Hey Miss Dannie Travels
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Day 15 – Boys to Men
April 29, Fuji-Q Highlands
Ahh. It’s a beautiful, clear day at the base of Fujisan. A perfectly warm day. We wake up and have a leisurely breakfast at our Ryokan. I had some bread, which I know doesn’t sound exciting, but I can only eat foreign bread without getting sick, so this was a treat. We travel only one stop by train to our next destination. And we enter Fuji-Q.
Now, when I first researched this trip, I found a cute little amusement park near Fuji-San that had “pay-by-ride” set up, with an option of a full day pass. That’s so similar to how Lakeside Amusement park is in Denver. Just a nice, chill fun time. So I said to myself, “self? This sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon.”
It was only much later I realized my mistake. As I scrolled the interwebs, I came across an article titled:
"Disneyland is for children. Fuji-Q is for men."
Y’all.
This park has held a total of 9 world records. One of those has since closed, and another had a maintenance fatality so it was also closed. That left us with 3 big ones – Zokkan, a newer coaster that was ridden like a motorcycle,
Takebisha, a rollercoaster with a 121 degree drop (former “steepest rollercoaster,” record holder; current “steepest drop” record holder) and finally,
Fujiyama – The King of Coasters – 6709 feet long (that’s over A MILE), 260 ft high drop, with a max speed of 68mph. This insane beast no longer holds any of its titles, (Tallest roller coaster, fastest roller coaster, tallest and fastest complete circuit roller coaster, and longest roller coaster drop.) but tell my psyche that.
We, like the idiots we are, STARTED with the king. As we progressed in line, it proudly displayed facts about itself in multiple languages across many colorfully signs and the announcer loop made sure we knew exactly what we were riding. Elijah was worried about the fact that this coaster had legit “final boss music” (operatic chanting ‘Fujiyama’) We didn’t know. We were fools. As we got strapped in we thought….what are we doing here?
The climb up was BRUTAL. 70 meters doesn’t sound too high until you’re “clack-clack”ing up a 45 degree angle. Did I mention the day was clear? Yeah. Clear. Beautiful view of Fujisan. It felt we were about to be level to it.
Finally, we crested. We could see the whole park. And suddenly, ahead, the cars in front of us vanished. There was NO WAY I would keep my eyes open for this. Juli screeched next to me. My child’s voice was going to give. And my hair and stomach swirled around my face as we plummeted towards the earth.
Wasn’t finished. After the drop, we soared upwards, jerked left and right and plummeted again. I dared opened my eyes near what FELT like it was the bottom. It was not. Not even close. I nearly blacked out from the fear and G-forces. This wasn’t a shoulder harness ride. We were kept in place only by faith and a lapbar.
This ride once held the record for longest coaster – it was OVER A MILE LONG, people. It. Did. Not. End. I kept my eyes open after the big drops. (mistake) It did things to us I wasn’t sure was possible (or legal) on a rollercoaster. It was like some crazed engineer’s child was given the rollercoaster tycoon video game and the parent went and built it. It never even once inverted. It didn’t have to.
We got of the beast in dire straights. Kid couldn’t find his voice, Juli was jelly and I trembled uncontrollably. (Nate’s a psycho and was totally amped up to ride again) Absolutely wild.
We decided to do something a little lighter,
and headed over to the Pizza-la ride. Basically, a big pizza that gets gently swung back and forth.
No. Nope. Nope. Was not “gentle” in any regard. This thing LAUNCHED you forward. Your girl didn’t even have time to get her bearings before she’s falling from the sky. Ah, hi! there’s FujiSan! How can something so beautiful be surrounded by so much fear?
They all enjoyed it. I hate falling so a ride that falls multiple times in multiple directions wasn’t my favorite. But I didn’t die, I guess. Up next…Takebisha. Current holder of the steepest drop coaster record and also known as the “jump-scare” coaster. This is because you’re so freaked out by the drop that’s coming, that you don’t look or realize anything else.
The ride starts with a quick drop in the total darkness of the inside building, a few twists and turns like Space Mountain – and then it launches you off from 5 to 62mph in 2 seconds into bright daylight. .. completely unexpected and jarring going from darkness illuminated only by dim LEDs, to the bright beams of sunlight.
This coaster was WILD. Twisting, turning, spinning, falling, raising. it was hard to get oriented (I suppose that’s the point)
Then. Straight up. Straight up a vertical 90 angle on. your. back. This click-click was a lot harder. Being up at such an angle made you feel like you’d flip over the other way at any time. Then, the crest. Of course its stops you. Let’s you peek over the edge. Except you can’t because the incline is so steep. And just when you think you can…it drops you.
Honestly, wasn’t that bad Terrifying? Yes. Got off shaking? Absolutely. Mortally horrid and ghastly?
Nah. It wasn't as bad as we were expecting it to be.
Which is great. We then got in line for Zokkon, a roller bike coaster? That was kind of unnerving simple because as we waited, the English instructions seemed to say if you don’t lean into the turns and get out of “riding position” you need to have the strength to pull yourself back into riding position. Um. Excuse me? Signs were everywhere, saying “this ride is more intense than it looks, no waving hands.
It was pretty intense, but nothing like the record holders. It was more wholesome fun.
Then it as time for lunch at
Ichiraku Ramen
Elijah used to be really into the anime, Narauto, and was super excited that they had a theme area in Fuji-Q. We went and got ramen (for the first time in Japan!) twas delish. We then also went to play the shooting game (which I absolutely lost) before heading out of the hidden leaf village to go ride more rides.
As we were leaving the hidden leaf village, we came up on the drop tower. I was absolutely not doing it and Juli joined me on the bench. Elijah was sure it was only about as high as the one at Elitches. (Narrator: it was not.)
Yeah, it was about 60ft HIGHER than the one at Elitches. (That’s 6 stories higher for those of you keeping score) I got a pic of his panicked face before they were launched back into the sky. Fantastic.
We next came upon a ride that looped around in opposite directions in the sky. 10 minute wait time, it was there, we were there…why not? I started to get nervous because again…not a fan of the drops…but Elijah reminded me of a similar one we rode at the state fair. I remember laughing uncontrollably. Cool. This one is twice as high, but I’m sure the forces would cause the same reaction. It did. As we got going, something about the ride just had me in stitches. It wasn’t the feeling of falling, just the fun feeling of looping. great fun.
We next debated the swings.
We were going to do the low ones, but I was unsure if I’d be okay with the spin. So we obviously went to the high ones that spun out a little more. (not a fear thing, I just wanted to keep my ramen in my stomach) Mistake. These swings were SO high and even though there were several warnings not to rock or twist the ride, Juli and I found ourselves twisting uncontrollably – the wind caught our feet. So we were high with the ever present fear of suddenly dropping to the earth below…wasn’t a fun time. Apparently, Elijah was doing that to Nate on purpose. So we all got off the ride, happy to be back on the ground.
Somehow, they suckered me into riding the Pizza-la again. I was planning to hold their stuff but got distracted by the J-pop boy band that was there (tunes were actually a vibe) and didn’t realize I was supposed to get off until I was getting strapped in. Yup. Still don’t like it.
I was done with rides but there was one more the boys wanted to try. Some rocketship kind of swing ride that once you were in the air like normal swings, you could steer your ship into barrel rolls. Juli and I hit the shops real quick while they waited in line. We were coming back and could hear Nate cackling in the distance. I could see Elijah’s rocket, simply by the number of spins it was doing Like seriously what is wrong with that child?
Apparently, he won “most spins” out of the people in his ride. I don’t doubt it. Surprised the kid didn’t puke. We only had a few minutes to get to our next train, but thankfully the station was right outside the park. We hurried through the gates, jumped on our train and headed home.
Several people were in the street taking pictures on the walk back to our Ryokan – one guy was in the middle of a parking lot trying to get a picture of Mount Fuji blocking both cars, pedestrians and buses. Another dude had to tap them on the shoulder to move out of the way because he was so blissfully unaware. As we walked one guy tripped on the curb since the bikers were riding on the sidewalks and they shouldn’t have been, and he fell into the street in front of a car who thankfully was paying attention and stopped. It was wild. Google took us a different route home than how we got there, but we had time to sit in the foot bath before dinner. What a view. It was such a clear day that we had a clear view of Mount Fuji. The hot foot bath. The cool air and the beautiful scenery was just so was Serene.
Ryo brought another huge spread for dinner. This food was a little more identifiable, and a lot less scary. We would try our own barbecue had a lovely soups, vegetable rice… It was still just so much. We lounged and dined walked around and dined Nate stuffed himself to the brim. It was all very delicious but just so much. After dinner, we had another lovely dessert, then it was time for baths. The women’s onsen was still pretty empty, so I went outside to enjoy the night air and the hot water. On the way back, I found after bath popsicles which I didn’t see the night before, so had to get one of those. Our server, Ryo really made an impression on the boy. Elijah loved the dude. So he made him a picture a cool graphic design of Mount Fuji with his name written in kanji. He went down to delivered it and Ryo loved the picture.
While Nate and Juli were still gone, Elijah and I sat in the dim room looking out at the lake in the lights, I had tea and blogged, while he browsed his phone. Another lovely and to a great day.
~Dannie
Japan 2025
Day 9 – Mario, Dinos and City Streets
Day 8 – Super Mario World
