Fujikyu Highland -- a coaster paradise!

My gal pal Erin and I are huge coaster lovers! The last time either of us had been on a wicked roller-coaster was when we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. A couple years ago I was watching the Amazing Race and in one epsiode the teams had to go to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji. One of the tasks was to go to Fujikyu Highland, ride on a coaster while searching for a yellow flag hidden somewhere within the grounds. The coaster looked like so much fun on the show, so I looked into the amusement itself and found that it had 3 roller-coasters holding 3 Guiness World Book of Records (tallest, fastest, & most inversions).

Once we knew we were going to Japan I told Jamie I HAD to check out these coasters and fortunately enough we got to do just that with my parents!

We left Yokohama Wednesday morning and took several trains to a town called Kawaguchi (it took about 2 hours). Once we found a hotel, we started walking towards the amusement park. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning...I was so excited! I was also hoping my back wasn't going to give out on me since it was pretty sore from all the walking/standing we had been doing the past couple of days.

We paid our admission and were told that it was a minimum 1.5 - 2 hour wait for each coaster! Holy crap!! Oh well, I wasn't about to turn around...this is the time I would like to thank my parents and Jamie for spending the day with me at Fujikyu. I know they probably could've cared less to ride these coasters, but they knew how much I wanted to, so they stuck by me....despite the crazy weather!! My mom was a champ too considering she got hit with a nasty cold!

The first line we joined was for a coaster called Eejanaika. This coaster holds the world record for the most inversions. Your arms are strapped in with your feet dangling and you ride it backwards. INSANE. The first 30 minutes went by quickly, but then the novelty started to wear thin and the weather started to turn. It started to get cloudy, then windy, the light snow, then heavy heavy snow!!! Never in my life have I seen snowflakes that big! We were all freezing, yet were so close from the top.

Just when I could see the cars and about 6 people were in front of us....they announced they were stopping the ride because of the weather! If you could have seen the look on my face. My lips were blue, I couldn't feel my fingers and my back was killing from standing in line for almost 2.5 hours!!!! They gave us a ticket and said if the weather cleared up we could come back to the front of the line. The way mother nature was acting I was sure the park was going to be closed down for the day!

We were all starving, so we went to get something to eat and warm up. No more then 15 minutes later the snow had stopped and the sun was starting to come out. We went back to the Eejanaika line and waited for about10 minutes until we loaded the coaster. The ride was only about 40 seconds or so and we were all shaking like leaves at the end, but it was unbelievable. One of the most thrilling coasters I have been on by FAR!!! This was the only coaster Jamie has been on other then the PNE one...and he was so amazing he managed to hang on to the camera the whole time to tape the ride.

After that ride we headed over to the tallest roller-coaster in the world, Fujiyama. The snow had started to fall again, and so they stopped the ride. We only waited here for 1.5 hours and just as we sat in the cars the sun started to come out again. This ride was amazing because just as we were riding to the peak of the coaster, we all looked to the left and BAAAM---there was Mt. Fuji clear as day without a cloud around it. It was absolutely breath-taking!! I am not quite sure how to edit the videos Jamie took, but as we proceeded to go down, the camera accidently turned off. He managed to turn it back on and sort through all the settings to start recording again!!!

By the time we got off Fujiyama we proceeded to the one that holds the record for the fastest roller-coaster. At this time it was 5:30 and they weren't letting anyone else wait in line because the park closed at 6pm! We couldn't believe it. I begged and begged for them to let us on, but no go :( I honestly I had no idea what time the park closed at. I am sure if it wasn't for the weather, we would have been able to go on more rides, but being that close to a mountain of its magnitude, you never know what you are in for weather-wise! Needless to say I was very satisfied. I went on 2 of the most amazing roller-coasters in the world and I got to see Mt. Fuji at it's finest while riding one of them!! A great memory!!

Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures we took that day! Enjoy!