FujiQ Highland [富士急ハイランド]

...Oh bugger.

Was the main thought going through my little grey cell (there was only one left as the other 3 had inexplicably left on some kind of vacation) as I plummeted at high speed backwards towards the ground...which would have been fine, I guess, if the large contraption which was now in full control of my life hadn't-midfall- decided that the best thing to do was to swivel my seat to get a better view of what felt like impending doom.

Just a few moments ago, the ride had trundled suspiciously peacefully along the track facing us backwards up the big slope to the top of the ride, facing us towards the majestic mountain scenery that surrounded the amusement park. I had been thinking calm happy thoughts, trying to quell the queezy sensation which had been lurking in the depths of my stomach while I had been queuing, and taking nice deep breaths (so that I could potentially scream louder, without initiating some kind of heart attack), and forcing myself to enjoy the view.

the very tall ramp to the start of the ride. it really is VERY tall...

The ride was amazing, but the people who designed the thing had some really sadistic moments, where; as you were entering at the top of a swooping loop, head first with your body facing to the outside of the loop so that you could only see a blurr of sky, the seats would then swivel you to face downwards as you came into the turn. THAT really made my stomach and grey cell go something along the lines of: 'ohnonononononoNO!'.

one of the many swoopy bits... (these were nice..)

You can tell it's a good roller coaster when your legs are all wobbly when you try and walk cooly to the exit. It definitely did something weird to my blood circulation. Not only was I impressed by the ride experience (minus the queuing the irratating song that played for the entire hour we waited for the ride ...eejanaika eejanaika eejnaikaaaaaa [ええじゃないか]! ARGH!).

Anyway, it was totally the best roller coaster I have ever been on... Oblivion scared the crap out of me, but only at the point where they make you look into the abyss for what feels like a disturbingly long time...but Air, was very relaxing, gentle ride with no: ohnonononononoNO moments...just the general ahhhhhhhhhhhh... feeling.

Greg and I also spent a lot of the time after contemplating how they made the seats swivel around...we figured that it was the cunning second rail controlling it....very cunning indeed.

We also did the speedy ride called DodonPA [ドドンパ]! Which had a horrible looking hump of doom, and high speed...although it was over all too quickly because it was such a fast ride...the start was very nice though, like being catapulted out of a tunnel...on the bright side the theme song was less irritating.

The hump of doom on DodonPA

A second view of part of DodonPA [ドドンパ] with the ferris wheel and Mt. Fuji in the background.

We also did Tsunami, which had a VERY big wave (funnily enough). They really meant it when they said you WILL get wet. Greg and I were the only people in our ride to NOT buy a plastic rain coat...much to the concern of the mother and son behind us who very shyly asked if we knew that we'd get drenched...we just beamed back and said YES! - it was what we wanted...it was Soooo damned hot!

And yes we were completely soaked...mind you, so did a few people not even on the ride.

We had lunch on the ferris wheel, cycled some little bicycle contraption on an overhead track, a stupid shooting aliens ride - which was utterly pants, not only was the ride crap, but the guns you were meant to use to 'shoot' aliens were useless...hence my score of 1, failed to escape from a haunted house, tried the highest roller coaster; Fujiyama - which would have been a very good ride, HAD it had some neck restraint going on. I felt rather Ragdoll like, and so my neck hurt after...Big swings on chains, a ride in small clouds with hamsters, a vicious Mad Mouse ride which looked very small and tame but really threw you about AND a carousel.

The carousel and eejanaika [ええじゃないか] we did twice each, because they were just soooo good.

Don't be scared Greg! It will be over soon...