Nagashima Spa Land
Another major highlight from my Japan trip this May was our visit to Nagashima Spa Land in Nagoya. My friends and I were all big fans of theme parks and roller coasters, and I was particularly excited about this because I had read about some of the rides here. While it isn't as popular as Fuji-Q Highland, which boasts some of the craziest rides outside the US, this park didn't disappoint either.
In fact, while we did not include Fuji Q in our original itinerary, we eventually decided to check it out since we had rented a car for our travels around the Fuji/Hakone area. To our utter dismay, the day we chose to visit happened to be smack in the middle of the Golden Week holidays, and the crowds were just too insane to ignore. What's helpful for Fuji Q is the presence of waiting time boards outside the park, giving potential visitors a rough sense of the expected waits for the popular roller coasters. On the day we were there, the queue times for all the major roller coasters exceeded 3 hours each. It was not worth our time, though my friends could attest that I lingered there for quite a while, extremely tempted to go for it anyway.
Nagashima Spa Land is probably the second best park in Japan. There actually appear to be more rides here compared to Fuji Q, but just counting the really big/scary ones, then both parks have a handful each.
Access to the park is convenient, with a direct bus from the Meitetsu Bus Center in the Nagoya train station. Round trip bus tickets that include theme park entrance fees are available there as well, costing about ¥6,300. To avoid any potential crowds, we decided to visit on a Monday morning, and very thankfully, the park wasn't too crowded, with queue times not exceeding 5 minutes throughout the day, with the exception of the biggest ride of them all - Steel Dragon 2000.
Arashi is the newest roller coaster there, having just opened in March this year. It is a 4D spinning roller coaster, in which ride vehicles can rotate freely while traversing the course. Check out the video below to see just how crazy it gets. I usually don't scream when riding roller coasters but this was the only one that really made me sound like a maniac.
The incredibly massive Steel Dragon 2000 was a sight to behold even from a distance, visible long before our bus arrived at the park. It stands at a whopping 97m (over 30 storeys), and it is the longest roller coaster in the world, with a track length of 2,479m. If that's not impressive enough, it is actually the 7th fastest in the world as well, clocking a top speed of 152kph. In comparison, Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi (current record holder) has a top speed of 240kph.
This was the only ride that attracted a substantial queue, with wait times going up to 30 minutes at midday. Nonetheless, it was totally worth the wait. The drops are exhilarating and the speed actually feels manageable because it is a very smooth ride overall. Even the smaller drops nearer the end of the ride had plenty of air-time, making it a really fun experience overall.
Acrobat (not pictured) is a relatively new flying coaster that is an exact replica of Manta in SeaWorld Orlando. Similarly, it was a surprisingly smooth ride, and a cool experience because I had never taken any flying coasters before. Another visually stunning ride is the White Cyclone, a massive wooden roller coaster that looks really beautiful. Ride videos also made it appear to be a really fun ride, but the actual experience was not so pleasant. Being a wooden roller coaster, it was especially bumpy and quite uncomfortable. Not having taken many "woodies" before either, I can't really compare it to others but certainly I would be wary of taking such coasters in the future.
[UPDATE - White Cyclone closed permanently in Jan 2018 to make way for Hakugei, which runs on steel tracks and boasts 3 inversions. Look out for TPR's video of the ride - it looks INCREDIBLE!]
Two other rides that I enjoyed were the Shuttle Loop (a classic that I love to build in Roller Coaster Tycoon too) and the Ultra Twister (one of the rare pipeline coasters in the world). Check out the video by Theme Park Review below!
Some of the older roller coasters also proved to be pretty rough (though not as bad as White Cyclone) - namely the Looping Star, (at least the loop is fun), and the Corkscrew (two corkscrews but otherwise an uneventful ride).
Food in the park is fairly affordable, much unlike Disney or Universal. The omu-rice (glad that I finally got to have it once during the trip) was very affordable, at only ¥1,050. I liked how the set came with a small cup of corn soup!
What an epic day, and a fitting conclusion to a truly memorable trip to Japan with my friends. My friend actually wanted to check out a haunted house just before leaving but thank goodness we didn't do that - we nearly missed the return trip back to the city! I will definitely be back if I visit Nagoya again.
In fact, while we did not include Fuji Q in our original itinerary, we eventually decided to check it out since we had rented a car for our travels around the Fuji/Hakone area. To our utter dismay, the day we chose to visit happened to be smack in the middle of the Golden Week holidays, and the crowds were just too insane to ignore. What's helpful for Fuji Q is the presence of waiting time boards outside the park, giving potential visitors a rough sense of the expected waits for the popular roller coasters. On the day we were there, the queue times for all the major roller coasters exceeded 3 hours each. It was not worth our time, though my friends could attest that I lingered there for quite a while, extremely tempted to go for it anyway.
Nagashima Spa Land is probably the second best park in Japan. There actually appear to be more rides here compared to Fuji Q, but just counting the really big/scary ones, then both parks have a handful each.
Access to the park is convenient, with a direct bus from the Meitetsu Bus Center in the Nagoya train station. Round trip bus tickets that include theme park entrance fees are available there as well, costing about ¥6,300. To avoid any potential crowds, we decided to visit on a Monday morning, and very thankfully, the park wasn't too crowded, with queue times not exceeding 5 minutes throughout the day, with the exception of the biggest ride of them all - Steel Dragon 2000.
Arashi is the newest roller coaster there, having just opened in March this year. It is a 4D spinning roller coaster, in which ride vehicles can rotate freely while traversing the course. Check out the video below to see just how crazy it gets. I usually don't scream when riding roller coasters but this was the only one that really made me sound like a maniac.
The incredibly massive Steel Dragon 2000 was a sight to behold even from a distance, visible long before our bus arrived at the park. It stands at a whopping 97m (over 30 storeys), and it is the longest roller coaster in the world, with a track length of 2,479m. If that's not impressive enough, it is actually the 7th fastest in the world as well, clocking a top speed of 152kph. In comparison, Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi (current record holder) has a top speed of 240kph.
This was the only ride that attracted a substantial queue, with wait times going up to 30 minutes at midday. Nonetheless, it was totally worth the wait. The drops are exhilarating and the speed actually feels manageable because it is a very smooth ride overall. Even the smaller drops nearer the end of the ride had plenty of air-time, making it a really fun experience overall.
Acrobat (not pictured) is a relatively new flying coaster that is an exact replica of Manta in SeaWorld Orlando. Similarly, it was a surprisingly smooth ride, and a cool experience because I had never taken any flying coasters before. Another visually stunning ride is the White Cyclone, a massive wooden roller coaster that looks really beautiful. Ride videos also made it appear to be a really fun ride, but the actual experience was not so pleasant. Being a wooden roller coaster, it was especially bumpy and quite uncomfortable. Not having taken many "woodies" before either, I can't really compare it to others but certainly I would be wary of taking such coasters in the future.
[UPDATE - White Cyclone closed permanently in Jan 2018 to make way for Hakugei, which runs on steel tracks and boasts 3 inversions. Look out for TPR's video of the ride - it looks INCREDIBLE!]
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| White Cyclone |
Two other rides that I enjoyed were the Shuttle Loop (a classic that I love to build in Roller Coaster Tycoon too) and the Ultra Twister (one of the rare pipeline coasters in the world). Check out the video by Theme Park Review below!
Some of the older roller coasters also proved to be pretty rough (though not as bad as White Cyclone) - namely the Looping Star, (at least the loop is fun), and the Corkscrew (two corkscrews but otherwise an uneventful ride).
Food in the park is fairly affordable, much unlike Disney or Universal. The omu-rice (glad that I finally got to have it once during the trip) was very affordable, at only ¥1,050. I liked how the set came with a small cup of corn soup!
What an epic day, and a fitting conclusion to a truly memorable trip to Japan with my friends. My friend actually wanted to check out a haunted house just before leaving but thank goodness we didn't do that - we nearly missed the return trip back to the city! I will definitely be back if I visit Nagoya again.
