Yomiuriland

Tokyo, Japan – Friday, June 24th, 2011

Yomiuriland is the largest amusement park located within the Tokyo metropolitan area (not counting Disney). The park is named for its parent company, which runs the Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest circulating newspaper in Japan with a reputation for its right-wing political stance. (Denying the Imperial Japanese Army’s involvement in forcibly recruiting “comfort women” seems to be near the top of their editorial agenda.) While it might seem like an odd fit for an amusement park, remember that it’s probably no more unusual than a theme park based on Fox, which… almost happened.

However, there’s little on the surface to suggest a political agenda within the amusement park, as Yomiuriland is mostly known for its numerous cherry blossoms that make the park a popular destination in the spring. I was too late for cherry blossom season, however, which left me with a full day to explore a relatively empty, run-of-the-mill Japanese amusement park with a somewhat worthwhile collection of roller coasters, which during my visit was led by the 1988 Togo-built steel coaster Bandit…

…and the 1992 John Pierce-designed wooden coaster White Canyon…

…which was removed in 2013. Like many of the parks I visited in Japan, Yomiuriland has undergone a significant amount of transformation since 2011. Two of the coasters standing in 2011 have since been removed (three if you count Twist Coaster Robin, a Japanese-made attempt at an S&S El Loco design that lasted only a day in 2014). The natural settings of the coasters along a green hillside has since been given over to support a focus on live entertainment and concert venues, while newer attraction have favored enclosed show boxes that promote Japanese industries like textiles or cup noodles in the form of “edutainment” rides. Perhaps that transition from nature-focused to industry-focused (and from grass and trees to steel and concrete) is where some of the conservative political influence can start to be seen.

One of the early signs of a changing Yomiuriland during my visit was the recent permanent closure of SL Coaster, a small Togo family jet coaster that ceased operations just over a month earlier. Between missing out on this one, Gao at Greenland, and the Jet Coaster at Nagashima Spaland the day before, as well as missing parks like Toshimaen entirely, Japanese-style jet coasters proved oddly elusive from this Japanese coaster tour.

The coaster appeared quite short, but had a unique profile with the station at the top of the layout, which then dives down into a valley where it skims above the water, making for a picturesque setting. Looking at satellite imagery, it appears as though the lake has since been replaced with a small parking lot, which would seem to be one of the most senselessly awful attraction replacements by an amusement park this past decade.

Another coaster I missed out on during my visit was MOMOnGA Standing and Loop Coaster, an early looping Togo design from 1979. It was closed all day for “inspection”, leaving me with only 3/5 of my expected coaster tally for the day.

Unlike the twin-tracked Milky Way at Mitsui Greenland, this ride uses a transfer track to alternate a sit-down train and a stand-up train. The layout looks very short and basic, with a curving drop, a vertical loop around the lift hill, then a helix into the brakes. But to its credit, it’s actually not too much different from a compact Schwarzkopf coaster of the era, and the lift-thru-a-loop is among the earliest examples of that feature I can think of.

Despite its age, MOMOnGA Standing and Loop Coaster is still standing at the park as I write these words, so it might be possible I’d get to ride some day if I ever return.

Before I get to the big two coasters that were open, a quick tour of some of Yomiuriland’s other attractions. A copy of the space shuttle-themed Looping Starship at Nagashima Spaland the other day was also found here.

An an odd trough-based Go Kart attraction and an elevated tandem bicycle attraction (Ptera Cycle) both looked a bit dated, but neither were like anything I had ever tried before.

The interactive Animal Rescue dark ride had an odd storyline involving shooting poachers to rescue animals… while driving around in animal skin-print camo buggies. (Some of the animals are shooting targets too!) I vaguely recall (although I couldn’t find corroboration for this and I might be thinking of a different attraction) a concept where the ride could give you negative points if you shoot an “innocent” target. It seemed like a neat variation on the typical shooter attraction, except I quickly found that waiting to identify which targets to avoid was less efficient than just gunning down everything and taking a few losses along the way. (At least such tactics only ever apply to dumb games…)

There was a Haunted House walk-through that seemed to mix J-Horror and sci-fi elements.

Most bizarre of all was this walk-through attraction (no English name given) which best I could tell was a… haunted aquarium?

I mean, that’s what this is, right? How else am I to interpret this bloody skeleton holding a yellowfin tuna standing out front?!?

Over in the kid’s area was Wan Wan Coaster Wandit, a children’s coaster that looked like a Zierer Force model but was actually made in Japan.

While not a roller coaster, one of the more interesting discoveries inside this park was what appeared to be a modern re-creation of a Traver Engineering Tumble Bug ride called the Animal Coaster. The only two authentic models of the ride system that remain are found in Kennywood and Conneaut Lake Park.

I have little idea how this particular attraction came to be or when it might have been made. The Animal Coaster is obviously not a Traver creation, although some aspects of Yomiuriland’s model might improve on the Traver version such as the variable height of the hills that lead to a large dip into a small trench, making this a terrain flat ride?

A Giant Ferris Wheel provided a good view of the park and the surrounding Tokyo skyline, including its two largest coasters.

At the far end of the park near White Canyon were a set of S&S towers. Nothing remarkable about these, other than the curious names of Crazy Hyuuuu for the shot tower side and Crazy Stooon for the drop tower side.

Which brings me back to White Canyon. Of the wooden coasters in Japan as of 2011, this was the one I feared the most. White Canyon opened in 1994 as the fourth of seven wooden Cyclone-clones built worldwide (most of them also during the 90’s). Despite the layout similarities, the reputation of the Cy-clones was oddly polarizing, as rides of either high praise (Texas, Aska, Viper) or very poorly regarded (Psyclone, Bandit), with a great deal of daylight between the two ends. White Canyon fell decisively on the poor end of the spectrum, and having skipped Psyclone while it was around and never having gotten to Bandit, it was in Japan were I’d discover just how badly this layout could deliver.

The biggest warning sign: the sight of the lumbering coffin cars with a ridiculous padded frame over each seat that I’ll call the “Cushioned Cranium Cage”. I’ve never seen a more horrifying modification to a coaster car in all of my travels:

What purpose they’re intended to serve, I’m not certain. Maybe has something to do with reach envelopes, or someone noticed the ride was rough and decided to add extra padding to protect rider’s heads… never mind that the padded frame is the part of the car that shakes and rattles the most. The operator saw me taking pictures in the station and offered to capture my look of “excitement” as I climbed on board.

White Canyon is one of three coasters designed by John Pierce, who also recreated the Twister from Elitch Gardens when it moved to a new location, but is most (in)famous for the original Rattler at Fiesta Texas. Pierce’s designs drew some similarities to fellow wood coaster designer Bill Cobb’s, in that both featured small, seemingly random lurches and shimmies along the track, particularly along low-speed areas, which the lightweight Morgan trains mostly seemed to slip and skip over. White Canyon follows most of the familiar patterns of previous Cyclones, with a seemingly denser superstructure to surround the lower levels of the track, including a surprise tunnel near the end of the run.

Getting back to the station, I was mostly surprised that White Canyon wasn’t as terrible as I might have expected. It was far from good, mind you, but the track seemed flexible enough to avoid the hard jackhammering associated with the worst of the “rough wooden coasters.” The Cushioned Cranium Cages didn’t get in the way too much… although I only rode it in the front seat where a mostly clear view was possible. The operators loaded from front to back, and I was usually the only one there, so I’d expect a different story if I ever got seated elsewhere.

The same “front-to-rear” boarding policy also applied to Yomiuriland’s largest coaster, Bandit, ensuring I’d get plenty of laps in the front row and few any further back than the third car.

Bandit opened in 1988 as the largest coaster in Japan, as well as the fastest roller coaster in the world at 68.3mph, a record lasting one year until Magnum XL-200 opened the following season. Similar to how Magnum took Arrow’s mine train products and scaled it up to super-size, Bandit served as a similar upscaling for Togo’s jet coasters.

Like any good jet coaster, Bandit has a terrain layout, running alongside a valley to allow for a high-speed ride with some fairly big drops all the way through the end. Although the lift hill stands “only” 167 feet tall, the ride has a total height differential of 256 feet, a record it likely held until the Steel Phantom opened in 1991, and possibly until Fujiyama opened in 1996. (I’ve never seen the Steel Phantom’s total height differential published, but if the lift hill was 31 feet or more higher than the crest of the second hill, which seems about the right neighborhood, then Phantom would have broken the record.)

Honestly, I think Bandit is a cool ride. It reminds me of a slightly smaller, but more sprawling, terrain-based counterpart to Fujiyama at Fuji-Q Highland, which became my favorite coaster in Asia. The biggest difference in quality between the two is the rolling stock. While Fujiyama had spacious vehicles in which we could ride in comfort and style, Bandit continues the Yomiuriland trend of poor ergonomic design, this time with tight, rigid shoulder harnesses, seats positioned just a few inches above the floor, and, if seated in the rear of a car, virtually no legroom between the seats in front.

I’m fairly average height, and the second rows were such a tight, uncomfortable fit, that the second time the very friendly operators tried to assign me one of those seats I had to plead to let me sit in the next row after. This required some Very Serious consultation with the lead operator on duty, their friendly disposition suddenly switching to a huddle of hushed voices and concerned faces. However, they finally reached an agreement to make an unprecedented breach of protocol and permit me to skip the order of assigned seats to the next one. Unfathomable in Japan, I know. I was sure to express the deepest gratitude of my kneecaps as I scrunched into the only slightly more spacious seat.

Finally ready to dispatch, Bandit begins with flat-topped hill dropping down and into an elevated fan curve.

The worst part of the ride is a strong jolt into the following uphill helix, but the helix itself is fun, one of those classic Togo high-banked, high G-force, yet smoothly circular maneuvers.

From the helix there’s another curve leading to a couple of hills that run through a dense thicket of trees, amplifying the sense of speed.

Another curve, then the sense of speed is truly amplified as a much larger drop appears, sending the cars down to the lowest point at the bottom of the valley. Rising up to the opposite end of the park over by White Canyon, there’s a sharp turnaround with some heavy laterals before a final set of drop back down into the valley.

Another curve, then a final rise into the brakes back on top of the hillside.

Take a front seat ride on Bandit:

One more unique feature of Yomiuriland’s hillside location is the gondola lift connecting the park to the Keio-Yomiuriland train station. The gondola pathway goes straight through the layout of Bandit, providing some great aerial views either as you arrive or bid farewell to the park.

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