Adventures in Japan

Day Parque Espana (with a little squiggly line over the n): PARQUE ESPANA (WITH A LITTLE SQUIGGLY LINE OVER THE N)

Any day that doesn't start before six is a good day. Days that start with you waking up at eight after 12 hours of sleep are brilliant. Not that I plan on making a habit of it. In addition to the spacious room and gracious host, our hotel also has a nifty breakfast. And cheerful music. It ain't muzak if real instruments are used. Yes, a music box is a real instrument. It made everything sound better. Happier, at least.


We were happier this morning than we have been for quite some time. Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was the food. Maybe it was the sun. Maybe it was the fact that we were sitting outside on the dock behind our hotel drinking our delicious coffee. Whatever the reason, we were pleased as punch and that is really how every day should start.


We would have loved to spend some more time there, but (as ever) we had a schedule to follow. We followed our schedule to Parque Espana (It's not pronounced 'park'. It's not pronounced 'butter' either.), the Spanish themed theme park about a half hour bus ride from our hotel.

We got there just as the park opened. And even though it was a lovely day, the place was not crowded at all. We were giddy. Not so giddy that we forgot the lesson of Space World. We hit all the big rides right off the bat. They were good.

Actually, the first ride we hit wasn't all that good. It was a bullfight based roller coaster. An indoor roller coaster. It was all herky jerky and banged us around. We didn't much cotton to that. But there was one highlight, literally. Most of the ride took place in the dark, with glow in the dark swords and capes and other bull fighting paraphernalia breaking up the gloom. At one point, the ride jerks to a halt and you sit there in the dark. The lights fade up and you realize that you're in the middle of a bull fighting arena with a crowd of spectators cheering. That part was neat, the rest was not.

But the next ride was all neat all the time. It was better than neat. It was five shades of all right. The Pyrenees is one of them inverted roller coasters. Or is the term suspended? Whatever: your feet dangle. That kind. Instead of the jerkiness of the previous ride it was all smooth and lovely. While still whipping us violently. That is good coaster design. It turned tilted and flipped and dipped. Often all at once. And there is a part about midway through the ride where the coaster slows down a touch along a straight bit of track and then jets off again. The ride tries to mess with your brain. We rode the Pyrenees a lot.


The second most ridden ride was the Gran Montserrat. Getting into the roller coaster car, it looked like a kiddie ride. It was a colourful little train. And then the ride started. That cute little train plays rough. Except still smooth. Carla and I were both really impressed with how intense yet non jarring these rides were. And we were also impressed by the views the rides afforded. The rides were too crazy to try to takes pictures from, so we have no real good example to show you.


Parque Espana (with a little squiggle over the n) needs a ferris wheel for picture taking. On one side there is the lovely lake and the rest of the parque, on the other is nothing but miles and miles of green trees. Lovely stuff.

The rest of the rides were just plain gentle. There was a boat cruise through a peaceful lagoon, disrupted occasionally by cannon fire.


There was a 'light ride':dark tunnels with bright lights.


A shooting game, where you sat down and manned a laser crossbow and took aim at all manner of animatronic baddies. I scored way better than Carla. She didn't seem all that impressed.

There was a musical ride where a bunch of animals had to fight off some sort of evil thing. We thought it would be lame, but we gave it a shot because our tummies need to settle a bit. And it did start off lame. We just sat and watched some singing animals sing. We were in the middle of the room and where we were sitting rotated to follow the action. Then the singing stopped and the platform we were sitting on dipped below the floor into a subterranean passage filled with lights. Then our seat platform moved (wasn't expecting that) forward and we were raised through a different hole into a different scene. It did that a total of four times. That was pretty cool.

I'm trying to think of the other rides, but they weren't all that remarkable.

Not as remarkable as the park's grounds. Parque Espana (with a little squiggly over the n) looks pretty dang Spanish. Not that we have ever been to Spain, but the parque looked like all the photos of Spain that I have seen.


The food however... just because the rice is yellow and you put a shrimp on it, that don't make it paella. The churro I had, though, was really good. Fresh out of the fryer.

Speaking of frying, it was a hot day. Luckily there was a ride with a big splash of water at the end. We rode that a few times too.

But soon our time was up, the park was closing and we had to say goodbye. We said sayonara to Donki, the dog dressed up like Don Quixote (who is the mascot of the parque) and his friends.


We spent a great day at Parque Espana. In Kashikojima as well. It receives our highest recommendation. Maybe we were just glad to have a break from all the history and culture we've been cramming in.

And it is back to the cramming tomorrow. We have some old buildings to look at and some fish puking birds to watch.