Eejanaika is a steel roller coaster, located at Fuji-Q Highland in Yamanashi, Japan.
The ride is a 4D coaster which essentially means that guests rotate forwards and backwards
in their seats independently of the track as they navigate the course.
As a result visitors can complete 360 degrees flips at specific moments of the ride, giving
the traditional roller coaster experience a 4th dimension.
But not only that, at face value Eejanaika is an extremely large scale ride.
In fact, Fuji-Q Highland have developed a reputation for building record breaking or
first-of-their-kind attractions.
This all started back in 1966 with the debut of the Giant Coaster, the world’s tallest
roller coaster at the time.
Measuring 40 meters (131 ft) tall, it kept its record for 11 years.
Giant Coaster was followed by the construction of Double Loop, in 1980.
Double Loop opened as one of the first rides in Asia to feature two back-to-back vertical loops.
From this point on, Fuji-Q Highland became committed to consistently building record
breaking attractions.
In 1983, the park shattered the height record once more by constructing Moonsault Scramble;
a ride that became the first to break the 200ft height barrier, dropping guests 70m
(230ft) towards the ground.
A decade later, in 1996, Fuji-Q wanted to break the height record once again.
They built Fujiyama, once again the world’s tallest roller coaster, standing 79 meters (259 ft.) high.
While in 2000, the park closed Moonsault Scramble to make room for their next record breaking roller coaster.
And, a year later, Dodonpa, the world’s fastest roller coaster opened to the public.
Using compressed air, the ride launched guests from 0 to 172 kmh (107 mph) in just 1.8 seconds;
making it the world’s fastest accelerating roller coaster too!
It was the years following which saw the Fuji-Q Highland search for their next big ride, a
ride which would eventually become Eejanaika.
At the same time as the construction of Dodonpa, the US theme park Six Flags Magic Mountain,
were building an all new type of roller coaster.
Simply titled X, and a brain-child of Arrow Dynamics’ engineer Alan Schilke, the ride
opened in 2002 as the world's first fourth dimension coaster.
It suspended guests over either side of the track, allowing them to spin independently
in their seats.
But how did it do this?
X and Eejanaika both feature four rails along their track; the inner 2 bear the weight of
the train, while the outer two are used to control the rotation of the seats.
During the layout, the relative height of the outer rails changes compared to the inner rails.
This causes a rack, which is connected to the train, to move upwards or downwards.
This, in turn, rotates a pinion attached to the seats, flipping them in the process.
As a result, every seat experiences the same rotation pattern throughout the layout.
But, as a prototype ride, X ran into a whole host of issues.
This led to the park investing millions of dollars to fix the attraction, and filing
a lawsuit against Arrow Dynamics soon after the initial opening of the ride.
The lawsuit, combined with other financial pressure, eventually led to Arrow filing for
bankruptcy at the end of 2001.
Fortunately though, all was not lost.
2 years later, in 2003, a company called S&S purchased Arrow, acquiring their patents and
designs, including the fourth dimension coaster.
In 2004, reports surfaced that a second 4D coaster would be built in Asia; rumored to
be at the Japanese theme park Fuji-Q Highland.
Shortly after, it was confirmed that the park would be home to the world’s second 4th
dimension coaster.
Despite its flaws, in a press statement Fuji-Q said they wanted their next addition to be
something special to combat the competition of the Disney parks near Tokyo.
Fortunately for the park, between the debut of X and Eejanaika, S&S were able to resolve
many of the issues that plagued the prototype.
On X, the trains were excessively heavy and the mechanical components were prone to jamming.
S&S designed lighter trains for Eejanaika and improved the mechanical aspects of its
design, reducing the likelihood of problems occurring.
After several years of refining and construction, the ride opened to the public on the 19th July 2006.
Costing 3.5 Billion Yen, 30 million US dollars at the time, it was bigger and better than
its predecessor.
The name itself, Eejanaika, loosely translates to “Ain’t it great”; while the design
of the attraction’s station and accompanying area has been inspired by Japanese culture.
To board the ride, first guests pass beneath a Shinto Shrine inspired gate, and pass through
an area themed to a historic Japanese shopping street.
Guests then enter the queue line and make their way towards the station building.
Throughout the wait, guests here a repetitive soundtrack which heavily emphases the ride’s name.
Once they’ve passed through the majority of the queue, riders are greeted by a large
and open station.
Here, visitors board one of the ride’s two trains.
As each vehicle suspends guests over the sides of the track, they must board from either
the left or right hand side.
The 5 cars seat 4 visitors per row, 2 either side, leading to a total of 20 riders per train.
Once they’ve boarded, the experience begins with ride operators clapping and chanting
the rides name.
Guests immediately move backwards, leaving the station building and completing a 180
degree turn in the process.
Here they begin to climb the lift hill.
Riders ascend 76 meters (249 ft.) high, towering above the rest of the park.
They then crest the lift hill and enter a small dip.
As this happens, riders begin to rotate forwards.
At this point, they plummet down the first drop, facing directly towards the ground.
The trains fall 65 meters (213 ft.), at the maximum vertical angle of 89 degrees.
Fortunately, before they hit the bottom of the drop, guests rotate to face the sky.
It’s here where the trains reach the maximum speed of 126 kmh (78 mph).
Riders then enter a large 60m (197ft) tall inside raven turn, flipping 360 degrees in
their seats in the process.
The trains then pass through a zero-g roll, again completely rotating guests, so that
they remain upwards the entire time.
Riders enter an overbanked turn spanning across the lift hill, before navigating a fly to lie element.
This sees the riders and track rotate 180 degrees, from facing forwards below the track,
to facing backwards above it.
Guests then complete an outside raven turn, rotating downwards and they dive towards the ground.
The ride comes to an end with a second fly to lie, which quickly sees guests flip in
their seats, before they hit the final brake run.
During the entire chaotic experience, guests complete 1,153 meters (3,783 ft.) of track
in roughly 44 seconds of actual ride time.
As they do this, they’re subjected to 3 physical track based inversions, but 14 inversions
when taking the rotation of the seats into account.
Through this, the ride unofficially claimed the record for the most inversions on any
roller coaster around the world.
Though, the official record is currently held by the Smiler at Alton Towers; a ride which
features 14 true track based inversions.
Nevertheless, Eejankaia is one hell of a ride.
It’s taller, faster and longer than its predecessor X; making it the world’s largest
4D roller coaster ever built.
A year after its debut, X underwent a large-scale refurbishment to become X2, fixing many of
the original issues like Eejanaika did in the process.
Since Eejanaika, Fuji-Q highland has continued to break records.
In 2011 they unveiled Takabisha, the world’s steepest roller coaster, with a first drop
angled at 121 degrees.
While in 2017, Dodonpa was renovated to become Do-Dodonpa.
During this, the ride’s launch was improved and is now capable of accelerating riders
from 0-180 kmh (112 mph) in just 1.56 seconds.
More recently, the park has announced their next new project is currently in development.
Though we don’t know the specifics, the roller coaster is set to open in June of 2022
at the cost of 3.6 billion yen, roughly 34 Million USD.
Will this be another record breaking roller coaster?
Let us know what you think the park is building in the comments down below.
Regardless, thank you for watching, and we’ll see you all next time.
A big thanks goes to Sammy who’s been editing the audio for these videos over the past few months.
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