TacoCat’s Travels #127 (Japan 6.0): Exploring the True Horror in Fu...

Hey Hive!

So if you missed the last post, we're currently on another journey to Japan after we finished our final semester of college back in January 2019! And it was coincidentally around Valentines' Day too! We initially talked about wanting to visit South Korea but a Delta Airlines deal kinda changed our plans so.. to Tokyo once again!

But this time we were staying somewhat outside Tokyo in an area called Omorimachi and last week, we started our Valentines Day with a thrilling journey through Fuji-Q Highland, which is an amusement park at the foot of Mt. Fuji renowned for their world record breaking roller coasters!

And last week, we took 2 of those crazy roller coasters, called Fujiyama/King of Coasters and Takabisha, which features a drop angle of 121°!

After riding those 2 monstrous rides, we were kinda beat and shaken to our core so we took the opportunity to walk around and explore the park.

And there's actually a lot more to Fuji-Q than just their crazy roller coasters! There was also an ice skating rink with a lovely Ferris wheel:

And of course, a food stadium with lots of shops and stalls.

I think we didn't actually go inside the food stadium since we had our snacks and weren't really that hungry enough to eat after those rides.

There were a lot of other food stalls in the area around the skating rink though.

And since we've never seen an Auntie Anne's in Japan before, we decided to try it!

Especially since they had the pepperoni pretzel! We've only ever had that in Malaysia because while we do have Auntie Anne's in Singapore they don't sell it here! So since it's been a while, we decided to try it again!

They had the pepperoni cheese pretzel set which included some potato wedges and we got some hot tea to warm us up after having the cold wind blasted in our faces during the rides.

And the pretzel was actually pretty good! The pepperoni could've been a little more crispy, but it still tasted pretty alright. And the wedges were not bad too.

After that snack we went to walk around some more and saw this ride that was closed off. Maybe they were renovating it or something but the boards that blocked it off were so cool it looked like an actual manga!

It did look like a big ride though. I couldn't even get the whole track in the shot.

There was also a water ride of sorts but we were way too cold for that.

And there was also this slow ass ride where you basically peddled yourselves around on this track that wasn't very long either.

One of the water rides was this one with these cute fortune cats! It's kinda similar to other rides we've seen where you basically go in this circular float down a man-made river.

Since they're cats I couldn't help taking a photo with them!

Here's a better look at the "river" of this ride. They even had a traditional Japanese style board depicting the ride that I thought was so cool!

If they made it ramen-themed it would've been so neat! But I guess it would be like dirty ramen bowls in the washer or something.

Here was the slow ass ride we saw.

There was also an area with laser tag or something? but it wasn't open yet at the time, unfortunately.

It looked like it was mostly done though. And the queuing area was nicely themed to an army camp of sorts?

We also saw the infamous King of Horror House! This was also featured in the Korean variety show that Sean likes to watch - Running Man! When one of the teams lost they had to go through the house as punishment and every was understandably very reluctant.

Known as the World's Biggest and Most Terrifying Haunted House, the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear - Jikyu General Hospital is a two-storey building that houses a 900-meter maze full of strange echoes, harrowing sudden noises, and terrifying surprises, modeled after a hospital.

Apparently, this was inspired by the story of a real hospital located near the foot of the Mt. Fuji. The hospital was very famous and had lots of professional doctors and great facilities. But one day, the head and staff of the hospital started to take some fresh organs from the patients who had gone there for surgery. The organs of the patients were inserted into jars of chemicals and sold to distant places while the bodies were put inside large, wooden crates. For revenge, the victims’ spirits came back and started haunting and killing the doctors. Finally, the entire hospital was abandoned. This is the urban legend that is still told among people the real people who live around there.

I'm not sure how true it was, but just being near the entrance was giving me the creeps. There were even some props out there like the old lady in the wheelchair and that hanging doll on the dead tree that was pretty scary already.

Neither Sean nor I are a fan of horror or scary things in general so there was no way in hell we'd ever set foot in there. Especially since it's a maze full of trap rooms, dark corners and pitfalls! I read that the designers combined primal horrors like darkness and jump scares as well as deeper fears like disease and death to really capture the terror and promise a thrilling experience akin to "horror harassment". (Source: jpninfo)

Sean was saying even if we got paid 1 million dollars we wouldn't go in there. I think it'd be way too traumatising for me since I get scared shitless very easily.

But then we approached the true horror (according to Sean anw), which was Thomas Land!

He's just kidding, but I didn't realise how big Thomas was in Japan that he'd have an entire wing in Fuji-Q after him!

It was quite a bhig area too! All based on the world of Thomas the tank engine!

There were even a couple of rides there that was obviously made for kids.

I'm not so sure about them putting it right next to the haunted house though but okay..

I mean it is kinda horrifying though. Imagine seeing that face in the middle of the night.

But it was his 20th anniversary though, so congratulations is in order for Thomas I guess? Doesn't make his face less terrifying though.

I think we were still creeped out from the haunted house and visiting Thomas Land right after that didn't really help..

After walking around some more we basically found a lookout point where we could see almost the entire park, and had a perfect view of Mt Fuji! Unfortunately there were clouds in the way.