several times and managed to break my suncream bottle and ended up covered in it!! And it means my money is a bit gooey now!! Why can't we have a coaster like it in England.
Hector Jimenez
Aska is great!
Malcolm Marr
Nara Dreamland today, a park on its last legs by the look of it. The wooden coaster is completely out of place and needs a new home. The Matterhorn head chopper ride is hilarious if only to hear the people behind you scream out when you lean out of the car and get your head close to the passing scenery. Easily close enough to trigger law suits if built like this in the west. Disney have probably caused this park to close as it is clearly inspired by its layout. Hirakata was a really nice park, built on the side of a hill so it has a nice view over the city. The wooden coaster lies half way up it so this must be the only time where climbing a steep hill can be good for your "elf". It's way too big to be a billed as a kiddy-coaster though as it had nice pops of airtime and was really pleasant to ride for adults as well as the children. This park also had some odd attractions including an exploration game where you had to charge up coloured eggs, a scary attraction that had you put in sarcophoagi and another refrigerated walkthrough, which wasn't as frozen over as the one yesterday.
Eugene Robinson
Aska was probably the biggest surprise of the trip so far. It's probably in my top 5 wooden coasters
B. Derek Shaw
Nara Dreamland was first up today. It's a park that thinks it is a vintage Disney clone: Main St. Railroad Station at the front entrance, a main street shopping area, along with a sky ride through one of their coasters that is Matternhorn-like. However the park is in need of TLC. Aska is still one of my seven number one wooden roller coasters! This Cyclone clone is fast, has lots of lift and packs a punch in EVERY seat. It doesn't get better than that. I did manage to get a couple of souvenirs here, which was good. I worry about the future of the park as our 117 person delegation was more than everyone else in the park and this was on a Sunday. I hate saying this phrase but Aska rules!
Hirakata Park was the second stop of the day. It was nice to revisit that place as well. All coasters running well and the drop tower was fantastic. Why would the park invest in a spinning mouse (Crazy Mouse) when they don't run it in the spin mode - at all?! Elf was good as usual. Coaster Rowdy lived up to it's name - rowdy and rough. I thought Red Falcon was a Vekoma, the manufacturer plates on each train said Senyo. Peak-A-Boo Town kiddie coaster was a tight squeeze - no leg room.
Merchandise Review - Next to nothing today. That makes my bank account happy, but me sad. Coaster Review - Best steel coaster on the trip: Bavarian Mountain Railway Saturday night at Portopialand. Best wood coaster on the trip: Aska, Nara Dreamland, today. That's all you need to know.
John Covan
ASKA is one bitchin' woodie! Due to a severe thrashing at the hands of Regina the previous day, I was a mite apprehensive about piling onto another rough woodie, but that feeling of malaise evaporated after a short fraction through this easy-to-take ride. I have not experienced multiple doses of air time on a woodie since Shivering Timbers. The continuing headache I was carrying around early today abated with the sweet swings of the ASKAlator. Thirteen cycles later I find myself hauling ass running frantically behind Justin to try to avoid a tardy return to our coach.
Andrew Weiss (aka Mr. ACE, but you should know that by now!)
What can you say about Aska, Air Air Air. A great coaster, every seat has air. Best coaster of trip. Rest of park looked like bargain basement Disneyland. We also had 4 Japanese schoolgirls on platform with us, that were really getting into it. They were giving us high fives and clapping, it was great.
Bob Roginski
Nara Dreamland gave me an opportunity to ride the old human-powered cages. This is something I have not done since I was about ten years old, and I am now 58. I was pleased to find that I remembered the technique for getting the cage over the top. Once this is accomplished, it is fairly easy to maintain rotation in one direction. It takes a lot of energy and is quite tiring, but after I stopped "pumping", the cage cleared the top another three or four times.
Lisa Scheinin
I've been lurking silently until now. I've always felt that Aska was a Top Five woodie, and now I hope everyone can see why! Still the best woodie in Japan and one of my all time favorites!
Tom Barr
We took a side trip yesterday to Universal Studios, and really found it interesting all the people there and the love of American culture. Today we went to Dreamland which seemed in many ways to try to be a Disney knock off. The Aska coaster though was really wonderful and reminded me why I really love coasters. A large coaster, but not done so just to be large like some. A great ride!
Derek Cromarty
Sunday we went to Nara Dreamland. The park appeared to be in need of attention. They had three coasters which were OK. Another top star was the woodie, Aska. Sunday afternoon Harakata Park was our destination. There were five coasters, with the best one being, Elf the woodie, although not nearly as good as Aska. Hello Lorna and Adrian! You would have loved the two Disney Parks right next door to each other. There were as many beanies as you could carry!
(Stenography by Derek Shaw since this would have taken me too long to type!)
Maggy Linka
More great coasters! Weather is hot and sticky, a bit, but much better than rain.
Gotta go, more later.
Marlon Scott
I first heard of this park when I was a child and now I've experienced Dreamland for myself! Over the years, enthusiasts have poked fun at this scruffy Disneyland wannabee. I gotta tell you, thanks to some quirky rides, "theming" and the best coaster so far on the trip. I will always remember Dreamland fondly.
Aska is a classic example of a perfect roller coaster. Fast & smooth trains, disorienting twisting layout, liberal and fun ride operators (who played great music by the way), and solid airtime!
Again on this trip, the second park of the day, Hirakata exceeded my expectations. Scenic hillside location. Lots of flowers and greenery, good wood coaster (Elf) with a wee bit of air. Tried my first KFC chicken in Japan today. Pretty much the same but they give you syrup for your biscuit instead of honey. Also tried a terryaki burger at McDonalds (meh).
Matt Crowther & Betsy Abrams
This is our third visit to this park- we finally got to ride the ersatz Matterhorn bobsleigh coaster... but the big star of this park is undoubtedly Aska. This is easily a top ten level woodie, very smooth but filled with liberal doses of massive airtime- to our minds the best of the Cyclone clones- even surpassing the original. I really hope that the coaster is saved from destruction, as the ride and entire park is in great danger of closing- Aska is already listed as being for sale. So if you can get to Japan in the next few years, this is a must-do coaster.
Nige Harness
Today we hit Nara Dreamland - a typical Japanese park - almost deserted. Most non-corporate parks here seem empty and feel like late 70's parks from elsewhere in the world - this is probably due to the older generation Japanese not embracing change where theme park investment is concerned - unlike Western style parks here which are doing great business? The great surprise of the trip so far has to be the Intamin woodie Aska - great ride! Pacing excellent and some real pops of airtime - it had a slight Megafobia feel even. Regards from the very warm Land of the Rising Fun!
Mike & Kammy Sislofsky
Having a great time!!! The Japanese people are SUPER friendly and so accommodating - we are going to expect great service when we get home, and we'll never get it. The children are so cute here, and very well behaved.
Dreamland today was funny because of it's similarities to Disneyland: Matterhorn, Jungle Cruise, castle, monorail, skyway, etc. Aska was really great - airltime everywhere.
Hello to anyone back home who may be reading this. It's amazing here.
Jeppe Nygaard
So today was Dreamland.. A Disney type lookalike park.. Their Matterhorn bobsleigh coaster was fun, and potentially deadly to some taller people, since we were getting *very* close to the wall. Their wooden coaster Aska was no less then avesome. I really mean fantastic!!! Very fast and loads of airtime. And we almost had the whole park to ourselves, so we was having a midday ERS on that coaster for hours. Riding, cheering, slapping hands, and all the social fun that comes with normal ERSs finally shined, and everybody cheering, smiling, laughing, and EVERYBODY looked to be having a fantastic time... Again an always friendly and smiling Japanese staff did their very best to make us have a good time. And nice music too. But though no fun comes whitout casualties, my phone was broken, screen smashed, in my fanny bag during riding on Aska.
We are having a fantastic time, but the days are flying by way too fast, and already past halfway. More to come.....
Danish note : Hilsen og stort knus til Jer derhjemme.. I ved hvem jeg mener... :-)
Al and Martha Amborn
This trip is so much fun! Aska is quite a wonderful wooden coaster. Would be top 5 if it wasn't so far away! Learned how to use chopsticks today without too much mess. Having a great time, wish you were here!
Bob & Cheri Armstriong
Hirikata Park---Fun place. Cheri & I rode our 700th coaster today, ELF. The non-looper was a fun ride, just don't kow why it needs horse collars. This is a very nice park, well kept up. We could have spent a couple more hours here.
Patrick Flumet
Encore deux park , Dreamland et Hirigita et deux coasters en bois. Aska est excellent,mais malheureusement il risque de disparaitre vu que le park semble deserte par les gens du Japon. On peux sentir que le coeur n"y est plus en se promenant dans le park, construit comme une copie conforme des parks Disney mais en plus petit. Elf, dans le deuxieme park est plus tranquille mais excellent aussi lorsqu'on est dans le premier siege. Lui semble assure d'un avenir car la il y avait plus de monde et de vie. Bref encore une journee fantastique du cote d"osaka cette fois.
Dan Harvey
Aska at Dreamland was superb!! Airtime Airtime Airtime!! By far the best woody I've ever been on! Elf, the woody at Hirakata was no comparison to Aska....the Rapids ride got us a little bit wet! A great day!!! :-)
Ricky Cooper
Hirakata Park was an absolute gem. The main promenade was beautifully lit at night and the entire park was spotless and nicely themed.
The Crazy Mouse was a real hoot. The zig-zag laterals were intense and a lot of fun -- the traits of a good mouse.
A first for me was being slammed on a drop zone. Of course airtime on a drop zone is to be expected but never before I have been absolutely slammed before the stopping. This ride was like a drug for me.
Finally, the kids show with the cartoon characters was highly entertaining and you can rest assured that the chicken dance looks pretty much the same in Japan as it does back in the States.
Having a blast in the Land of the Rising Fun!
Bill Tyson
The wooden coaster Aska at Dreamland was the best woodie so far, sitting in the front, back or where ever it was a great ride. Amazing how much the park reminded you of Disney. Then at Hirakata Park many good rides like the Red Falcon and the junior woodie. I liked the Ice House but thought that the one at Expoland was better being colder and a little better themed. Well off to another park.
Craig Knor
Aska was the third woodie for us on the trip. It was also the best one and running really well. ERT like conditions made for many rerides. Nara Dreamland looks kinda bad and I expected the worst but to my surprise all the coasters were enjoyable. Aska was also the 250th coaster for Gage Knor
The Four Frenchies
We had a great time on the Aska yesterday !!! And also in Nara Dreamland with the Jungle River the animals seems so real ( French humour!!! ). We just want to thanks all English and American people who are trying to do their best to talk French with us. Vive l angleterre, les USA et la france !!!
B. Derek Shaw
Bonus report: Last night 20+ from our group journeyed over to Festival Gate to ride Delphos the Coaster. This trek was much easier than the previous bonus evening - only two subway lines and three stops. Delphis situated inside/outside a shopping mall that had one foot on a banana peel - it is nearly closed. This steel coaster is beautifully situated within the premises, however it looks better than it rides. There's a lot of banging from the very heavy, over-the-shoulder, restraint system. We also rode an interactive dark ride/shooting gallery-type ride. It was fun. I'm glad I visited, but also equally glad it wasn't a long journey. I finally got caught up on a little more sleep.
Special Note: Mr. ACE (aka Andrew Weiss) is known as "ACE - san" in Japan, so that's what we are now calling him until we get back home!
Derek Cromarty
Sunday night we went on an extra trip to a run down shopping mall that had a coaster, allegedly. The over head restraints weighed a ton. The coaster was less than average. There was also a dark, interactive ride, which was good.
Kevin Moran
Great time over last few days with both the scheduled parks and the side trips!!! BMR-X at Portopia is my top steelie on the trip thus far and Aska my top wood. That's all for now.
Bob Hoffman
Nara Dreamland was a Disneyland knock off only done really, really cheap and looking like no maintenance being done for a while. The woodie, Aska looked out of place and was a really good ride. Lots of air time! The bobsleigh was a so so ride but the cool part was that if you leaned to far to the right and held your hands up, you would probably hit them on the mountain.
Hirakata Park was a nice park. Well maintained and a nice mix of rides. No ride was outstanding but Elf was a good woodie. I would have liked a little more time there.
Thomas Enders
Gestern standen zwei Parks auf dem Programm: Nara Dreamland und Hirakata Park.
Bei Nara Dreamland war deutlich zu erkennen, dass hier Disneyland das Vorbild war.
Es gab ein Maerchenschloss, eine Matterhorn-Bahn, ein Jungle-Cruise und eine Eisenbahn rund um den Park. Aber es gab eine Bahn die Disney nicht zu bieten hat: Aska. Dieser Wood-Coaster ist absolut top und alleine deshalb lohnt sich schon den Park zu besuchen. Aska ist sicher einer der besten Wood-Coaster in Japan.
Hirakata Park hat auch ein paar tolle Coaster zu bieten, besonders Elf ist schoen zu fahren. An diesem an einem Hang angelegten Park faellt besonders auf, dass alles sehr geplegt und sauber ist. Es sind hier keine alten rostigen Coaster wie in anderen Parks zu finden.
David Hamburger
Nara Dreamland was all about Aska! My day there was basically Aska, credit, credit, credit, credit, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, Aska, leave. And many more Aska rides in between! Aska absolutely earned its top 10 ranking on the internet woodie poll. Airtime all over the place, with some good laterals as well. It’s definitely a front car ride, though some of us preferred seat 2 to the very front. And it had a great moment of extreme lateral airtime combo, which is my favorite. Aska is definitely the coaster of the trip up until now!
Hirakata park was a very nice park with some ok coasters. But the highlight was all of the various dark rides and walk-thoroughs, from horror ones to a Small World rip-off. They even had a silly short show with audio-animatronic characters - including one called Frodo! tell a story and sing the same song over and over with a video of a bad dragon turning into a silly cartoon dragon. It would have been painful in English, but we found it funny in Japanese!
Timothy Galvelis
Hello all, haven't kept up with the reports, but I'll be brief with what's happened so far. Yomiuri Land was a fun park, but Bandit was a let down. White Canyon was the best coaster in the park, and the Standing Loop Coaster was surprisingly smooth, both sitting and standing. SL Coaster was as strange as the name it was given. The second best coaster in the park was Wan Wan, the kiddie coaster. That takes care of YomuriuLand.
Back to Tokyo Dome after Yomuri Land to ride Thunder Dolphin (Even though I got to ride it the night after Disneyland). All I can say about Thunder Dolphin is that, despite what the experts had to say about it, this coaster is an absolute gem. It works fantastically well in the space provided, and the trick track is great that high above the street level.
Sega Joypolis was a fun arcade complex with a very unusual coaster that really was uncomfotable, but served it purpose for the credit. The show stopper at Sega had to be Half Pipe Canyon, and ride game where you stand on a snowboard type platform with another oerson and score points every time you move the platform sidew to side with your feet.
Nara Dreamland was an outstanding park. We had a half hour of ERS in the morning on the Spin Coaaster, was alot of fun but just a little to spinning for me. The Big Boom coaster was probably the biggest surprise for me at the park. It was pure intensity even with the harnesses. I forget the name of the corkscrew right now, but that really doesn't matter, because it is a forgettable coaster. The Camel Coater turned out to be better than Bandit, but that's not saying much. Unfortunately, Lightning, the best coaster in the oark, was closed.
Panic Drive was a pretty intense mouse, especially when you ride it by yourself. Batflyer, of course was there for the credit, and still just as impossible to get into and out of. Then the last coaster for this park is the SLC, and the name of this one also escapes me right now, but I did manage to escape it alive.
More upbeat reports to come, including the extremely excellent BMRX at Kobe Portopialand.