East Meets ACE – Part 14: Nagashima Spa Land

East Meets ACE – Part 14: Nagashima Spa Land / ナガシマスパーランド

On Monday, October 1, we had survived the typhoon and it was time to resume our trip. We checked out of the Hilton Nagoya that morning as we prepared to move to Osaka. We had enjoyed good breakfasts at this hotel, although not as elaborate as the ones in Tokyo. Our park this day was slated to open two hours late due to the storm, so once again we were concerned the storm would impact another day. We left a little later than scheduled that morning, but arrived at Nagashima Spa Land in Nagashima, Kuwana, Mie, Japan almost an hour before the expected noon opening to find that the park was already open and coasters were running. Operating since 1964, this is the largest coaster collection in Japan and we hoped we would have time to get all the credits, especially considering our late arrival. That turned out not to be a problem as the storm likely left others preoccupied this day, so crowds were light, weather was beautiful and operations were efficient. There were two coasters down, but we had plenty of time for all operating coasters and a number of other rides in our almost six hours in the park.

Steel Dragon 2000 (Morgan/Steve Okamoto, Giga Coaster, 2000)

It is the world’s longest coaster at a length of 8,133’, the sixth highest at 318’, and has the seventh tallest drop at 307’ and a speed of 95 mph.

The name is from its opening in 2000 in the “Year of the Dragon.”

Its original Morgan trains were replaced in 2013 with B&M trains. It was SBNO for several seasons following an accident involving a wheel.

It is an amazing coaster, the best of the trip to me, and combines tremendous speed, plentiful airtime and a unique and well-paced layout that delivers one of the best coaster experiences out there.

I see this moving into my top ten steel coasters. My favorite part is the series of eight bunny hops after the mid-course brake, some of which are in tunnels – 3 great rides.

Ultra Twister (Togo, Ultra Twister Pipeline, 1984) Having not ridden this type of coaster since my visit to Six Flags Astroworld in 2002 (one of three coasters at both of these parks), I now remember why I liked this so much.

With the train traveling between the tracks, the center of your body is at the center of motion and the three heartline roll inversions taken in that position are a lot of fun.

It was relocated within the park in 2012 to make room for the Peter Rabbit children’s area – 2 rides.

Acrobat (Bolliger & Mabillard, Flying, 2015) This is a clone of Manta at SeaWorld Orlando, with four inversions, and it has a duel station.

It gives a very good ride and has some really nice flying elements over water – 1 ride.

Looping Star (Schwarzkopf, Looping Star, 1982)

These are so rare and is another of three coasters this park had in common with the now defunct but much missed Six Flags Astroworld.

With its tight clearances and great turns this is truly a classic,

and I was able to make it my 1050^th coaster – 2 rides.

Corkscrew (Arrow Dynamics, Corkscrew, 1979)

For an older Arrow, it was good without too much difficulty on the transitions.

It was relocated in the park in 2012, to make room for the Peter Rabbit children’s area – 1 ride.

Jet Coaster (Togo, Steel Sit Down, year unknown)

This coaster is almost a mine train type ride and is very old even though the exact year is not known.

It looks as if it might have at one time had a splashdown simulation as it goes through a concrete trough in a small pond. Though not overly thrilling, it is a fun ride – 1 ride.

Arashi (S&S Worldwide, Free Spin 4th Dimension, 2017)

Japanese for Storm, this was the coaster that we saw under construction at S&S in Utah when we went there as part of Preservation Con in 2016. It has pretty wild spinning as the other of these I have ridden has – 1 ride.

Wild Mouse (Mack Rides GmbH & Co KG, Wild Mouse, 1996) This is one of two Mack Wild Mouse coasters located side by side that are mirror images of each other. We rode the right mouse, the non-standard version as the lift hill is usually on the right. It gave a good ride – 1 ride.

Unfortunately the one on the left, Wild Mouse (Mack Rides GmbH & Co KG, Wild Mouse, 1996), was not open to the public this day although they were working on it and running cars. I expected this to be the case as I understand they only run both on really busy days, and fortunately for us getting in all we did, the park was not too crowded this day.

Unfortunately Shuttle Loop (Schwarzkopf, Shuttle Loop / Flywheel, 1980) was closed during our visit and it looked as if it might have been down for a little while.

It is another coaster this park has in common with Six Flags Astroworld.

Children Coaster (Zierer, Tivoli-Medium Family, 1983) It gave the expected ride – 1 ride.

Peter Rabbit Coaster

(Hoei Sangyo Co., Ltd., Powered Family, 2012)

This is fun little powered ride – 1 ride.

Haunted House – This was a fairly long walkthrough and was, I thought, a very good representation of a Japanese haunted house, with a number of specific elements I was coming to expect – 1 walkthrough.

Freefall – They still have one of these first generation Intamin drop rides, which are almost all gone at home. This one runs really well with minimal jolts but with all the characteristic clanking that adds to the experience – 1 ride.

Bobcat – Like one we had done before in The Netherlands, this Bobsleigh ride is a powered alpine slide type ride in a relatively flat area.

When we arrived they were taking buckets of water out of the trough following Typhoon Trami, so I was surprised when they were able to open it later in the day. The rider controls the speed and it gives a fun, thrilling ride – 1 ride.

We did not get to ride: Space Shot, a drop tower; Shoot-the-Shoots; Water Ace, paddle boats; Peter Rabbit Skyliner, a suspended monorail; Train; Merry-Go-Round; Star Flyer, tower swings; Giant Frisbee, a swinging pendulum; Flying Carpet; Space Shuttle; Frisbee, an inward seating swinging pendulum; Paratrooper; Viking, double swing pirate ships; Jet Ski; Rock ‘n’ Roll; Wave Swinger; Telecombat; Ferris Wheel Aurora, a 272’ Ferris Wheel; Swing Around; and Tea Cup. They also have21 children’s rides.

We could see the structure ofWhite Cyclone (Intamin Amusement Rides, Wood, 1994-2018) which is being transformed into Hakugei (Rocky Mountain Construction, Steel Hybrid, 2019), which means White Whale.

This is a nice park and based on our visit, it is run pretty efficiently. This was one of the best park experiences of our trip. I definitely want to get back here to ride the new RMC and try to catch the two credits we missed.

David, Richard and I decided to buy a fast pass to get a third ride in on Steel Dragon 2000, and just as we sat on the train, there was an issue and we had to get up. As the bus departure time was nearing we debated leaving, but in the end it opened and we had about five minutes to get to the bus, which necessitated me running. I was out of breath, but made it exactly at 5:00, unlike many others who were late. After being late at Belantis in 2013, I cannot afford to be late again, but I am too old and overweight to run that hard!

We had a long bus ride that evening to the Hilton Osaka, so we hoped to get a meal at the travel plaza stop along the way. The issue we had was that the only restaurant did not serve take out, so you had to order and eat there, so I opted for a couple of pastries from the convenience store, one with shrimp and one with potatoes. The former was very good; the latter not as much. This was my only meal since breakfast as we did not have time for lunch at the park. I guess it is another culture difference that people in Japan take time to stop and eat a meal instead of eating on the go like we sometimes do.

We arrived at Hilton Osaka and once we got checked in, we had time to explore the city a bit.

We took the subway to the Dotonbori area of the city,

an entertainment district along the river.

We rode the Dotonbori Ferris Wheel,

an unusual oblong observation wheel overlooking the river. This unique attraction has recently reopened after being closed for a long time.

It gave great views

and was interesting when it made the four turns on its oblong course. It is attached to a Don Quixote, a large discount store found all over Japan, so we took the opportunity to look around, which was interesting.