SEGA Joypolis

As I promised in yesterday's post, here is Rachel's take on SEGA's Joypolis indoor amusement center:

If you're into arcade games and virtual rides, Joypolis is a must see in Tokyo. It's a three story indoor amusement park with some very interesting games and attractions. The virtual rides include an auto racing game where you step into an actual car and there is a big screen in front of you. As you steer (probably out of control) the entire car jerks according to the way you drive.

There's also a power sledding game down snow covered slopes, and virtual flying (which I did not try). There are also some virtual shows where you just sit back and enjoy the show while your seat jerks you around. Dark Chapel is a 3-D attraction all in Japanese, but I kinda got that there was this witch dressed in a pink dress who was really evil. She was trying to release an evil creature inside this cursed chapel and when she did it tried to kill her. The 3-D was good and the seats shook when the monster came out. It was supposed to be scary but I just though that the witch's pet bat was really cute.

Then there was the Room of Living Dolls. This thing scared the crap out of me. You walk down this completely dark corridor till you get to this dimly lit room with a bunch of Japanese dolls on one long shelf that went around the room. Then you sit down around this table and your guide tells you this story (all in Japanese of course) that leads up to the really freaky stuff that follows. And to your right (or your left depending on what side of the table you were sitting on) is this big doll that's sitting in a chair with her chest open and one eye is bleeding. After the tour guide leaves, you put on headphones and the rest of the horror begins. The room is now pitch black. Then there is a flash of light and you can see that there is a a figure behind a curtain. You hear a woman talking about trying to make this big doll come to life by putting a real heart in her. Again, I couldn't really get the whole story because it was all in Japanese but I got that she brought all the dolls in the room to life and the big doll was killing everyone. The room is still in pitch black with random flashes of light. It freaked the crap out of me. Honestly, it was disgusting. Also near the end, the floor falls out from under you with you still on it, and finally when the lights come back on, all the dolls' eyes are bleeding and the big doll is gone. It was like being in the middle of the movies The Grudge and Dead Silence. (If you have seen either of those movies you know that you would never ever want to experience going through something like those movies.)

On a lighter note there is the Fortune Forest. You are given a piece of glass called a fortune stone and and you put it in various slots as you walk through the attraction. You also enter in information about your personality and at the end it gives you your fortune. The inside is extremely beautiful. I would just go to dawdle in the forest and ice caves.

They also had an Eragon walk-through that looked really cool, a spinning roller coaster, and a skate boarding ride where you swing up and down a really big half pipe.

Besides all the rides, there were many arcade games all around the three floors.

Ultimately Joypolis was a lot fun and I would definitely take any of my friends there.

Rachel