Fujikyuu Victory! - January 28th

Considering the fiasco we went through the first time we went to fujikyuu, I was somewhere between apprehensive and optimistic about revisiting the theme park. On one hand, it couldn't possibly go much worse than it had. On the other, the weather report was looking pretty gloomy, with another storm forecasted for the last weekend of the month. It was a gamble, but we had no choice, since our day passes were only valid till the end of January. In anticipation of foul weather, my host family helped me put together a "teru teru bouzu," a small tissue creature that looks like a ghost. Once completed, you hang the thing up by the window, and it serves as a sort of prayer for good weather. Mine had kind of a smug face, and everyone told me that it was sure to rain.

We once again took the bus from Shinjuku. This time, it was Hans, Katy, Hilary and myself. The cloud cover was ominous, blotting out the sun like a huge white blanket. This was our last shot at getting any use out of those tickets, so we could only hope for the best.

And the best is what we got.

The forecast served as a deterrent to park-goers, which resulted in a dismally small crowd at the park. The obvious outcome--short lines! We spent all day running around the park, enjoying some of the best roller coasters in Japan. We rode Fujiyama, the tallest roller coaster in the world (around 80m), three times, pausing just long enough to run down the exit to return to the entrance. We also rode the record-holder for most consecutive upside-down loops, eejanaika thrice. We got in the relatively long line for Dodonpa, and went half mad listening to the annoying track that kept repeating the name of the ride, just in case we had forgotten. The ride starts off in a darkened tunnel, then in less than a second, sends the coaster hurtling somewhere around 100mph out of the tunnel. In less than a minute, we had circumvented over half the park. It was really exhilarating, but the repetitive track was so annoying we couldn't stand to wait in line again.

Surprisingly enough, the longest line was for the Hamtaro Adventure ride. It's just a short ride, but there's only one seat for two people; the passenger in front sits nestled into the crotch of the person behind them. As you might imagine, the crowd was full of couples, which we found endlessly amusing. Elsewhere on our list of things to do was to check out the haunted house on the far end of the park. It was modeled after a hospital, and cost an extra 500 yen to get into, but it was rumored to be quite good, and almost 30 minutes long. Hilary scares easily, and was hesitant about going in, but we coaxed her into it. A couple went in ahead of us. The girl didn't look too happy about being there, but the guy was visibly excited to have a valid excuse to hold his girl in public. As it turns out, Hans was the biggest sissy in the group, and we spent most of the time running through the place, overtaking the poor couple ahead of us.

It was quite dark by the time we got out the haunted mansion. We were running out of time before our bus back to Tokyo, so we rode the big coasters a few more times before finally leaving the park. Wobbly legged, we stumbled back to the bus stop and rode back home, satisfied that we finally had the fujikyuu experience we'd always hoped for.