
Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I'm currently recounting our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last week, we revisited Odaiba and decided to check out the indoor theme park Joypolis for the first time! We've seen it a couple of times before but never actually been inside and since we didn't have plans it was the perfect time!
It's owned by SEGA so the first thing we saw was Sonic in the merchandise shop. They also have a quite a few interesting rides like a standing platform that swings you on a half-pipe and this roller coaster that goes upside down around the main stage.
But we decided to try out this scavenger hunt activity first since it was the shortest queue. While we weren't very successful it did give us the chance to explore the theme park I guess.
We went around the park scanning these emblems trying to solve a puzzle and find some treasure but I think we didn't really understand what to do since it was all in Japanese.
It was alright I guess but after that we just wanted to see the theme park for real and not have people looking at us oddly.
6 Feb 2023. Monday.
There was a Sonic Carnival going on in the SEGArena section on the second floor. Tbh I expected more Sonic related things around other than in the merch store given that Joypolis is owned by SEGA.
There was this ride called Storm-G but I wasn't sure what kind of ride it was.
It resembled a spaceship and might've been a VR thing as quite a few of the rides here actually use have a digital component with either VR/AR or something similar.
Here's the view of the roller coaster track from the third floor. It doesn't look very long to be honest but I guess maybe there's more track behind.
Here's a map of the third floor:
I guess this floor also had more attractions with specific IPs. We saw this Attack on Titan one but we weren't sure if it was a ride since it didn't look like it was very big.
Either way the wait time was only 10 minutes so we decided to check it out.
At the entrance they had statues of Eren Yeager and Levi. You can tell this is very early Season 1 AoT from the outfits. I guess it makes sense since they don't want to spoil the show too much.
After we got our tickets we were brought to this waiting area that I guess is meant to be one of the walls, Wall Rose if I recall.
The staff were also dressed in the uniforms of the Survey Corps just like in the anime. It actually looked really cool ngl.
But of course they were all speaking Japanese so we couldn't really understand. They did however have some instructions in English, although the translation is not the best. They probably used Google translate for this or something.
I like that they said "Please note that there is a grotesque expression". I guess they must mean the Titans.
Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos of the inside of the attraction of course. But it was indeed a walking attraction where the staff/actors will bring a group of people through different scenes in the anime. We were basically walking through different sets from the show and we got to reenact some scenes, including the one where the town gets attacked by Titans. They even had some special effects like the sets getting "destroyed" from the Titans.
It was actually really cool and while it was all in Japanese I think the scenes and videos did have English subtitles but I honestly can't really remember. I think they change it up every run so it's like a Choose Your Adventure kind of thing so if you're really huge fans you can just keep going through it and live through all the experiences they offer.
It was pretty short but thankfully our group wasn't very big so I think it was good experience. We had fun and it was quite immersive too. At the end we received a random chibi character card and I got Erwin.
The chibi cards are free but you can also get an A5 size clear file with different scenes from the anime on it. I think it's a gift for those who actually go through all the different scenes they offer.
Here's a closeup at all the other cards they have. I don't know why Eren is in a chicken costume but it looks very out of character for him. 😅
We looked around at what other attractions were on this floor and they had some really spooky ones like a haunted house.
This one looked especially scary, I was frightened even walking past the poster. I just hurriedly took a photo and left.
The other side of this haunted house was even spookier. I was so scared it would suddenly start moving or jumpscare me irl.
I'm a real scaredy cat so there was no way we would be doing any of those.
I didn't really know what this ride was about but it kind of reminded me of Spirited Away.
I'm not really sure what this one was but it feels like a maid cafe area, or it might've been the special event area where the hololive collab was happening.
There was another VR station here where you could play some games. I'm not a fan of VR since I think it's too immersive for me and I like gaming on my PC or console. Also I feel like people would spook me in real life when I have the goggles on. Last time it was also quite uncomfortable to wear them with glasses.
Other than the different haunted houses and attractions there were some seating areas and a cafe.
The cafe was actually quite spacious and had a nice view of the famous Rainbow Bridge in Odaiba.
There's still one more attraction in here that we were most excited about but I'll leave that for next time. Tune in next week for more adventures!
Here's a teaser:
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #278 (Tokyo): Scavenger Hunt in Joypolis!