Falling in Love with Nagashima Spaland (16/03/2024)

This blog post is essentially a love letter to Nagashima Spaland; an amusement park that now ranks as one of my favourite parks in the world based purely on vibes alone. Nagashima Spaland will never win prizes for best theming – it is an amusement park through and through, and it is comfortable with that fact – but what it lacks in world-building, it makes up for in retro charm and the most incredibly relaxed atmosphere. We visited on a pleasantly mild day, but Nagashima Spaland felt like stepping into a warm bath with how comforting it was. 

Nagashima Spaland (or Naga Spa) is a park that’s on most coaster enthusiasts’ radars if visiting Japan because of the sheer number of rollercoasters it boasts (the most at one park in the country, with 13 in total), but I think it would be doing the park a great disservice to write it off as simply a cred-accruing exercise. The park has oodles of appeal, from its sun-faded colour palette and palm trees, to its jazzy ‘80s inspired soundtrack, that all encapsulates the quintessential Japanese amusement park aesthetic – slightly dated yet immaculately clean, like an abandoned mall with a fastidious janitor and a gardening budget.

Nagashima Spaland was actually the park I was most excited for in the trip, not just because I’m a coaster enthusiast, but also because it promised a Japanese park experience that is slowly dying out as the population ages and the economy continues to stagnate. (Cheery basis for a theme park trip, I know). Japan’s theme park heyday arguably passed a quarter of a century ago, despite the outliers of the vast successes of Disney and Universal, but Nagashima Spaland is proof that there is still life in the old-school amusement park model.

Reaching Nagashima Spaland

We certainly were keen to visit Nagashima Spaland, or we wouldn’t have committed to the 4am alarm necessary to get there in time for the park’s opening. At least outside of summer, Nagashima Spaland has relatively short opening hours (9:30am to 5:30pm on the Saturday we visited), so we knew we wanted to squeeze the most out of the day.

We therefore dutifully left our hotel at 5:40am, and were on our way on the shinkansen around 6:20am (¥11,880/£62.67 return, Osaka - Nagoya), reaching Nagoya in just under an hour. We then bought our park + express bus combi tickets at the nearby Meitetsu Bus Centre (¥8100/£42.50, cash only), which included a coupon for a discount at the neighbouring outlet mall (Nagashima Spaland is part of the wider Nagashima Resort, that includes the aforementioned mall, hotels, an onsen 'theme park,' a flower park and the Anpanman museum and play park.) With these costs, Nagashima Spaland actually worked out as our most expensive park visited per park hour (£18.99 per hour versus USJ’s £6.07 per hour), but if you looked at it in terms of number of rides experienced for the entrance price, it was by far the best value (£2.38 per ride versus USJ’s £7.17). Yes, I did work all of this out in a spreadsheet, and yes, I did enjoy it.

If taking the bus from Nagoya, I would strongly recommend getting there well in advance of the departure time of the bus you intend to take, as the buses leave once there are enough passengers lined up. We might have been the only people on our bus aiming for the amusement park, but there were lots of Chinese tourists heading to either the outlet mall at the resort or the hot springs, so the bus left 15 minutes before its scheduled departure time.

The bus arrived at its final stop, Nagashima Onsen (there is no dedicated Spaland stop), around 8:30am, and we spent a good few minutes trying to work out where the heck we were supposed to go. The bus dumps you by an entrance that isn’t the one you need, but we worked out that we’d need to walk through the shopping mall, brilliantly named ‘Jazz Dream,’ to get to the main entrance. (We actually came back to the mall for dinner after the park closed, as it has a bustling food court, with lots of different options at decent prices, from Korean cuisine to ‘healthy’ plant-based bowls.) We were the only people walking through the mall except for staff, and some pathways were blocked off still, so it felt like we were the first guests. However, once we wound our way round to the entrance at 8:55am, we saw that there were around 50 to 100 people ahead of us who must have arrived by car – how foolish of us to have ever doubted the keenness of Japanese parkgoers.

The view from the bus is an enthusiast's dream.

My First RMC: Hakugei

Entering the park at pretty much 9:30am on the dot, the obvious priority coaster-wise was Hakugei (‘White Whale’), the 2019 RMC Hybrid coaster, and conversion of White Cyclone, which had operated from 1994 to 2018. At least during our visit, the other headline coaster, Steel Dragon 2000, consistently had the longer queues, and it seemed to be where most people ran to straight away. 

Hakugei was our first taste of Nagashima’s quirky operations. The park is known for its very slow dispatches and unusual practices, but whilst some of them were certainly things I’d not seen elsewhere, I didn’t feel like we waited an excessively long time for anything. No ride operated with German efficiency, but at least on the quiet day we visited, I never once felt like bludgeoning myself unconscious on the ride restraints from how long it was taking to dispatch. Seeing online the wait time for Steel Dragon reaching four entire hours during 'Golden Week' (a holiday period running from late April to early May), I accept the possibility that self-bludgeoning may have occurred if we had visited on a busier day. Once everyone is seated in the train, a board is brought down the station showing the rules for riding: keep your head facing forward (makes sense), sit back and upright (again, understandable), and keep your hands crossed over each other on the bar at all times (huh?) About a third of the way through the course I stopped crossing my hands and let go because it wasn’t a particularly comfortable ride position, and I didn’t actually feel much of a need to brace on Hakugei anyway; despite being thrown around a fair amount, it was smooth as silk. One thing to note about ride operations is you cannot choose your row as they only batch one train at a time and fill from the front.

Luckily, we were assigned the front row for our first ride, and it was great to experience the course with such an unimpeded view; you certainly feel exposed riding up at the front. After this first ride, I could tell that Hakugei was a fantastic coaster, and definitely within my top ten, however it still felt tamer than I expected, and I wasn’t getting the airtime I’d been promised. I put this down to it being one of the first trains of the day, and thankfully, my theory would prove to be correct.

Hakugei looming behind the park's Shoot the Chute.

Acrobat: Another B&M Flying Coaster!

Tucked away along an almost secluded path at the front of the park was another near-walk-on, Acrobat, Nagashima’s clone of Manta at Seaworld Orlando. I’ve not ridden Manta so I can’t directly compare, but at least from their stats, they should be very similar experiences. What I could compare this ride with was The Flying Dinosaur at USJ. The Flying Dinosaur consistently ranks as the enthusiast’s choice of flying coaster, and if intensity is what you value most, I would completely agree. And yet, I’m still not sure which I prefer because they both had flaws in their comfort levels in different ways. On the one hand, The Flying Dinosaur tried to turn me into human soup for prolonged intense elements, but was ultimately a comfy ride, but on the other, Acrobat spread its intensity more evenly and enjoyably, yet still seemed intent on leaving me with the gnarliest of hip bruises. I’ve not had this problem before with a B&M flying coaster, so I don’t know if I just got myself into the restraints at a funny angle, but I definitely felt like the entire weight of my body was pivoting on my hip bones and I couldn’t wait to get back into an upright position.

I think personally for me, Acrobat was marginally the more enjoyable ride; it still delivered more intensity than I was expecting whilst not causing me to worry about the long-term effects of being compacted like a tin can, I loved the splashdown at the end, and I could actually enjoy seeing the layout, as I was able to wear my glasses for all rides at Nagashima Spaland with a strap. Another selling point that could be seen as an unfair comparison point, but one I think is crucial for enjoyability, is that we waited only five minutes for Acrobat, whereas The Flying Dinosaur was consistently posting a wait time of two hours. I would argue that a two hour wait for any ride hampers your ability to fully appreciate it, and being forced to endure this through a queue line of un-themed cattle-pens contributes to a downgraded experience when viewing the ride more holistically. If one day I get to ride The Flying Dinosaur with a 30-minute wait time, maybe I’ll change my mind, but until then, I’ll always take a 7/10 coaster with no wait over an 8/10 that gives me time to have an existential crisis in its queue.

Steel Dragon 2000: A Whole Lotta Track For Not A Lot Going on

Next up was Steel Dragon 2000: the current longest coaster in the world, joint record-holder for fastest non-launched coaster, second-tallest non-launched coaster, and owner of the second-largest drop that’s not a top-hat. I was a little intimidated by this ride beforehand, partly because the ride manufacturer, D.H. Morgan Manufacturing, didn’t fill me with confidence, and I worried it was going to ride like the Big One on steroids. Not wanting to waste time queueing for a ride we both suspected would not be a favourite, we opted to buy a fast track for ¥1000 (roughly £5.20) from one of the little machines dotted around the park (note: these only take cash). There was still availability for the current fast track time slot, so we were able to head to the coaster straight away, and were on in around 10 minutes, as opposed to the billed 90 minutes.

Just like with Hakugei, there was an eccentric safety spiel: this time we had to participate in a call and response, where the ride hosts would shout out “junbi” (preparations) and we had to call back “okay” with an OK hand sign. Three times in a row. Just in case our junbi was not really ok. This was so delightfully daft that for the rest of the trip, we both kept asking each other if our junbi was ok when leaving our hotel room for the day, or prepping to go somewhere. I’m sure some people would find this system infuriating, because it does slow down dispatches, but I personally found it endearing, and I loved having these light-hearted interactions with the staff. Despite Steel Dragon’s intimidating stature, it’s still treated as a fun, goofy ride by its team, accompanied by the usual “itterasshai” (see you soon) and a wave when you leave the station.

The best thing about Steel Dragon is that it offers gorgeous views of the bay from over 300 feet in the air, but on the whole, it’s nothing remarkable. It’s a good rollercoaster, reminding me of the Big One for being not that thrilling for its size, but thankfully, far smoother and certainly more fun, with some nice bunny hills. If we’d had time, I would have given it another go, but I wasn’t devastated to have only had one ride.

Steel Dragon 2000 from the road before the main entrance.

Arashi: 4D Free Spins Exist, I Guess

Our final ‘big’ coaster was Arashi, an S&S 4D Free Spin. These haven’t made their way over to Europe, so I hadn’t ridden one before, and I can’t say after riding Arashi that I feel I’d been missing out on much. It’s not one of the worst coasters I’ve been on, but it is one of the least coaster-y feeling coasters I’ve been on. If anything, it felt more like a flat ride, and suspiciously like my arch-nemesis Little Star at Hanayashiki, with its intense flips. My friend really didn’t enjoy Arashi, and I felt like it’s the sort of ride I would go on once each visit. When I think of this coaster, I think of the word “tolerable.” Perhaps that’s not the greatest recommendation.

Arashi, the green coaster, amongst a tangle of other coaster track.

Scooping up the Other (Available) Creds

Luckily, the wait was only 25 minutes for Arashi, and thus began our (leisurely) push to get all the other creds out of the way to allow time for re-rides on Hakugei. First up was (Right Side) Wild Mouse, one of two Mack Wilde Maus mobile models that mirror each other and have lived their lives decidedly not mobile, being in place at the park since 1996. This wasn’t anywhere near as good as the slightly unhinged, seemingly brake-less Wilde Maus XXL that’s toured Hyde Park Winter Wonderland in the past, and we waited 35 minutes for it, which is longer than I would have liked for a bog-standard wild mouse. But it was fine. Sadly, (Left Side) Wild Mouse was closed, presumably because the park was too quiet to warrant two identical rides operating, so this was the first cred we missed here.

Next was Jet Coaster, the park’s oldest coaster, operating since 1966, now with ‘80s Togo track, but originally designed by Meiwa Kōmuten; a company that seems to have only ever made four coasters (all others are defunct) and that now primarily builds office blocks. I actually think Jet Coaster has a lot of charm and it’s nice and smooth for something so old. It would be really pretty too from late spring to autumn, as it’s set amongst the trees; in mid-March, many of the trees were still bare, but it was still a cute little ride. We only waited around 15 minutes for this coaster, so that’s another plus point!

Jet Coaster's brown coaster track set amongst the trees, and alongside the Peter Rabbit themed skyride.

We then strolled over to Looping Star nearby, a Schwarzkopf from 1982, which we only waited 10 minutes for. I don’t really remember much about this coaster, and it’s barely distinguishable in my mind from our next one, Corkscrew, an Arrow Dynamics coaster from 1978. I can therefore only assume both of these coasters were perfectly acceptable fillers – they certainly weren’t rough, although at least on one of them, there was very little leg room and my knees slightly suffered for it. As an aside, Nagashima Spaland really seems to be a living history of the post-war rollercoaster industry, from local construction companies trying their hand at track manufacturing in the post-war leisure boom, to the big names of the ‘80s like Schwarzkopf and Arrow, and now the current major players like B&M and flavour-of-the-decade, RMC.

Completing both of these rides in under 40 minutes, we decided now was the time for a quick pitstop. The sun was out, so of course it was ice cream cone weather, and we both enjoyed really lovely soft serve from Shuttle Snack (cash only) for about ¥450 (around £2.35).

The only food we ate in the park, but it was fantastic.

30 minutes later, we were re-energised for our final two creds, both in the children’s area of the park. First up was Peter Rabbit Coaster, a little powered coaster by Hoei Sangyo, who’ve only ever made family coasters for the Japanese market. Unsurprisingly, this ride is themed to Peter Rabbit, as are several other rides in the park, because for some reason, Peter Rabbit is now the park’s main mascot. Even my ride wristband said “Nagashima Spaland – with Peter Rabbit” on it. It doesn’t make any sense as a licensing choice, since the park’s bay side location and palm trees don’t scream British woodland whimsy, but thankfully, he’s not very obtrusive. The train design for Peter Rabbit Coaster is very sweet, even if that’s the full extent of the theming (except for a Peter Rabbit tea towel hanging up in the window of the operator’s booth). Last but actually not least was Children Coaster, a Zierer Tivoli Medium – one of my coaster guilty pleasures. We waited five minutes for Peter Rabbit Coaster and walked onto Children Coaster, so by 1:50pm, we had scooped up all the creds.

Peter Rabbit Coaster's adorable (literal) train design.

The Creds That Got Away

There were tragically two more creds we missed out on: Ultra Twister, a rare Togo pipeline coaster from 1989, and Shuttle Loop, a Schwarzkopf from 1980. Both were closed for the day with no forewarning, and I was especially saddened by Ultra Twister’s closure, as it was probably my only opportunity to ever ride this unique coaster type, and it was my second most-anticipated coaster of the trip. It didn’t look like it would have been very comfortable, but it did promise to be silly. Neither ride station showed any signs of recent life, so I do hope both closures were due to longer term TLC and not an indication of imminent permanent closure. I can tell I had a great, relaxing time at Nagashima Spaland however, because I was only minorly salty about missing these creds and not inconsolable; I think I would have had a full-blown breakdown if I’d been forced to contend with Ultra Twister’s closure whilst in the stressful environment of USJ.

Ultra Twister in the background and Bobkart, a long-term signposted closure, in the foreground.

Another ride I was sad to see closed was Freefall – one of those early Intamin drop towers, which only exists in Europe at Movieland Park in Italy. Judging by the bins blocking the entrance, it too wasn’t going to be operating for a while, but as of late April 2024, it does seem to be in action again.

That's one way to stop guests trying to get into a closed queue.

Perusing the Flat Rides

I’d had my eye on the absolutely stonkingly massive pirate ship fittingly called Jumbo Viking all day, so we decided to give it a go. It’s an Intamin pirate ship and is seemingly the only one of its model: a ‘twin flying bounty’ (i.e., stonkingly massive – and there’s two of them). The amusing thing about this is that this means Nagashima Spaland operates three pirate ships: two as part of Jumbo Viking, and another called Viking, an Intamin model of the smaller variety. Why a park needs three pirate ships I’ll never know, and I’m not sure Nagashima knows either anymore, as one of the two Jumbo Viking ships was not running. So disinterested in the very big ship were guests that there was an announcement saying it was only going to run every 30 minutes or until the ship was mostly full. Luckily, we must have hit the minimum number of guests, as we only waited a little over 10 minutes. Sadly, this was not the stonkingly massive pirate ship of my dreams. I have now learnt that big pirate ship does not equal thrilling pirate ship, and Jumbo Viking swung with all the intensity of a rocking horse.

The only other flat ride we rode out of Naga Spa's endless flat rides was the Zierer suspended flying carpet, inexplicably featuring a tiny Peter Rabbit illustration on its signage. I’ve always thought flying carpets offer a deceptively intense experience, giving riders a proper stomach-dropping sensation, and this ride has a 130cm height requirement, so it does seem a very odd choice of IP to slap on.

The Excellent Merch

I already knew the merch at Nagashima Spaland was going to be good, so we didn’t leave our browsing to the end of day rush. Nagashima was the only park other than Hanayashiki (also top-quality merch) that celebrated its rides in its souvenir offerings. I came away with a Hakugei plush, a set of six ride pin badges, and a Hakugei keyring (¥3330/£17.54 in total, card accepted), but there were also model coaster trains, Hakugei soy sauce dishes, cookies and sweets with endless varieties in packaging to suit all recipients, from kids to grandmas – and much, much more. All that was missing was a nice Hakugei t-shirt, which I would have happily hurled all my money at.

There were more sizes of Hakugei plush to be found - I got a smaller one than those displayed here.

Hakugei Re-Rides

Having got everything else out of the way by 3pm, we now had a couple of hours to give our undivided attention to Hakugei. We couldn’t decide if the coaster gods were smiling down on us or mocking us mercilessly because, despite really wanting a back row ride, we ended up getting two more front row rides (and one on row 8 of 12). I know we shouldn’t complain, and it was kind of funny to repeatedly be given the best seats and to be frustrated with it. We waited between 30 to 35 minutes for each ride, so unsurprisingly, the line closed at 5pm to allow it to clear before closing time, as is the Japanese park way.

Hakugei was running beautifully by the end of the day. Each of our early evening rides flew around the track, still graceful and smooth, but with more urgency than first thing in the morning. We were finally getting whipped out of our seats as I’d expected, although I personally wouldn’t call any of the airtime aggressive. Perhaps the restraints are just extra comfy on my body type or Hakugei wasn’t running at its wildest, but I didn’t find it to be as much of a thigh/lower stomach bruiser as many of my other favourite lap-bar coasters like Taron, even with all the inversions and hangtime – which is interesting because almost everyone else I’ve seen describe it has said it’s “vicious,” “violent” or “brutal.” This might sound weird, but I personally found Hakugei comforting; yes, we were being swooped around and lifted out of our seats, but it felt like we were working with the train, not against it, as if we were riding on the back of a friendly dragon (confusingly, as Steel Dragon feels more like a whale). After these rides, Hakugei now sits firmly in my top five coasters, but don't ask me where amongst those five.

Finals Thoughts

With the setting sun bathing every ride structure and palm tree in a soft golden glow, and Nagashima Spaland’s nostalgic ‘80s mall-aesthetic original soundtrack gently spilling out across its pristine pathways, I just wanted to stay forever. Never have I dragged my feet so much heading towards the exit of a park. I suspect Nagashima Spaland’s stylings may do absolutely nothing for some people, so don’t be entirely surprised if you visit and wonder what I must have been smoking that day to be praising this park so highly. It doesn’t have the look of a modern park; it appears suspended in time, its quaintness of a steel and concrete old-school amusement park variety, rather than of fairy-tales and forests. But I think there’s space for both the nostalgias of the Eftelings of the world and of the Nagashima Spalands, and personally, I was enthralled.

I think another aspect that elevated my opinion of Nagashima Spaland is that it isn’t a victim of over-tourism. The park is primarily for residents of the Kansai region of Japan, and we could tell because 1) we only saw two other non-Asian guests during our visit, and 2) we were treated like Japanese guests, spoken to in Japanese rather than pre-emptively in English and mime unlike at USJ and Disney, as there was an expectation that we hadn’t somehow just stumbled into the park; we had made a concerted effort and therefore might even have been locals. This gave Nagashima Spaland a cosy, regional feel, and judging from Japanese comments and reminiscences online about the park, there is a sense of regional pride, perhaps comparable to how formative an experience Alton Towers is considered for many Northern kids.

If it wasn’t already clear, I highly recommend making a detour to Nagashima Spaland. Even if you’re a devotee of immersive world-building and storytelling, and think Nagashima Spaland appears nothing more than a tick-list of coasters, go on a quiet day with an open mind, and allow yourself to be immersed in the park’s own story, of regionality surviving in a shifting socio-economic landscape – or, you know, pop-jazz and palm trees.