Farewell Winter Break

We decided to spend the kids last day of winter vacation at one of the Japanese parks off base. The kids had been nagging Al and I to take them to one park in particular with a "drop slide", I prefer to call it the slide from hell. I can't blame the kids for enjoying it though...it's a riot.

You begin by climbing the stairs 15 feet into the air where you then sit on a platform, slide your rear to the edge, and grab hold of a bar that is positioned over....thin air. Once you fling your body from the platform you hang suspended from this bar until you work up the nerve to DROP 8 feet to the slide. I do believe the design is meant to give you such an adrenaline rush that you fail to notice the massive bruise beginning to form on your tail end.

The park also boasts a HUGE roller slide. These are indeed a great deal of fun...about three times as high as the drop slide, you use it as you would any regular slide...with one exception...it is VITAL that you sit on cardboard.

This slide is made up of small rollers. You sit on the first and it rolls you to the second and third and fourth and so on. Without the cardboard ones Gluteus Maximus would feel as if it were shooting flames by roller 500. This, as you can imagine, is absolutely excruciating. With or without cardboard however, the rider will reach such a speed as to be catapulted a good 50 feet off the end. Talk about fun!

Then there are the individual merry-go-rounds. If not approached with care one is liable to walk away with a slight concussion. These toys consist of a disk and pole placed in the ground at a slant (to add to the danger eh um I mean fun). One would sit on the disk and hold the pole (much like they would a sit and spin) while another would spin them at such a speed as to make the rider hold on for dear life until being flung 100 MPH from the contraption.

Japanese parks are a far cry from the more conservative ones in the states. Although I am fairly positive that if any of these playthings were installed stateside there would a great many lawsuits filed. Crazy Americans ruining our fun! Hehehehe!

Here are a few photos from our afternoon. My apologies for not snapping any shots of the "drop slide", I was busy reading...perhaps next time.