Japan - Bathroom Stairs

For some strange reason many of the bathrooms in the train stations have stairs going into them. I've been trying to figure out a reason for this, but so far I haven't been able to to come up with a good one. Maybe they don't like handicapped people?

Japam - Las Vegas?

Las Vegas? I must have taken a wrong turn in Albuquerque. Or maybe not, it's the Las, Vegas Pachinko Parlor (I'm not sure why there's a comma in the name). Pachinko is sort of a Japanese slot machine that uses ball bearings as part of the game play. I'm not really sure how they work. It seems popular because the Pachinko Parlors seem to be everywhere, but I've never meet anyone who say that they play Pachinko.

Japan - Tama Zoo

Japan - Bike Lift

Kachidoki Station has an large underground bicycle parking area and in the stairs going out of the parking area is this cool bicycle conveyor belt. Just roll your bicycle onto the conveyor belt as you walk along side it.

Japan - Fuji-Q Highland

I when to the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park in Fujiyoshida Japan near the base of Mount Fuji with three Japanese friends, Ayako, Taka, and Kumiko. Taka and I took the bus from Shinjuku while Ayako and Kumiko meet us at Fuji-Q. Becasue the Shinjuku station is such a huge crazy maze of buildings and train platforms Taka and I couldn't find each other and ended up missing the bus we had planned to take. Fortunately there was another bus, but we had to wait an hour.

The Entrance to Fuji-Q.

Eejanaika is a super gnarly 4D roller-coaster similar to X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles except Eejanaika is higher and faster. What make it a 4D coaster is that the seats can roatate forward or backward 360 degrees independently of the track. The track makes three loops, but your seat flips many times. This makes it super disorientating, you're never sure which way you or the track is going.

Eejanaika Roller-Coster.

The first drop of Eejanaika, straight down!

Scary!

Fujiyama is more of a standard steel roller-coaster, but it's huge and fast. It's the world's eight tallest and fifth longest roller-coaster, and hits a speed of 80mph.

Huge first hill of Fujiyama

If you were feeling scared, you could always take the chicken way.

Riding Fujiyama with Ayako, Taka, and Kumiko.

Dodonpa is is a pretty simple roller-coaster, but that doesn't stop it from being a pretty wild ride. What makes it wild is that it's all about accelerating 'til blood comes out of your ears and going fast, Dodonpa goes from 0 to 107 mph (172 km/h) in less then 2 seconds. During take-off I thought my eyeballs were going to get squeezed out the back of my head. After the launch it goes down a long straight, around a huge banked turn then up a hill that goes straight up then down the hill going straight down and that's pretty much it.

Dodonpa in front of Mt. Fuji.

The hill of Dodnopa.

The park actually seemed pretty empty until you got in line for one of the roller-coasters. Each of the three main roller-coasters had a little over an hour wait.

Long Lines.

A little bit tamer part of the park.

Japan - Train Squeeze

Trains during rush hour can get crazy crowded.

Japan - I've Been Eaten by a Cat

Japan - Cherry Blossom Bird

Japan - Extreme Tour Day 3

The last day of the extreme tour was to Fujimi Panorama to go downhill mountain biking.

Me checking out a dirt jump (No, I didn't hit it).

They're building a new jump track, that looked interesting, so I gave it a try. But then I was told to get off of it because it wasn't open yet.

Jeff checking out the new track.

Jeff blasting down one of the downhill trails.

Here's me coming down on of the downhill trails. Unfortunately it was pretty dark in the woods, so the photos did not turn out all that great.

Japan - Extream Tour Day 2

Day two of the extreme sports tour was back to Saitama, but this time to Saitama-Air, to do some water ramping. For people who don't know, water ramping is skiing down a slope that is covered in a special plastic surface, hitting a big jump and landing in a swimming pool. Lot's of fun!

Saitama-Air.

Me going for a big grab.

I pulled a little too hard on my grab and yanked my ski off. Not something I would have wanted to do on the snow.

Another try at the grab and this time the ski stayed on.

Jeff hits the biggest jump.

Unfortunately my old and trust skis had finally meet their end and broke in the middle. I had to rent some skis to finish the day.

Japan - Extreme Tour Day 1

On Wednesday Jeff and I went to trampoline gym in Saitama, about and hour and half drive from Tokyo. Jeff had been there before, but it was my first time. We had a lot of fun jumping on the trampolines and working on our ski tricks. We decided that it would be the start of a three day extreme sports tour.

Me trying a grab.

Jeff getting some big air.

Japan - Tunnel