Hirakata Park

Hirakata, Osaka, Japan

“Surprisingly complete family-style amusement park”

Osaka is well-known for its Universal theme park among coaster enthusiasts. However, there is a second amusement park within this huge city. It only takes a short train ride from the city centre to get to Hirakata Park. It offers an enormous amount of family rides, some funfair-style carousels, two water rides and a few roller coasters. Don’t expect any Universal or Disney level theming, but the overall atmosphere at Hirakata Park is quite enjoyable and staff are friendly. Most of them didn’t speak any English, but they really tried to make an effort to help us.

ROLLER COASTERS

The park’s five roller coasters are the main reason to visit this place. The biggest one is Red Falcon, a typical Japanese jet coaster with a track length of 1.3 kilometres. Despite its long ride duration, Red Falcon isn’t that thrilling and I’m convinced that those over-the-shoulder restraints aren’t really necessary here. Another popular ride is Elf, a wooden coaster manufactured by Intamin. Elf is just 700 metres long and the top speed (58 km/h) isn’t that spectacular either, but it’s got a very authentic wooden coaster feeling and it’s lots of fun. Also, you shouldn’t miss a ride on Fantastic Coaster Rowdy. This family coaster is downright lame, but one of the trains is decorated as a pink crocodile. That’s awesome, right?

WORTH A VISIT?

Hirakata Park is a local family park, so you won’t find any top thrills or dazzling dark rides here. However, it’s a nice place to visit if you have some time to spare in Osaka. The park offers a distinctively Japanese feeling and you’ll add some extra coasters to your counter. Oh right, one more thing… I felt like a celebrity at Hirakata Park. The park attracts a very local crowd and some younger visitors aren’t exactly used to westerners. That’s why I noticed that some of them secretly started to make pictures of us and that felt kind of bizarre.

PHOTO GALLERY

Do you think that more parks should buy crocodile coaster trains? Would you add this park to your itinerary in Japan? Share your opinion in the comments section at the bottom of this page.