East Meets ACE – Part 3: Toshimaen/としまえん
On Monday, September 24 we continued our journey with Toshimaen in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan.
We began the day with a plaque presentation and almost an hour of ERT on the park’s coasters. We had about three hours in the park.
Cyclone (Togo, Steel, 1965) I was very interested to ride this coaster, the fourth oldest in Japan, (and the oldest one we got to ride) but I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it is.
From its comfortable velvet seats to its interesting log themed cars, from its frequent airtime to its surprise tunnel helix ending, this is a very good coaster.
It was just the beginning of a much better appreciation I would gain for Togo on this trip – 2 rides, 1 during ERT.
Corkscrew (Arrow Dynamics, Corkscrew, 1979) This is the eighth oldest operating coaster in Japan.
With trains that are newer or have been very much renovated, this gave a fairly smooth ride – 1 ride during ERT.
Mini Cyclone (Hoei Sangyo Co., Ltd., Family, 2009)
Themed like its larger namesake,
this gives a surprisingly peppy ride for a small coaster – 1 ride during ERT.
Blauer Enzian (Mack Rides GmbH & Co KG, Powered Coaster, 1997 or earlier) Located on top of a building, as are many rides at this park, it gave a good ride – 1 ride.
Mystery Zone – This haunted house darkride was good – 1 ride.
Haunted House – This haunted walk-through has a distinctly Japanese feel – 1 ride.
Time did not permit getting to Mirror House, a maze with over 140 mirrors; Flume Ride, a log flume that looked nice and interacted well with Cyclone; Model Train, a miniature train; Sky Train, a monorail; Antique Car; Auto Scooter; Challenge Train; Carousel Eldorado, a 1907 Hugo Hasse wood carousel from Munich, Germany that once operated at Coney Island, NY before coming here in 1971; Troika;Break Dance; Flying Pirates, a large merchant ship; Pirates, a medium pirate ship; Magic, a spinning ride; Eagle, a Condor ride; Wave Swinger; and Swing Around. They also have 11 children’s rides, a water park, petting zoo, challenge course, insect house, fishing pond and other attractions.
This park has one defunct roller coaster in its history, Shuttle Loop (Schwarzkopf, Shuttle Loop-Flywheel, 1980-2008), which was relocated to Attractiepark Rotterdam as Shuttle Loop in 2018. When looking back on the trip this was one of my favorite parks on the trip outside the Disney parks. It had a nice traditional park feel and Cyclone was a real standout coaster on the trip, especially considering its age. We left the park early that afternoon for our next stop.
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