Japan - Nagashima Spa Land

What a fun park, but man were there waits! We got there for the park's opening time of 9:30 but we were quite far back in line and we literally ran to the Steel Dragon 2000 and managed to get on within 30minutes of waiting. Best ride of the day, it was a lot more intense than I thought it would be! My eyes were drooling so much.



We went straight for White Cyclone next which was a 1h wait but definitely worth it. The roller coaster itself was very rattly but the main attraction was how you felt like you were surrounded by the white wooden structure when you were in the middle of the roller coaster, just like being in a cyclone.



We did a few small rides next that really were not worth mentioning. The Space Shuttle was boring, the  Space Shot (like a reverse drop) was sooo boring but maybe I'm just being judgy because the wait for each of them was so long. We actually really enjoyed the Shuttle Loop which was like a launch swing roller coster with a loop, the Ultra Twister was pretty smooth (and didn't make Andrew sick!) and we also really enjoyed the Bobkart which was like a weird electrical bobsled thing that seated two people with the back person controlling the speed (the funnest method was to stop, then accelerate to the full speed over and over). We got some nice views from the top of the giant Ferris Wheel.



Towards the end of the day we decided to bite the bullet and wait 45min for the Acrobat which is a roller coaster which you face down on. It was fun, particularly the famous pretzel bit, but I thought it was a bit boring otherwise although it knocked Andrew's head about a little. One thing I found hilarious is that in the gift shop they had (as usual) confectionary themed on the roller coasters and the Acrobat had pretzels… but they were straight stick pretzels! With all the other nonsense ride-themed confectionary (also rife at Fuji-Q) what a missed opportunity to make the confectionary in the actual shape of the roller coaster track, argh.



I did the Giant Frisbee on my own and enjoyed it, but I think mostly because I got on pretty much straight away.

Next we went to the Illuminations which blew our minds. It was just so lovely and beautiful and romantic. The main illumination section was like an Alps scene that cycled through the seasons with a little character that sang yodels. Very pretty and we watched it through a few times without getting bored one bit. There were also two tunnels of light that were just fucking magical.