Fujikyu Highlands (Fuji-Q for short) Roller Coaster Theme Park

And on sunday I was headed off to Fujikyu Highlands, which is the local equivalent of Six Flags Magic Mountain.

We got there pretty early, so I employed the following strategy.  Most theme park newbs head to the coaster nearest the entry way, thinking that that first coaster's line will only become more inundated as the day goes on.  WRONG, PARK NEWBS.  If I were to draw a heat map of patrons of the park, most folks wander into the coasters closest to the entryway upon park opening.  The front of the park would be most saturated, "hotter" or redder in color on a heat map relative to everywhere else.  As the day goes by, people make their way to the deeper corners of the park, finally reaching a sort of equilibrium.  At that point the wait for the rides in the front of the park will actually decrease relative to opening (at least for winter season, for summer season it's all bets off).  

Keeping that in mind, I moved my ass to the far corner of the park, towards the one ride where I knew the loading mechanism took forever.  So, I get there, the wait is roughly one hour, which is fine.  The wait for the first coaster at the front of the line that I skipped was about 2 hours long.  After I get out of my first coaster, I jump onto another coaster, only to return to the first coaster.  The line at the first coaster had now dwindled to less than an hour's wait.  Time well spent!

Ok, ride-hopping details aside, here's the rundown of the rides here:

Above, Fujiyama.  It used to be the world's tallest coaster in 1996, but is now the world's 8th tallest, 5th longest, and 10th fastest roller coaster.  It reminded me somewhat of a longer goliath without the intermittent-blindness-causing-downward spiral section =p  Good or bad thing, I'm not sure, haha.

Below, Eejanaika, which is the equivalent of X in six flags.  This one's a fourth dimensional coaster.  So you've got the typical up/down and lateral movements of the train, but each row of seats in the train actually rotates along an axis perpendicular to the track.  So when you reach the initial drop, that sumbitch actually rotates your seat so that your body literally faces straight down.  As in belly and face TOWARDS THE GROUND.  Ground 180 degrees, your front side 90 degrees.  It's legit.  

I was always wondering how it worked, and I figured that it would use some method similar to how the valves in our car engines change depending on how they rode on a camshaft, and I was right!  X at home is behind the loading station, so you can't really get a good view of how the track works.  Eejanaika was out in plain view so I had a chance to view the track and I noticed an extra set of track guides that would work as the equivalent of a camshaft, when they're nearly next to the main track you'd be facing forward.  Once you the track guides separated from the main track, you'd rotate backwards.  Anything in between would allow for other positions.   

MUST WATCH THE VIDEO.

You can see the seats invert about 2 times in this video, once at the top to position you face down for the drop, then again right before the lowest point of the drop.

'merica, FUCK YE....wait, WTH is that supposed to mean?!  =p

Below is Dodonpa.  This is the 3rd faster coaster in the world (it used to be fastest in 2001).  BUT, it still has the world's fastest acceleration at launch time.  And THIS fact, my dear readers, was infuckingcredible.  Pneumatic pressure was used to launch your ass from a standstill to a OMFGMYFACEHURTS in 0.00000001 seconds (ok I made that up). 

Here I recorded the music played while waiting in line.  Huge contrast from themed techno music in Six flags.  It was like elevator music everywhere, haha.

 I couldn't get any videos of the launch because it occurs in a tube.  And look, the camera that takes your photo is actually shaped like a BIGASS camera.  You can see it in the picture below, to the left of beautiful Mt. Fuji.

Below, Takabisha holds the record for the steepest drop, which is 121 degrees.  It sounds bad, but it's not too creepy.  The damn thing hangs you way over the edge before it decides to drop you.  I'd prefer a whole kinetic freefall, but maybe the track can't hold onto the train?

Takabisha has a teeny little cart though, so it reminds me of the little rollercoaster penguins that mom used to sell at her toy store.

Very fun day!