Friday July 4th.



Can't believe I'm almost 2 weeks behind on my trip report!



I got up early today to get to my next amusement park, which was a bit of a way out from Tokyo.

Had breakfast again in the executive lounge.

I took the Fuji Excursion limited express from Shinjuku station to Fujikyu (Fuji-Q) Highland station. Although I bought my ticket the day before I got a seat on the 9:30am rather than 8:30am service.



I liked the train. It was surprisingly busy. Many tourists onboard who didn’t reserve a seat (thinking they could just sit in unoccupied ones). All the seats were reserved. So they had a rude shock that they would be standing for the entire journey to Mount Fuji.

I drank a ginger ale on the train, and tried to book my Fuji-Q Highland ticket/passport for the day (which I somehow managed to achieve). The rail journey became quite scenic as it went deeper into the mountains. As we got closer to the park I could start to see some of the rides from the train window.




The park uses facial recognition to enter the rides, so I set that up as I entered the park. (Greeted with a view of Eejanaika).

My first rides were not coasters, surprisingly! I started with Sky Cycle, a ride in which one cycles along a coaster like track around a short course. I liked it, but of course very gentle. Next I bought a priority pass for what I thought was one of the rollercoasters. It was actually for a water rapids ride, with a lift hill and descent similar to a log flume! As I ascended I was facing backwards which was cool. But I was very nervous that the raft could slip over the slide edge so not the most enjoyable attraction!



After this I began a long journey of trying to find a mobile charging station. There were no charging ports available on the train. And most of the chargespot stations didn’t have any spare power banks. At one point an attendant sent me outside the park - where there was meant to be a charging station in a restaurant. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed.




I managed to eventually rent a power bank outside Zokkon, my next ride and first rollercoaster. This was my first experience on a “motorcycle” style rollercoaster ride. I bought a priority pass but there was still a very long wait to get on the ride, about half an hour. In fact I wouldn’t have saved any time had I just stood in the regular line.



The ride itself was fun. For safety we were instructed to always hold onto the handle bars and lean forward (which I did). It was a multi launch coaster and also had music playing throughout the course. So it was a fun ride.



RIP Do-Dodonpa. Gone too soon but not forgotten. My second rollercoaster, Takabisha I was quite nervous to ride! So I took a break by visiting Thomasland.









Eventually I braved the ride. But I chose to stand in the regular queue in case I chickened out. At many points I did want to leave the queue.



Eventually we were strapped in one the train. I was relived to be in the second row so I wouldn’t see the vertical lift hill (which was terrifying me).



We proceeded through the dark tunnel and accelerated. And went through half the course powered by the launch. And then we started the vertical lift hill. The train climbed up it really slowly. And even though we were “sitting”, we were essentially lying down with our knees elevated due to the angle. I was physically shaking as we went up! And then at the top the hill we paused, looking down at the beyond vertical drop.



The drop was fine, and not scary at all for me. And I enjoyed the rest of the course.


Braving Takabisha, I felt ready to take on Eejanaika. But as I got to the ride entrance, the priority pass machines were and covered in wrap and turned off. And I proceeded to the queue entry, but the staff turned me away, saying it the queue was closed. This was despite it being before 4pm and the park closing at 5pm! Two other guests were allowed to enter the queue anyway (which the staff said were because they had bought priority passes, which I would have happily done if I could). I asked if I could go on as a single rider, and fill in the inevitable gaps that would occur on the train. But they wouldn’t entertain that idea. Quite ridiculous, as at better run venues like Europa Park, the queues close at the park closing time. I started to understand why coaster enthusiasts hate how Fuji-Q is run even calling it “Fuji-Queue”. Adding insult to injury Fujiyama was closed the entire day.



And I got no views of Mount Fuji unfortunately due to cloud cover.

So I went back to Takabisha, but the queue for that was also closed. And same for Zokkon. So I spent the last hour reriding Naruto X Boruto Ninja Voltage 3D Shooting Ride. A dark ride/shooting game, which at least got better the more that I did it.

Since I didn’t brave Eejanaika I bought this "I'm chicken" cap as a souvenir.





I then took the slow Fuji Excursion train back to Tokyo.


For dinner I ate at the hotel buffet. It was not bad but didn't seem worth the price, and the food quality was underwhelming.