Random Image for Today

It's late. I'm tired. Yadda yadda. I climbed Mt. Takao today (Monday) and had a great time doing it! But now I'm ready to go to bed.

These mascots are from the Tohoku region. The one with the seven-leaf clover in his headband is from Tochigi. The hiragana on the headband tells me that! I don't know where the other super-cool astronaut superhero dude with the McKayla Maroney smirk is from.

Mascots are everywhere and for everything. Sometimes there are costumed people at the stations selling stuff, but other times you can get lucky and see actual mascots! As you can see, I caught these two at a tourism booth set up outside Shinkoshigaya Station. They've been there a few times over the past year or so, and kids love to stop by and take photos. I'm surprised I haven't seen them recently, with the Golden Week holidays just around the corner.

Sendai's Amusement Park: Benyland

 Despite it being summer, the sun was low enough to start casting shadows on the ground by the time I got to Benyland. I had hoped to arrive early in the afternoon, but my delays at Lina World meant I had less time here. Thankfully, the park wasn't busy and I had a good time with the time that I had.

 It's a small park, similar to Lina World. There's a carousel and lots of other kids rides.

 The front ride area has a pirate ship, of course, and teacups!

 To get to the more thrilling side of the park, go through the castle. It's small, but perhaps larger than the Disneyland castle. Then again, maybe not. The castle serves as an entrance to a short tunnel, over which a roller coaster passes.

 Two coasters are located atop the small hill. I'll get back to those later.

 The park has a Top Spin 2, called Top Spin 2, with a fairly short program. It never filled up by any means, but there seemed to always be someone else there to ride it when one cycle finished. That was the case at all of the rides - no lines, other than waiting for the prior cycle to finish.

 The park's most "intense" coaster might be the Corkscrew, painted green. As far as corkscrew coasters go, it's fairly standard but at least it's not too rough.

 It is the larger coaster you saw in the picture after the castle. It goes up the lift and down the drop, makes a U-turn, goes through the corkscrew, and then gets back to the station. The red track is "Roller Coaster", which is the park's first coaster, built in 1968. It's pretty tame, and is themed to a steam train.

 If you didn't see it in many of the other photos, the park has a Ferris wheel. The "thrill" side of the park (through the tunnel) has some nicely manicured lawns and landscaping.

 The lawns were freshly cut. I saw some garden maintenance going on during park hours later in the afternoon. The park's third coaster, Yagiyama Cyclone, can be seen in the distance.

 I like the cabin-like gondolas on the Ferris wheel! Let's take a spin...

 Corkscrew sends another group of passengers through a cycle.

 Go-Karts on a simple track. Note the walls that double back to allow the go-karts to have a longer ride in a short space.

 Another shot of Corkscrew. There are a lot of trees here which are hiding most of Roller Coaster.

 There's Roller Coaster on the lift hill! The front ride plaza is somewhat visible from here.

 Yagiyama Cyclone. I thought it was pretty fun and if I had had more time at the park I would have gone for a good handful of rides.

 Megadance ran a very tame program, just bouncing up and down lightly most of the time. Yes, that's what the ride should do, but it's like they really toned it down.

 There's a haunted house. It seemed to be an upcharge attraction. Maybe it wasn't and I missed out!

 Come, enter my haunted house! I will eat your babies!

See what I mean about the landscaping? Trees, grass (which isn't perfectly green, but it's well-manicured), sharp hedges.

Benyland doesn't have a lot, but I really like Top Spin rides so I went on that a few times. Honestly, I can't find a reason to return, but for amusement park fans or those in the Sendai area looking for something fun for the kids, it's a decent half-day stop. There's a zoo next door which would combine for a nice day off.

Benyland is open 9:00-17:00 (until 16:30 in November) everyday from about the second week of March to the last week of November; it opens on most weekends through the New Year, then closing for about two months in January and February.

Admission is 800 yen for adults, 400 yen for kids; all-you-can-ride Free Passes are 3500/3100 yen respectively. Individual rides are 100-500 yen each. Access is easy by bus from Sendai Station; ask for details at the tourist center. You'll probably be headed to Bus Stop 12 to catch a number 9 or 11 bus.

Lina World Amusement Park: Coasting Off the Beaten Track

As far as my amusement park travels go, I've hit all the major cities and the large parks that go with them. Sure, there are dozens of parks left around the country, but they are all very small or pretty far out of the way. It's getting more and more challenging to fit them in!

 Lina World is one of those parks that isn't really convenient to anything else, located in a valley near Yamagata. Don't know where that is? It's about halfway between Tokyo and Aomori, but about two hours west of Sendai. It was my first stop this summer during my Tohoku trip. Arriving a little bit after park opening, I saw a fairly slow-moving line at the ticket office/front gate. I guess everyone in western Tohoku was out for a little fun.

 The park is pretty nice, though a pain to navigate for its size. The entry plaza was large and, as you can see, had several temporary stands and an inflatable duck to help handle the vacation crowds. In my haste to get around the park quickly, I failed to notice the tiny pass-through just beyond this area that would lead to the main area. Actually, I think everyone missed it, because when I was truly looking for it I couldn't find it.

 Walking straight from the entry plaza leads to a nice water feature between two sets of steps. There are a few rides on the left side, and occasional bridges to get across the water.

 Of course, there's a Ferris wheel, nicely centered at the top of the promenade.

 A double decker carousel.

 The promenade ends at a waterfall feature and a naked woman statue.

 Do kids find these fun? I think they're pretty uncomfortable and boring.

 Continuing past the Ferris wheel, a few more small attractions are at the top of the hill.

 Do you want to walk inside a freezer?This ice house was themed like a fridge outside. I'm guessing it's similar inside, though I didn't get to check it out. The name is Kachinkochin. The park's website has an image of the inside which makes it look like you can take your picture as pieces of food.

 Scary ghost house, Japanese style.

 Once you reach the top of the hill, the path makes a U-turn and heads back down the hill to the right. And finally, you see coasters!

 The flume ride was pretty popular, as it was a warm day.

 The Jumpin' Star was not.

 The park has a decent number of small flat rides...

 and a kiddie area.

 My first coaster at the park was this children's Dragon Coaster, because the other two weren't quite open yet.

 By the time I finished the kid's coaster, the other two had opened. Everyone went to the one closest to the top of the park, so I headed to the bottom.

 Discovery is a fairly uneventful coaster that spends its time slowly going around the track, with small hills and few turns. This makes it very uninteresting, and probably explains why everybody went to the other coaster first.

 It's decently landscaped, though, I suppose. I'm not really sure what this was supposed to be. I guess I'll have to leave it to someone else to ... discover what those white rocks are for.

 The exit provides a nice view of the tracks.

 I bought an admission-only ticket, and bought ride tickets so that I could try the three coasters. So I passed on several of the small rides I would have ridden if I had more time here.

Getting pictures of the third coaster, Super Coaster, is very difficult from the ground. It's not exactly hidden, but the positioning of surrounding rides and trees make for very unflattering photographs. It was a bit faster than Discovery, as it had an actual drop. Super Coaster is smaller, though. By the time I finished riding the other coasters, it still had a large line.

The plan had been to ride the three coasters, take some pictures, and get out. The long line at the entrance and the long line on Super Coaster delayed me enough that I missed my planned train. The next one was an hour later, which coupled with the delay allowed me time to get on the Ferris wheel and browse the gift shop.

 That's a cute dual-passenger swing ride! It's called Pumpkin Tree Witch.

 The carousel and a bit of the front plaza; Lina World has a water park next door (for an additional charge, I'm sure). The ride just behind the Fairy Kitty Carousel is Strawberry Cafe, themed to Hello Kitty.

 Looking down at Super Coaster and Discovery in the back. The water flume is just visible in the foreground.

 The park's 4D theater. Right now, it's showing a Kamen Rider film.

 Discovery: it takes up a lot of space but has no hills!

 Here's the promenade path, front gate, and rides at the top of the hill.

 Another shot of the gift shop area, which is also the entrance to the water park.

 Perhaps a better shot of the promenade.

 Super Coaster, going down the first drop. All in all, the park is a nice local attraction, but thrill seekers won't find anything here. If I had had more time, I probably would have sprung for the day pass and checked out the dark rides and 4D show, but I needed to get back over the mountains to Sendai for another park that afternoon.

Lina World isn't easy to access without a car. There are sporadic buses to the park from the major stations, but depending on the timing it can be quicker to walk from Mokichikinenkanmae Station, for those in a rush like I was. Try saying that station name fast. It's a 1.7 km walk from Mokichikinenkanmae to the park.

The bus stop is right outside of the park. Buying the free pass plus round trip bus ticket (from Yamagata) set costs the same as a free pass, essentially making the bus trip free. Note that the bus runs about once every two hours, and takes 20 minutes from Yamagata Station.

Admission to the park is cheap but a full day of rides adds up fast; adult free passes are 3800 yen, but admission only is 800 yen. Lina World has lots of dining options at the park, and there are hot springs near by so it is possible to spend a full day in the area. It's open from mid-March through mid-November, with varied hours depending on the season (opening between 8:00 and 10:00, closing between 16:00 and 19:30).