Toshimaen means "Toshima Park". (Toshima itself means "bountiful island" but I think in this case it's a name.) The park is very pretty, with many trees. Lots of them are cherry trees, and some of the trees were still pretty, but most of them had lost their blossoms. The ground was covered with petals in many places. I'm sure the park was really beautiful (and really crowded!!) last weekend.
Their main coaster is called the Cyclone. It has an unusual structure, looking rather overbuilt in places. Like many of the older coasters in Japan, it is pretty rampy -- long straight drops rather than steep ones. But it was a nice ride, especially in the back seat, and it had a great very dark tunnel.
Notice the cushy, plush-upholstered seats!
A lot of the publicity for the park uses a version of this shot, but taken when the trees had more flowers. Unfortunately there weren't any postcards.
There was also the Mini-Cyclone kid's coaster and a standard Arrow Corkscrew coaster.
The park had a very nice, confusing house of mirrors. Here I am looking well fed. The thing attached to my jacket is a ticket holder...rather than giving wristbands, most Japanese parks give you a paper ticket that shows you paid for the rides and not just admission. These could be easy to lose, so you can also buy little inexpensive ticket holders with the park name. This is good because most of the parks are pretty skimpy in the souvenir department.
No pictures of it, but I love the haunted house rides in Japan because what they consider spooky is often very different from western ideas. Toshimaen had a large ride-through haunted house, but it wasn't very well kept up. Some things I rode by looked like they should be doing something, but weren't, and sometimes I rode by things that were doing something from the sound, but weren't lit so you couldn't see them.
I thought this guy was pretty funny!
I think everyone is familiar with strange use of English on Japanese clothes and products. This man's jacket was especially bizarre. Click on the picture to make it large enough to read.
The park had an animal petting area for the kids. But with dogs to play with! I guess that so many Japanese people live in small apartments that don't allow pets, this is the only time children get to play with them.
One of the gems of the park is its 1907 carousel, moved from Coney Island in 1971. It has three different levels, which all turn at different rates...the center turning fastest. I've never encountered another one like it.
Just look at some of the great carved details!
The park allows people to bring in their dogs, and you can take them on some of the stationary seats of the carousel.
There is also a rather large water park, but it wasn't open for riding. Instead, they stocked it with fish! I hope they change the water before the summer because it was pretty murky looking.
This reminded me of when we were a kids, we went to Sea World, and they had a trout fishing pond. I remember that it was so well stocked that the fish were practically jumping onto the hooks. You had to pay (through the nose!) for each fish you caught and my dad wasn't happy with how much it ended up costing. Here, you paid by the hour, and it looked like you had to be kind of lucky...most people didn't have any fish.
One thing kind of interesting...the park has a strict "no tattoos" policy. Not just "no visible tattoos" but "no tattoos at all." I found a story on the net of a western family that tried to go in but the husband had a Celtic armband. They wouldn't let him in, so he went and got a long-sleeved shirt to wear, and when they came back, they still wouldn't let him in! You probably already know this, but in case not, tattoos in Japan are associated with yakusa--organized crime.
Finally, in other coaster news, I found out why Thunder Dolphin was closed last weekend...apparently in 2010 a bystander was hit by a bolt falling off the ride. So it's closed for the time being. I hope it opens again before I leave, but last time something like this happened in Japan (Steel Dragon, in 2003) the ride was closed for 3 years, so I'm not holding my breath.
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