Kon’Nichiwa KAIZEN Fans! How are you all? We are fine here. Sorry for the out of communicado during the holidays, I wanted to make a post, really, but I was far too lazy watching Trevor as he beat FF7, nearly completed FFX (he is going to soon) and is nearly halfway in FFX-2. Honestly, time made me forget how awesome X and X-2 are—truly the degree of awesomeness that separates 7 and X is minute, with 7 just being slightly superior. This means that, after Square-Enix completes all our lives by announcing the much rumored remake of 7, we can cheer, wait for it to come out, play it to no end but, and I mean BUT, take a few minutes here and there to begin a new let’s-harass-Square-Enix-campaign to get them to remake X. Dude how awesome would that be?? Anyways, I wanted to share with you some videos I found on YouTube that are near and dear to me, the first two are from FujiKyu Highland, the park we went to during Trevor’s Make-A-Wish. The first one is of DoDonPa, which is the fastest accelerating roller coaster on the planet, you go from 0 to 107 MPH (170KPH) in 2 seconds and this video captures the essence of that violent leap into hyperspace quite well, and has an absolutely breathtaking view of Mt. Fuji (FujiKyu Highland is at the base of Mt. Fuji). Indeed, I love Japan and roller coasters–so it was something almost tear-inducing in its’ beauty to ride DoDonPa and FujiYama (the next coaster video) in the shadow of such a beautiful mountain that is the symbol of Japan hehe! Anyways, in case you are curious, DoDonPa’s name is like our Do-Re-Mi, except Do-Re-Mi measures pitch and Do-Don-Pa are beats on a drum. As you wait in line, you hear DO–DON–PA, DO–DON–PA, which speeds up as you advance through the line (DODONPA, DODONPA!) that creates a great mood and only builds the dread of knowing you are about to strap into a sled and travel over nearly 2 miles of track in 55 seconds, yeowch! Well, as I said, FujiYama is next. When FujiYama was built, it was the tallest and longest coaster in the world. It is now the 6th tallest and 3rd longest. FujiYama’s name is actually a play on words. Yama is mountain in Japanese, which is obviously then a reference to Mt. Fuji (right before you dive over the ~250 foot drop you see Fuji right in front of you), but also coasters used to be called ‘Russian Mountains’ (they were invented in Russia basically from sleds that had wheels which were used on fake mountains during summertime) and Fuji can mean ‘king’, which makes FujiYama’s alternate meaning ‘King of Russian Mountains’ or ‘King of Coasters’. As you walk into the entrance you go under a huge sign that says ‘KING OF COASTERS FUJIYAMA’–then, when you sit down, the attendants bow and say something like, ‘Fujiyama Desu’ (this is Fujiyama) then they talk some more and start clapping and cheering as you leave the station. Both FujiYama and DoDonPa are well loved and known, we actually bought DoDonPa shirts and everyone around Tokyo had to say hi to us and say, ‘DODONPA WOOSH!’–we literally visited the Japanese equivalent of Mt. Rushmore or something LOL! The last video is of Thunder Dolphin, the world’s 5th tallest roller coaster (roughly same height as FujiYama, but about half the ride length), which was at our hotel (Tokyo Dome Hotel). Thunder Dolphin is also very loved, when you get on attendants do a show in sign language while saying something in Japanese to the effect of ‘You are going to go through the hoops like a dolphin at a water show!’. They say this because Thunder Dolphin threads through a tiny hole in the nearby LaQua spa (you feel a violent WOOOOOSH of wind as you pass through) then, right after that, you go through the middle of the Big-O, the world’s first center-less ferris wheel (basically, a giant flying donut). So yeah, all these coasters hold special memories for Trev and I, and we can’t wait to visit them again (not to mention ride Eejanaika, a rollercoaster that is at FujiKyu that was down for maitainence–but reopened the day we left–DANG! In case you are wondering, Eejanaika loosely translates to ‘ain’t it great’!)–so anyways here is the videos!

DODONPA

FujiYama
(BTW when the guy says ‘That is the TOGO spirit I know’ he is referring to TOGO, a now bankrupt Japanese company that built FujiYama. TOGO coasters are known for their general roughness, and the section he says it in you actually have to ’surf’ on FujiYama in your seat or be thrown side to side like you are in a tidal wave. TOGO went bankrupt after being sued by Knott’s Berry Farm for a faulty coaster built for them, FujiYama is the biggest coaster TOGO ever built)

Thunder Dolphin