What is: Fujiyama
Fujiyama is a steel roller coaster, located at Fuji-Q Highland, in Yamanashi, Japan.
The ride opened to the public as the world’s tallest roller coaster, standing a huge 79m
259ft high.
This led to Fuji-Q Highland dubbing their ride the ‘King of Coasters’ an accurate
representation of its huge scale.
Although, Fujiyama is more than just a big roller coaster.
The ride was the result of an amalgamation of inspirations, including Fuji-Q Highland’s
desire to hold the record for the world’s tallest roller coaster, and the landmark that
Fujiyama stands beneath, Mount Fuji.
In fact, the park as a whole owes its existence to Mt. Fuji.
Located approximately 100km 60miles west of Tokyo lies the tallest mountain and volcano in Japan.
Mount Fuji is an iconic landmark of Japan and is a sacred symbol in Japanese culture,
to the point that many have developed a spiritual bond with it.
The mountain also serves as a center of tourism for Japan, attracting over 200,000 people
each year who climb to the summit during the summer months.
Aiming to capitalise on the status of Mount Fuji in 1961 was a soon-to-be amusement park.
Fuji-Q Highland, the park in which Fujiyama is located, originally opened its doors as
Fuji Rama Park, a skating park.
However, as the park grew, new amusement rides were added.
By 1966, the park had built Giant Coaster, their first roller coaster, and more impressively
the world’s tallest roller coaster.
Standing 40m 131ft high, it isn’t tall by today’s standards, but blitzed the competition
at the time.
The ride consisted of multiple drops and slow turns, providing riders with panoramic views
of the nearby Mount Fuji.
Additionally, Giant Coaster would set the precedent for the trend of coasters Fuji-Q
desired to offer, ones that were world record breaking and often truly unique.
Fuji-Q Highland continued to grow in popularity.
By 1983, they were looking for their next big thing.
This came in the form of Moonsault Scramble, a shuttle coaster which saw guests complete
the layout both forwards and backwards.
The ride became the world’s tallest shuttle coaster, measuring 70m 230ft high.
However, riders weren’t dropped from the top of the structure, making the true experience
shorter in height.
Shortly afterwards, theme parks around the world went crazy - they began to fight to
build the world’s tallest roller coasters.
Cedar Point initially kick-started the craze in 1989 with the debut of Magnum XL-200, a
ride standing 62.5m 205ft high.
Built by Arrow Dynamics, it also became the first full circuit roller coaster to break
the 200ft height barrier, being dubbed a hyper-coaster in the process.
Although, Magnum was initially inspired by a different ride, Bandit, which opened a year
prior.
Located at Yomiruiland in Japan, Bandit was a super coaster built by Togo.
Unlike many of the looping rides of the same era, Bandit featured no inversions, but instead
relied on height and speed to thrill guests.
Cedar Point took this idea to create Magnum.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the UK then went on to build what-is-essentially a taller version
of Magnum XL-200, the Big One.
At this point in time, Fuji-Q Highland’s Giant coaster was old news.
The ride became overshadowed by more interesting and bigger attractions around the world.
It was time for Fuji-Q to invest in a new record breaking roller coaster for the park.
They hired Japanese firm Togo, the manufacturers of Bandit, to develop a hyper coaster for
the park.
Fuji-Q Highland wanted to reclaim two of the records originally held by Giant coaster - height
and speed.
As a result, they proposed the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster, Fujiyama.
Also similar to Giant Coaster, the ride would feature a slow panoramic turn following the
first drop, providing riders with a panoramic view of Mount Fuji in the distance.
Interestingly, the ride’s name was decided through a contest which saw park guests suggest
names for the new attraction.
In the end Fujiyama was chosen, a name which directly translates to ‘Fuji Mountain’
- a fitting description of the world’s tallest roller coaster, and a nod to the mountain
that led to the existence of Fuji-Q Highland.
After months of construction, and with the name selected, Fujiyama officially opened
to the public in April of 1996.
Fuji-Q Highland quickly dubbed their new attraction the ‘King of Coasters’, stating it offered
the world’s highest class of specifications.
But, what is a ride on this royal coaster actually like?
Once guests have joined the queue and made their way into the station building, they
board one of the ride vehicles.
Each one features 7 cars, which seat guests in 2 rows of 2.
This leads to a total of 28 riders per train.
Once ready, visitors leave the station building, and immediately complete a 180 degree left
hand turn.
Here, the trains engage with the lift hill, and begin the ascent.
Riders slowly climb 79m 259ft high, passing multiple height markers on their upward journey.
At the top, riders take in the breathtaking view of Mt Fuji, before completing a slight
right hand turn into the first descent.
The trains plummet down the 70m 229ft drop, which reaches a maximum vertical angle of
65 degrees.
It’s at the bottom of this drop where visitors reach their top speed of 130kmh 80mph.
The vehicles then begin to climb into the attractions 180 degree panoramic turn, which
provides riders with fantastic views of Mt. Fuji.
They then plummet towards the ground once more, before navigating a large airtime hill.
Guests climb into a banked turn to the right, through the structure of the lift hill.
They then dive back towards the ground and complete a slight left hand turn, which leads
them into a double-up element.
The trains go on to navigate a downward banked turn to the right, followed by a large drop.
Another right-hand banked turn sees guests remain low to the ground, hurtling along beneath
previous sections of track.
Riders then traverse a long right hand bend, before ascending into a banked hill to the
left, followed by a banked hill to the right.
The trains complete the same combination of two elements again, followed by another hill
banked to the left.
The ride comes to an end with one final ascent, leading guests into the final brake run.
Throughout the entire experience, riders navigate 2045m 6708ft of track, most of which occurs
during 100 seconds of actual ride time, measured from the first drop to the final brake run.
Unfortunately, at the end of the year Fujiyama opened to guests, the park’s original roller
coaster, Giant Coaster, closed permanently.
The similarities between the two rides, both in terms of records and design, arguably made
Fujiyama Giant Coaster’s spiritual successor.
Though, Fuji-Q Highland went on to construct a whole range of other world record breaking rides.
They built Do-Dodonpa in 2001, originally the world’s fastest roller coaster; Eejanaika
in 2006, the world’s largest 4D coaster; and Takabisha in 2011, the world’s steepest
roller coaster upon debut.
Despite this, Fujiyama still remains as one of the park’s most popular rides.
It continued the battle to build ever taller roller coasters, losing it’s height title
to Millennium Force at Cedar Point, and speed title to Tower of Terror at Dreamworld.
Fortunately, this hasn’t stopped its success.
As of November of 2017 Fujiyama has seen 22 million riders in total, over 1 million for
each year of operation.
In 2021, Fujiyama is celebrating its 25th anniversary!
As part of these celebrations, Fuji-Q Highland have been improving aspects of the ride.
New trains were added to the coaster in 2019, whilst 2021 will see the debut of Fujiyama
Tower - an observation deck built within the ride’s first turn.
The park claims that until now, only inspection staff have been able to enjoy the breathtaking
view of Mt. Fuji from Fujiyama’s track.
They wanted to share this special view with as many people as possible.
As a result, Summer 2021 will see the debut of the Fujiyama Tower, an observation platform
featuring an exposed walkway beneath the main deck, and a slide taking visitors back towards
the ground.
Fujiyama Tower will be located outside of the park, allowing more people to see the
fantastic views.
Despite being 25 years old Fujiyama still remains one of Fuji-Q Highland’s most beloved
rides.
Even though the roller coaster is no longer the world’s tallest or fastest, it still
provides a thrilling experience, one which provides a unique view of Japan’s cultural icon.
Have you ridden Fujiyama?
If so, let us know your thoughts of the ride in the comments down below.
Thank you for watching and we’ll see you all next time.