East Meets ACE – Part 4: Yomiuriland / よみうりランド
Our second park of the day was Yomiuriland in Inagi, Tokyo, Japan. Operating since 1964, this park is somewhat larger than the previous one we visited that day. We had about four and a half hours there and it was fairly busy.
We presented a plaque to the park when we arrived.
Bandit (Togo, Steel Sit Down, 1988)
This mammoth coaster is 5,118’ long and 167’ tall with a change in elevation of 256’. Its top speed of 68 mph makes it a powerful coaster, and its setting overlooking Tokyo makes for some amazing views.
Unfortunately OTSR render it somewhat painful, although to me it was still a very good ride, but others had a different opinion – 1 ride.
Momonga Standing and Loop Coaster (Togo, Stand Up, 1979) The ninth oldest coaster in Japan, it was once named only Standing and Loop Coaster.
It has a stand-up train and a sit-down train, but it originally was a sit-down coaster until a stand up train was added in 1982, one day after the first stand-up coaster opened. Its name means Japanese flying squirrel.
The experience of standing was quite different than what I have had on other Togo stand-ups
and was very enjoyable and somewhat more thrilling, and the sit-down version is even smoother – 2 rides, 1 on each train.
Spin Runway (Gerstlauer Amusement Rides GmbH, Spinning Coaster, 2016) This enclosed custom spinning coaster is nicely themed to a clothing factory and has an impressive spiral lift. Thanks to a fast pass, I got this in quickly – 1 ride.
Wan Wan Coaster Wandit (Hoei Sangyo Co., Ltd., Family, 2005) Nice kiddie coaster that was decorated
with an amazing number of Christmas lights – 1 ride.
Haunted House “Hyu ~ Toro” “Music Box Music Box” – This was an unusual walkthrough haunted house with some good scenes, though hardly worth the 30 minute line with our limited time – 1 walkthrough.
Sky Cycle – This had some good views of Tokyo and a nice route above the Jurassic Car ride – 1 ride.
Jurassic Car – Since we had a few minutes and could only do something that was a walk-on, we rode this antique car ride, which had a nice course around dinosaurs – 1 ride.
Time did not allow us to ride Animal Rescue Counterattack of Mentura, interactive darkride; Splash U.F.O., shoot-the-chutes; Hero Training Center “Mission 8”, dark attraction; Laser Athletics Temple of the Sun, laser course; Crazy Zoom & Crazy Boom, drop tower; Giant Sky River, large spinning raft ride; Gondola Sky Shuttle, gondola ride; SKY Patol, bicycle ride; Go Kart Family Course; Go Kart Highway Long Course; ev-Grand Prix; Spin Drive, car ride; U.F.O. Bump!, bumper cars; Oriver Opinions Music Party, train;
Merry-Go-Round Dog, classic merry-go-round with park mascots Ooma
and Landog; Milky Way, Wave Swinger; Looping Starship; Miracle Wink Room, space trip with Landog; Space Jet; Ferris Wheel; and Animal Coaster, a Tumble Bug/Turtle. They have 14 children’s rides.
Defunct coasters include SL Coaster (Togo, Steel Sit Down, unknown-2011), Twist Coaster Robin (Sansei Yusoki Co., Ltd., Steel Sit Down, 2014-2014) which had an accident shortly after opening and never reopened; and White Canyon (John Pierce-Roller Coaster Corporation of America/Togo, Wood Cyclone, 1994-2013), one of three wood coasters in Japan that have been lost over the last several years.
I enjoyed this park and in spite of crowds for the Autumnal Equinox holiday,
we were able to get a good bit done.
That evening we walked from our hotel to East Shinjuku,
taking in the amazing sights
of this major nightlife section of Tokyo.
We walked by Hotel Gracery to see the life-size statue of Godzilla,
which had a nice show every few minutes.
After an exhaustive search to find food that would satisfy Richard, Vanessa, David and me (a daunting task),
we settled on a nice Japanese restaurant on an upper floor. This was one of the few places we visited where we had to remove our shoes and sit at a low table. The English version of the menu was limited, but we all found meals we were very pleased with, making this perhaps our nicest Japanese meal experience of the trip.
After dinner we walked around East Shinjuku some more
on our way back to Keio Plaza Hotel to get ready for the next day.
Up Next: Fuji-Q Highland
Ronny's Travels 