One of my favorite awesomely random days in Japan was when I went with friends to an amusement park during finals week at the end of the semester. It was well planned, of course, but not by me - I caught wind of it at the last minute and pleaded to go along. And man, I'm so glad I did.
I met up with my friends - Joo, Keito, Nell, John, and Josh - at Nagoya Station early, early in the morning to catch the bus to Nagashima Spaland. I had about an hour's ride to wake up with some DS and heated Naruto discussion before finally arriving at the park's opening at 10. We could already see that, being a cold Tuesday morning with everyone at work or school, we were going to have a blast with the park all to ourselves. And it soon become apparent that what the park lacked in a name, more than made up for with cool points in rides, and in Peter Rabbit references.
Destination #1 was the Steel Dragon 2000, at one point one of the tallest roller coasters in the world (it's still one of the longest). For those of you who have been to Six Flags, it was similar to the Superman, but taller and faster and TWICE as awesome. Yeah, it was kind of like that. For some of us, it was a difficult one to beat afterward; for others, well... that was enough excitement for one day. ;] Those in the former category rode a few more times thanks to NO LINES.
We also went on bobcarts, the Free Fall, the Crazy Mouse (Joo's favorite), the Giant Frisbee, the Space Shuttle, the swings, the "junk in the trunk" tour, the viking ship, the White Cyclone, the Space Shot (different from the Shuttle), and some even went on a splash ride. Not going to lie, I skipped out on that last one so I'd be able to walk around in dry shoes the rest of the cold day. One of the downright coolest parts was riding the Ferris wheel up to the highest point and seeing the whole park below us, right off the water that stretched to a distant city. It was really the nicest amusement park I had ever been to.
Lunch was quick and good (I love me some yakisoba), then we shifted gears and rode some kiddy rides, taking pictures of... well, kiddy-level humor. It was then that we finally caught up to our prey that we had been stalking - a guy in a complete Itachi costume from Naruto, Sharingan contacts, nail polish, and ring included! He was all along, and agreed to let us take pictures, without saying a word... he just nodded. XD
We finished up at the park with a few necessities. There was a haunted house, and much fun was had scaring each other and watching others get scared easily. At the edge of the park we went into a gift shop with very interesting Engrish ("pleasure is boan here"???), and left with even more interesting nicknames (Steel Dragon 2000 4 life).
Some of us wanted to use the hotspring at Nagashima Spaland, but since it was getting late a few of us ended up just going back to my friend Josh's place for dinner. The thing about Josh's host parents is, well, they're sushi chefs. And they live in a sushi restaurant. So that meant cheap, DELICIOUS sushi for all of his friends! We each bought a basic 1000 yen platter, with extra refills and side dishes. I'm drooling just remembering the experience, and wish my camera batteries had lasted the whole day.
After dinner, Josh's host parents suggested we go to a hot spring, so they dropped us off and those of us who wanted to go earlier got our wish after all. It was a very relaxing experience, being the 2nd out of 3 times in 2 weeks that I'd have gone to a hot spring bath house (it's not that scary... really, don't give me that look!). So after an exhausting day, and helping a friend return home after losing contacts in the bath house, I finally got on my train and headed home for the night.
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