Brazilian Park Washuzan Highland was a park that I had only known about extremely vaguely; I knew it was a park gone slightly to seed, without a lot of investment in recent years, but was in possession of some rare Togo models that were, as far as I knew, still up and running.
This all changed when I heard that Nagashima Spaland’s Ultra Twister was now SBNO and had been for quite a few months, even having been erased from the park map. Getting a ride on this rare breed before they all went to the great theme park in the sky was on my bucket list, and since I wasn’t sure when I would be in Japan again, my brain kicked into overdrive trying to figure out how to make this happen.
There are two ultra twister models still extant: one at Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido, which was simply too far from where we were (Osaka). The other? At Washuzan Highland near Okayama, and sitting down and mapping out the trip, it seemed *genuinely* doable.
So the day we were supposed to be resting, I woke up early, bade farewell to my friend (who, saner than I, would be going up to Kyoto for the day), and took an early Shinkansen to Okayama. There, I transferred to the Marine Liner train which would take me to Kojima. From Kojima station, a bus runs every hour, dropping me off at the main entrance about 15 minutes before park opening.
I had hoped the ticket booths would be open, but it was not to be: in typical small-park fashion, the shutters rose at 10AM on the dot. It was a good thing I had cash on me, as the park was cash-only, and a couple thousand yen later, I was in, along with a gaggle of maybe five other people in total. It was not going to be busy today, despite it being a Saturday.
The first thing you notice when you walk in is **Ultra Twister**, parked directly in front of the entry plaza like a sentry. I didn’t notice it running, but then again, there was no one else in the park!
Nothing stopped me from walking up to the loading platform, which I took as a good sign, and there was indeed one surly operator parked in the booth who waved me onboard (after depositing all of my things in a locker, as is traditional Japanese custom). I offered up a thank-you to the coaster gods as I sat down and locked my restraints.
Ultra Twister is… weird! It’s fun! It also stops on the midcourse like it hit a brick wall! I recommend bracing at this part, because I’m pretty sure it gave me a mild concussion. Apart from that, though, the inline twists are awesome with lots of hangtime, the vertical lift and first drop are freaky as hell – reminded me of how Takabisha’s drop felt, actually – and the bunny hill gives a serious pop of floater.
I stayed aboard for a couple rides until I had my fill, then moved on.
There’s another rare model here, and that’s the Togo stand-up coaster; but it runs on a bit of a weird schedule. **Pink Typhoon** operates with both backwards sit-down and stand-up trains, and switches out between the two throughout the day. The sit-down train opens with the park, so it was this variant that I experienced first. From here, it was a pleasant ride: I was expecting a lot more roughness, but the cars tracked very smoothly and the helix delivered some serious force I wasn’t expecting.
The stand-up train wasn’t scheduled to start running until 1PM, so I resolved to come back later and set about in search for the last roller coaster at this park.
The last coaster – **Chupy Coaster** – is up a hill. Let me provide some more detail: it is up several flights of stairs. To go slightly more in depth: you will climb a vertical elevation change of roughly 200 feet.
No, there is no escalator.
There’s a reason why this park is called *Highland*, and the reward you get for climbing a literal mountain are some seriously beautiful vistas and a classic Japanese-style jet coaster with, again, stunning views.
I took the scenic path down (there are, thankfully, ramp detours to avoid the stairs, although this does take much longer), taking in the park along the way. The ferris wheel looked to be out of commission, as did several flats I saw on the way down – including a seriously rusted-over set of swings and a teacup ride caked over with detritus. It’s clear this park needs a lot of TLC, and it’s not something that a new coaster can fix – although Washuzan Highland needs that, too.
With nothing else to do, I parked myself in the plaza where some performers were gamely dancing to a crowd of maybe ten people. The show went on for far longer than it had any right to, considering they were dancing to a soundtrack that looped once every 15 seconds or so.
A few minutes before the train switch for Pink Typhoon, I headed over to the station in the hopes of seeing the transfer track in action (we’re all nerds here and I’m comfortable sharing this in a safe space). Here, I witnessed something amusing: the stand-up train failed to catch the lift chain on its initial test run, stalling out a couple of feet from the station. If this was a corporate park, I would’ve been afraid for my chances for the day, but I had a hunch that the maintenance crew at this small, run-down park wouldn’t be *quite* so beholden to red tape.
Sure enough, I had only a few minutes to wait before two men came puttering around the corner in a beat-up *kei* truck, screeching to a halt by the exit stairs. They went up, exchanged a few words with the operator, then the train slowly inched back into the station. Not a minute later, the lift motor started again, the train went on its merry way, and the operator waved me up.
Getting into these stand-up trains for **Pink Typhoon** was an interesting exercise. I didn’t think there would be more awkward, non-ergonomic trains than those on a Premier Sky Rocket, but these Togo trains give them a run for their money. I had to be careful not to trip myself up on the waist bar, and the floor didn’t give my feet much purchase.
All that left my mind once the train went down that first drop, though, because oh my god, the positive G’s here are like nothing I’ve felt before on a stand-up. My knees literally buckled and gave out in the vertical loop; maybe I’m just old, but I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen!
By contrast, on the rest of the layout, I got more standing airtime on this damn thing than Pipeline, a stand-up purpose-built for standing airtime, and the best part: I don’t think any of it was intentional. The restraints give the bottom half of your body an extraordinary level of freedom of movement, and by my second ride, I was throwing all caution to the wind and literally lifting my legs off the floor during every hill and getting walloped by the sheer amount of negative G’s that would send me flying. This was absolute insanity and like nothing I’ve ever ridden before. Hella positives on the loop and helix, contrasted by some of the most extreme airtime moments I’ve ridden.
With that finished, I decided to call it an early day so I could get back to our hotel for a few hours’ worth of the original plan: bedrotting. Washuzan Highland is definitely a park for the coaster sickos out there: the rare credits are reason alone to make it out here, and the quality of those credits is just a bonus.
The views from the park are *beautiful*, with the Seto Inland Sea and the islets off Shikoku’s coast providing a spectacular backdrop for the coasters. The park, though, could definitely use some help: peeling paint, mothballed rides, shuttered stalls, and paths simply open to backstage areas and sandlots all spoke to a business not in great condition.
If you’re a coaster sicko (like me) and willing to make a small detour from the traditional Tokyo – Osaka journey, I’d recommend the trip down here, especially considering its unique collection. It’s worth it!
