After exploring Tokyo, we boarded three trains and made our way to Fuji-Q Highland . With seven roller coasters and several other great rides, you can easily spend a full day at the park and not ride everything.

Hotel Mystays Fuji

We stayed at Hotel Mystays Fuji, just across the street from the park. It had just opened in December of 2016 and was immaculate. It was also a fantastic deal on Expedia at only $102.82 per night with breakfast included.

Instead of having dinner at the hotel restaurant, we decided to check out one of the restaurants down the road called Hotto Motto. Just about everything was under 800 yen (about $7.00) and just like a lot of restaurants in Japan, they only took cash. I’m honestly not sure what I ordered, as I just picked from the pictures on the menu, but whatever it was, it was pretty darn good.

The next morning, we grabbed breakfast and got ready to ride some coasters. While some of the menu items at the buffet looked familiar, many of the items were definitely new to me. The eggs were especially interesting. The french toast though, was fantastic.

 

Fuji-Q Highland

Excitedly, we headed to the entrance of Fuji-Q. As we walked to the park, we were reassured to see them doing some test runs on several of the rides. Back home, most coasters won’t run if it’s below a certain temperature, and this morning it was just under 40 degrees. Temperature didn’t seem to be a problem here.

Using a mobile coupon for their web special, we got our tickets for only 5100 yen (just under $45) each.

We made our way first to Takabisha. With its 121 degree drop, it’s the steepest in the world.

After being slightly terrified, we decided to up the ante even more and ride Eejanaika. If you’ve ever seen the Travel Channel’s coaster special, you’ve probably seen X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. This is even more insane. It’s taller, faster, and longer than the X2. Plus it inverts you a world record 14 times.

The ride was absolutely insane. I’ve ridden dozens of roller coasters and rarely scream on any of them. This one was completely terrifying.

After riding the two coasters I absolutely had to ride, we decided to grab lunch. We warmed up in the vibrant food court and I ordered myself a beer and a bowl of ramen noodles.

Although Japan does have instant noodles just like back home in grocery stores, they also can churn out some very exquisite ramen dishes.

After grabbing lunch, we went ahead and checked out a few more rides. One of the most surprising rides was Tentekomai. It didn’t look much different from what might be a children’s airplane ride back home, but on this one, you are strapped into a full roller coaster harness and can do barrel rolls in your plane.

We also checked out the ferris wheel and Panic Clock. The ferris wheel was quite mild, but Panic Clock made me really believe that the Japanese truly do enjoy punishing riders with the craziest things they can come up with.

Another part of the park that I found to be pretty cool was Thomas Land. As a huge fan of Thomas and Friends growing up, I would have lost my mind if I saw this back when I was four.

 

Dinner at Hotel Mystays

For our final night at Mount Fuji, we decided to check out the dinner buffet at the hotel. At 3900 yen per person (about $34), it was the most expensive meal of our trip. Everything was quite good, especially the roast pork.

 

Journey to Narita Airport

The next morning, we boarded the first of our three trains to get us to Narita. We began with a ride on the private Fujikyu line to Otsuki and then took a limited express train to Shinjuku.

After taking a regular train three days prior, I highly recommend taking a limited express if you can. It’s far quieter, faster, more comfortable, and definitely worth the additional 1000 yen for the fare.

After arriving at Shinjuku, we waited to board the Narita Express for our final leg to the airport. We’d already purchased the return portion of our round trip ticket when we arrived at the airport the week prior, so our seats were already reserved for us.

I checked out more of the drink selections during our layover and used it as an opportunity to deplete most of the remainder of the balance on my Suica card before we boarded.

In perfect Japanese fashion, we arrived at the airport on time to the minute at 13:56. Now all that was left was to check in and wait for our evening flight to San Francisco.

Hope you liked the trip report!

Happy travels,

Matt