♥Japan 2014! Trip Report → Day 4 (Fuji-Q Highland Trip Report → As CoasterCutie! Trip planning tips included♪)♥

Hey everybunny! 

Today I'll be bringing you a post as CoasterCutie - theme park & roller coaster fan!♪

I decided to make up a new instagram account for all of my theme park & travel things, rather than letting my Elizabunnii ig account become a mess with too many different things since I've managed to keep it fairly neat & uniform ww I can keep to fashion & cute things on one account, and travel things on the other.♪ It's not quite up & running yet, but I'm hoping to get some photos posted soon!♥ I'm soon going to make a handy page on here that will direct people to travel things or fashion things.^^ I'm not going to bother making a new twitter account though, as I ramble on there about everything.^^;;(I probably should have started all of this with my last trip report, but better slightly late than never!)

This post will be incredibly long, but super fun, I promise!♥ I'll be including info about how to get to & enjoy Fuji-Q cheaply too.♪ Fuji-Q Highland is a theme park that's pretty much next to Mt. Fuji, the view is incredible! Especially when you're inching towards the 121 degree beyond vertical drop on Takabisha www Fuji-Q has four record breaking roller coasters - Fujiyama, Dodonpa, Eejanaika, and Takabisha. However, the amazing park comes at a price of waits that are generally very long, and ride operations that some may find quite fussy. But I'll get onto more info about all of these a little later. c: Firstly, I think I'll give you a little taster with the guide!

 

That coaster in the top right... is my bestie, Takabisha. *^*

 

If you're a family with little children, then Thomas Land is a good place to take them so you don't have to feel bad about going on awesome rides while they can't www 

Actually, it's adorable. I used to love this show when I was teeny and going here was like being a kid again ww There's also 'La Ville de Gaspard et Lisa' which is equally adorable, and possibly even a spot for a cute afternoon tea date.♥

 

Ride page!! The one on the top left was fairly new, I believe. We didn't ride it this time around but I've heard some neat things about it. c:

 

Takabisha! A Gerstlauer Euro-fighter & the current record holder for the steepest steel coaster in the world!♪ The newly built 'Cannibal' at Lagoon Park in the US comes pretty close, but doesn't quite beat Takabisha. I wonder if we'll get something steeper at some point? Timber Drop at Fraispertuis City got the world record just a couple weeks earlier with a drop of 113.1 degrees. It's a little sad that it was only able to have the world record for two weeks ahah...;;

 

Fujiyama is the coaster that makes fun of people who call Fujisan 'Fujiyama' because they mistranslate the kanji www Fujiyama is a Togo hypercoaster that held four world records when it opened! The fastest coaster(80mph), the tallest roller coaster(259.2ft), the tallest complete-circuit roller coaster, and the tallest roller coaster drop(229.7ft).♪ At night, it lights up in rainbow colours - it's really pretty!

 

Here's the other coaster we went on, Eejanaika, which can be translated as 'Ain't it great?'♪ It's a 4D wing coaster made by S&S, so as well as going forwards really really fast... your seat also spins 360 degrees. :D Technically it has only 3 true inversions, but because of the 4D element, the seats rotate to bring that number up to a record breaking 14 inversions.♪

There's also Dodonpa, which we didn't go on this time, but we're planning on going on it next time! Dodonpa is a launched coaster made by S&S which utilises a compressed air launch method.♪ It goes from 0 - 106.9 mph in 1.8 seconds! It used to be the world's fastest coaster. I'm pretty excited to ride this soon!

 

More rides & attractions! Fuji-Q also has a variety of flat rides and haunted houses.♪ There's also an area dedicated to Hamtaro, with an adorable suspended coaster!♥ If you're a fan of Evangelion, there's also a walkthrough attraction.

 

The park is pretty big.♪

 

Takabisha!

 

Mini map of Thomas land.

 

Guide to attractions dans la ville de Gaspard et Lisa.♥

Now onto the trip report & tips!

To briefly recap, the day before this I had a great time at the theme park Toshimaen but ended up being really unwell, which called for an early night since we'd need to get up at around 3:30am to head to Fuji-Q. Why would we need to wake up so early to get to a place that's only around 2 hours away? Because we wanted to get there to queue up before the park opened! Reading past trip reports, one of the main things that was mentioned about Fuji-Q was the queues.(It must be what the 'Q' stands for www) The only way we could get there easily before park opening was to take the highway bus which left from Shinjuku. The highway buses are great, you need to book in advance though. You can do this via the Fuji-Q English website here! The 'Q-Pack' includes travel to & from Fuji-Q, and a freepass (entry to Fuji-Q & unlimited rides apart from 'The Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear'). Our bus left at around 6am, so we decided to get to Shinjuku as soon as we could in case there was a queue at the bus ticket office. There's a map on the page which shows you where the ticket office is. Unfortunately, we had a ridiculous amount of trouble finding it. OTL We took the right exit out of Shinjuku station, but still couldn't find it ww Luckily an incredibly awesome station attendant was able to point us in the right direction from the map I printed.

I was a wobbly messy puddle of anxiousness that morning so we left the hotel earlier than planned because I wanted more time to find the bus and then I started panicking when we couldn't find the bus stop. OTL Big thank you to Josh for being so calm for me. ; v ;♥ 

We had a fairly long wait for the bus but there was a ticket office. The windows to buy tickets weren't yet open but luckily they opened about 15mins before our bus was due ahah. ;; It gave me time to calm down though. I was so relieved that we had arrived in time.^^ At the ticket window, you just need to hand over your printed seat reservation and request the Q-Pack.♪ You'll get a coupon that you just need to exchange at the ticket booths when you get to Fuji-Q.

 

Josh picked us up drinks at a vending machine while I held our place in the bus queue.♪

 

It was really comfy! Very quiet too, I guess a lot of people were sleeping during the journey. The screen at the front tells you where the stops are! Our bus was pretty much direct to Fuji-Q.

 

I was looking forward to some amazing views on the journey but... the expressways had these big walls for a majority of the journey OTL

But what I was able to see was amazing. c: So much green!

 

 

It's easier to appreciate scenery by experiencing it first-hand, but I hope you're enjoying my photos even though they're terrible ; 7 ;♪

 

This has all been very relaxing - the countryside was so pretty and interesting to look at.♪ However, soon it will start to get un-relaxing. c:

 

Josh pointed this out to me as Mt. Fuji, and I was like 'nah, you're joking, we can't be there yet! Besides, Mt. Fuji has a snowy top!". Josh then reminded me it was the middle of summer. Ahah..

 

Eejanaika spotted!!

 

Dodonpa in the distance!

 

The bus kind of looped around the park, which was pretty awesome!

 

Fujiyama & Fujiyama, I mean Fujisan ww

 

We arrived about 40 minutes early, but we were super close to the front of the queue!♪ By this time of the morning, it was already super hot OTL We played Ace Attorney for a while to kill time.^^ This is just the entrance to the gift shop, bowling alley, game centre etc. When it was open, we walked through the gift shop to the theme park entrance! Here's where there's something important for those with Q-Pack coupons! 

Instead of queueing up at the ticker gates, literally RUN over to the little booths!!! RUN!!! People who already have their tickets will start to queue up at the gates www At the booth, just hand over your Q-Pack coupons, and the attendant will give you your free pass! I really recommend taking a passholder to keep this in, as you'll need to show it to the attendants at each ride.♪

 

The entrance! Where we were once near the front, we were now a little way back because we had to exchange our coupons ww.. However, since we'll be staying at the hotel in May, we'll get 15mins early entry! :3 We had to wait at this point for a little while, but it was fun to watch the rides being tested.♪

As soon as the gates opened, everyone legged it to their first ride of the day. We went straight to Takabisha!♪ The best tactic for a good day at Fuji-Q is to run to a ride on opening, get in one ride, then dash straight to the fast pass booth, which is near to Panic Clock, the Mad Mouse, and the Carousel. There'll be a big queue there, so it's pretty easy to spot! Each fast pass costs ¥1,000 and there's a limit of 8 per person. With free pass tickets & fast passes, it can work out to a pricy day trip, so make sure to budget accordingly! (You might also want to visit one of the themed restaurants, I'll cover one in this TR!) As it's in this area, I recommend heading to Fujiyama, Takabisha, or Dodonpa for your first ride of the day; it's a little walk from Eejanaika to the fast pass booth, and you'll be wanting to get there from your first ride as quickly as possible as they sell out super quick!

 

Takabisha!♥♥ As we were getting close to the front of the queue, Josh started to feel like he didn't want to ride. OTL But I was like 'Nooooo we need to do this! You can do this!' and we went on, we even got front seats!! Though before you board, you have to put everything you have on you in a locker, hair accessories (please don't wear extravagant fashion here, you'll regret having to constantly remove things for rides OTL), things in your pockets, things on your wrists etc. Though this won't affect your place in the queue. Let me take this moment to say that the ride ops at Fuji-Q are great! Just before you leave the station, they do little actions and shout 'BISHA! BISHA! TAKABISHA!' and wave as you go into the darkness haha.♪ They also clap and cheer when you come back into the station.♪

I was all 'WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!' having the time of my life and poor Josh was all 'AAAAARGH!!! OAO'. It was amazing though, I loved it! For those in the UK who have been on Saw: The Ride at Thorpe Park (which is also a Euro-Fighter like Takabisha) and have gotten a horrible headache from it, I can assure you that in comparison, Takabisha is lovely and smooth.♪ I was a little worried it'd be rattly like Saw, but it wasn't! 

After this we headed for the fast pass booth and got passes for Fujiyama, Eejanaika, and then I got a fastpass for Takabisha, I just had to ride it again! ; 7 ;♪ Josh didn't want to go on Takabisha again, but he promised he would watch me.♥ I was feeling really pumped and because fast passes meant little to no queue, I didn't feel anxious about the idea of going alone.♪

 

It was a fairly foggy day, and it was really muggy and hot too, so my photos aren't so great. ;; Though if I'm honest, there's not much theming going on in the main Fuji-Q Highland park, so there isn't much to look at apart from rides anyway ww

 

In fact most of my photos from this trip make Fuji-Q look like it's the setting for a horror movie.

While you go up the vertical lift, take in the nice view of Mt. Fuji. In fact you have a few more moments to take it in as you slowly edge towards the drop. :3 Oh! And don't forget to pose for the camera ww

Then there's a drop. :3 Enjoy!

 

Carousel♪ This photo was taken from the fast pass booth queue, if that helps to indicate its location at all. Every now and then, the Fuji-Q Highland jingle would play on all the speakers ww I think everything in Japan has a jingle haha.

 

Looking over towards the Panic Clock.♪

 

We found the sign! :D

 

For anyone who likes depressing, soul detroying anime! :3 We took a look around the gift shop but didn't go into the attraction since we've not watched the series. My sister has made me promise to go here & take photos for her & buy gifts next time, as she's a fan ww.

 

Since it was a little while until our slot for Fujiyama, we headed over to Tondemina! I love this sort of flat ride, they're soooo fun.♪

 

This is another ride where you put everything in lockers. Some people find it a bit of a waste of time and unnecessary and such, but to me, it's better than risking things getting stolen or damaged. Most people take their shoes off too. On some of these rides, you face inwards, but Tondemina's seats face outwards for a great view! Unless you're facing the floor as it's plummeting down ww Then it's a little scary♪

 

Fujiyama fast pass window: open!! Here's our view from the fast pass queue.♪ 

I'm a 'hands in the air' kinda person on rides, and Fujiyama was great for this! ww♪ It's really fun, and while it's pretty straightforward compared to Eejanaika, Takabisha, and Dodonpa (as in, it's a sit-down coaster with no inversions), it's super awesome! I really really enjoyed it, as did Josh. In fact he enjoyed it considerably more than Takabisha ww

 

Massive queue for Fujiyama!

 

While we waited for our Eejanaika fast pass window, we went on the Mad Mouse.♪

 

It was pretty fun, and a really good coaster for children since it's just twisty and turny and bumpy. :3 It was the perfect thing to fit in before Eejanaika. I didn't see the queue for this or Tondemina or Panic Clock get very long, so they're all good rides to fit in while you wait between passes!

 

Eejanaika! But... you need to walk around to the other side of the park for the entrance (which is why I recommended not doing this first. :3)

 

Big NGE boards.♪

 

Watch out!♪

 

To get to Eejanaika, you also have to walk through a souvenir & food area which is themed around traditional Japan, I think that's the most theming you'll get in the main park. The Hamtaro area has a bit of theming, but not much. The Thomas Land and La Ville de Gaspard et Lisa on the other hand, are adorable ww

 

From here, it's still quite a walk up to the ride ww

Sorry for the unclear photo! >< The ceiling of Eejanaika has some pretty cool art.^^;

When we got into the loading area, it started to the rain, uh oh... Another thing that Fuji-Q isn't favoured for, is the fact that rides will close at the tiniest amount of rain. To put this into perspective with other parks, when we went to Thorpe Park later in the year, it was peeing it down with rain and we got three consecutive rides on The Swarm and a few rides on Nemesis:Inferno in the rain before we gave up from being too soggy ww. 

So as we were getting our things in the lockers and taking our shoes off (floorless ride, so they recommend removing shoes), a very soggy train and soggy riders came back, unloaded, and they didn't load it again. The rain had stopped, luckily it was only a short shower, but they still didn't load again. >< What they did do though, was super awesome! They moved the train back, and switched it for another dry one!♪ I have to apologise as at this point, I had already popped my phone in the locker. ;; It was super interesting to watch though!

We were then let onto the train, and strapped in by the ride ops.♪ Just like Takabisha, they did little actions and shouted 'EEJANAIKAAA?!' as we left the station ww It was a really awesome ride, and it was really fun to experience something so new, I'd never been on a 4D coaster before this! The only downside was that I slipped around a lot and couldn't really enjoy most of it properly. >< I'm not sure if I wasn't strapped in enough or if I wasn't holding on properly?;; Either way, I hope next time I can enjoy it more! Josh really really enjoyed it, Eejanaika ended up being his favourite! I'm really determined to have loads more fun on it next time, since I love The Swarm at Thorpe Park soooo much, which is also a wing coaster! Though not 4D ww

 

Next stop was the Hamtaro area!♥ We decided to take a little break from thrills and have some cuteness.♥ I love having a boyfriend who also loves cute things ahh OTL♥♥

 

In the queue for the Hamtaro coaster!♪

It was so so cute ; v ;♥ So very cute ; v ;♥ There's a photo op just as the car leaves the building, so do a cute pose!♪ It's a really cute little suspended coaster ride, I really recommend it as a break between the big thrill rides!

When the ride finished, we headed out to the character goods store and then went along towards the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear & Ultimate Fort.♪

 

If you've played Portal, please read this sign in GLADOS' voice.♪

 

There are two scary maze attractions at Fuji-Q, but we skipped them both because we're both chickens. Bwuk bwuk ww

 

It was now around lunchtime, and my Takabisha fast pass window wasn't for quite a while so we headed over to Thomas Land for a while♪ (Thomas the Tank Engine was a big part of my childhood ww)

I guess all the theming budget went into the areas aimed at children ahah..^^;; Still, these are the areas that really deserve a lot of theming, and it's so cute! It looks like the stories and children's shows ww

We headed straight to K's Thomas Café for some lunch, because not only was it adorable & Thomas themed, but we realised we hadn't actually had a proper meal since we arrived in Japan.. oops. (Or at least I hadn't, I can't remember if Josh had a meal at some point, maybe Jen did in Shibuya) I had been keeping hydrated though! On the topic of staying hydrated, I noticed that vending machines at Fuji-Q are slightly more expensive than the vending machines we had used in Tokyo, not by much, I think maybe they were about ¥50 more? You might want to bear it in mind when budgeting though. c: So anyway, we got ourselves sat down in the adorable little restaurant. It's counter service, so you take a tray and pick from different meals, side dishes, desserts etc. and then pay at the cash register.^^

 

We both chose the Thomas curry rice set♪ 

It's so so cute! The rice is in a Thomas shape ; 7 ;♪ The curry was quite mild and very yummy. I really enjoyed the salad and the cream potato was really nice too! I gave my fried chicken to Josh, since I didn't want a tummyache, it was very gratefully received.♥ My first experience of Japanese curry was super cute! And quite nostalgic ww♪ The dessert was really nice; strawberry jelly with cream & mixed fruit.♥ It came with a little Thomas flag too. :3 There were other options like a burger, and light snacks, but the curry was the least meaty option and it had Thomas shaped rice ww :3

 

Lunch closeup! Choo choo!♪ 

I was super full after this ; 7 ; So glad it would still be a couple hours until Takabisha www

 

Josh had a Harold themed dessert :3 He's not so familiar with Thomas & friends since he didn't watch it so much as a kid, so there's me going "Aww it's Percy! :3" and pointing out other characters and he has no clue what's going on. OTL We rested a lot & took our time with our meal since I'm such a slow eater, and because our feet were aching a little ww We played some Ace Attorney.^^

 

Thomas photo op♪ I was looking very sunburnt & frazzled from the heat, so no photos this time ww^^;;

 

'Really Reliable and Right on Time'

Unlike actual trains in England...;;

 

Bournemouth! I've been there! >v< It was really neat to see the old train posters.♪

 

Adorable little cottages.♪

After wandering through Thomas land, we had a little walk around the rest of the park as we were still quite full from lunch and didn't want to go on any rides.

 

Then we went to the little lake with boats on and sat in the shade for a while.^^;; We really weren't used to the heat ahah. ;; We had a nice time talking and playing some more Ace Attorney though.^^ If you're heading to a busy theme park like Fuji-Q, I really recommend taking something like a 3DS or PSP to play while you're queueing for things or having a rest.♪ It really came in handy.

We then walked around a bit more and headed to Takabisha, as my fast pass window was open!♥ Josh didn't have a pass for this and didn't want a second ride (bwuk bwuk) so he sat down on a bench along the side of the coaster ready to watch me. :3 I then walked around to the fast pass entrace, I was so pumped! *^*

 

 Not even a queue for the fast pass entrance! 

The second ride was as awesome as the first!♪ Josh was just a teeny dot, and I waved to him loads ww Luckily he sort of saw me waving at the top of the drop and while I zooming past him haha♪ Afterwards we headed into the gift shop. There were Hello Kitty & Friends x Takabisha goods! So I had to pick some up.♥

We also found Takabisha sakuma drops! This tin was the start of our sakuma drop tin collection ww♪

We then set off towards our next ride: Panic Clock! It was pretty awesome, though there were a bunch of really really loud & rowdy westerners on it at the same time of us. It was like 'please don't think we're with them ugh OTL'.. Theme parks are fun but when you're going on rides it's really stupid and inconsiderate to mess around while people are trying to queue, be noisy, hold up the queue, be rowdy & mess around while everyone's trying to quickly get their things in lockers and get onto the ride. It's just rude and holds things up (and it made me quite anxious OTL). :c Please don't be one of these people. OTL By all means, have fun and enjoy yourself!! But please don't get in the way of other people's experiences. ;; Common courtesy. ; 7 ;

After Panic Clock, we headed to the Ferris wheel for a more calm ride. ; v ;'' It was great to see so much of the park! Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud cover over Mt. Fuji, but we had some great views of different rides!

 

Looking over at Fujiyama♪ Behind Takabisha can see the Fuji-Q resort hotel, which we'll be staying in next time! :D

 

Dodonpa♪

 

More Takabisha and cloudy Mt Fuji♪

 

Eejanaika to the left and Dodonpa to the right! Behind Dodonpa is Tekkotsu Bancho which is a Starflyer style flat ride, we didn't go on that or the drop ride, Red Tower, this time. Maybe next time?♪

We caught Dodonpa as it was going over the bump!

It was at this point we realised we really wanted to go on Dodonpa OTL

We also saw Eejanaika heading around the first loop!

 

Such a gloomy day. ;; But hopefully I'll get some nice clear photos next time!

 

There's a cute looking café called Peko's Clock Café, but we didn't stop there this time. Maybe next time! We then headed to Dodonpa to see how long the queue was, but it was over two hours long and we noticed the queue for Fujiyama wasn't so long, and since we both enjoyed it we decided to queue for another ride! But sadly, partway through queuing everything stopped and Fujiyama was closed because of strong winds. OTL There wasn't really enough time to queue for Dodonpa and be able to explore La Ville de Gaspard et Lisa before the bus home, so we decided to head there and look around!

 

Just like Thomas Land, it's super adorable and the theming is lovely.♥

 

Big Gaspard et Lisa plushies!♥♥

You could see people preparing the bread!♪

 

Before heading further, we went back to a snack stand near Fujiyama because Josh was hungry ww♪ He got some yakisoba, and I tried a little. It was really really tasty, but so fried, so something to avoid. OTL Then we headed back to La Ville to explore this adorable area further.♥

 

There was a super cute Café, crepe shop, and patisserie!♥ I wasn't hungry for anything, but I definitely want to try out the food when we go in May, since it won't be so hot.♪

 

As you walk through the streets, there's cute relaxing music playing, it feels like a romantic old movie set in France mixed with Animal Crossing.♥ I loved it.♥♥ (Or like that Flight of the Conchords song 'Foux du Fafa' www Voila mon passeport♪)

 

There's a statue of Gaspard et Lisa♥

 

And a little Eiffel Tower!♥ So cute.♥

There was a little car ride that took you around Gaspard et Lisa storybooks.♪ (Also check out the view of Takabisha! :D)

 

 

This is a great spot if you want some neat photos of Takabisha. c:

 

Town map♥

 

Everything was really pristine & pretty.♥

 

There's also a carousel♥ At this point, it was just starting to get dark so there were lots of little lights appearing.♪

 

We were sitting on a bench watching everything get darker and darker, seeing the area lit up was amazing.♪

 

The Eiffel Tower slowly changed colours.♪

 

Fujiyama then started to light up!

 

Next time we go here, I definitely want to spend more time in La Ville de Gaspard et Lisa.♥ It'd be the perfect place for a cute date. :3♥

 

Saying goodbye to Gaspard et Lisa as we head out.

Everything was beautiful in La Ville de Gaspard et Lisa, which was a contrast with the main park ww Once we headed out, we took some time looking around the gift shop. There are lots of good that you can find in the Fuji-Q highland shops, as well as local speciality foods, and Mt. Fuji themed souvenirs.♪ After shopping, it was still about an hour until our bus so we had a drink in the bus station and I took advantage of the free wi fi there to email my parents. c: I booked a really early and really late bus, since I expected us to be on rides the whole time that the park was open.;; It's a shame that it ended up being too hot for queuing for long amounts of time, I'm a little disappointed that I got tired so quickly during the day and kept running out of energy, but then again I had been awake since a ridiculous time in the morning and didn't do well in the heat ahah..;; That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself though, I had an absolutely amazing day!♪ It was great to be able to ride almost all the rides we wanted to, especially after reading horror stories of people only making it onto like... one coaster.;;; So compared to what could have happened, it was super successful! On the bus home, we both fell asleep ww Luckily we didn't need to be up early the next day!

Thank you so much for reading!♪ I hope you found the tips I included useful. c: Please don't hesitate to ask any questions about trip planning! I found planning for Fuji-Q quite difficult because the information I gathered was from so many places, but I tried to include everything I know in this post!♪ Hopefully my post or posts from my next trip here will have better photos ahah.. ; 7 ;♪

Have a lovely day!♥

Love, CoasterCutie♪