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Zombie Ferris Wheel of Hell

The last post is about things I love - but here are two things I'm terrified of; Ferris Wheels and zombies. So when Japan's tallest, The Osaka Wheel, added four haunted zombie cars, you'd better believe I climbed aboard. Why? Because scaring myself is fun and because I had done extensive research into the ride's earthquake proof measures and learned it was impressive.

A little back to my fears for a minute - zombies are a more of a campy fear for me, I don't take it seriously because I know they aren't real. If they were real, they would be the most horrifying things imaginable but Ferris Wheels, that makes a little more sense. You're up high in a box and have no way of getting down or off the ride until you've made the complete circle. Add in my massive fear of earthquakes and you can imagine why the idea of being on the top of a Ferris Wheel doesn't really appeal to me. Yeah, I have some dark thoughts.

But I love being scared, so I bugged my husband to come on this with me. I made the rookie mistake of not booking tickets earlier and as a result we had to wait a few hours before we could ride. Like I mentioned above, of all the gondolas there are only four with the Zombie ride, so you need to book ahead. What differentiated them right off the bat was that they were totally blacked out. This also meant that you couldn't see outside or the amazing view at all, which kind of felt disappointing being on the one of the tallest Ferris Wheels in the world.


But what you can see - and hear - and feel was pretty scary. Once you're inside, you're in a haunted house. The seats look old and creaky which was a contrast to the rest of the shiny new looking gondolas. There were fake cockroaches placed around and I had to poke one with my bag to make sure it wasn't real (cockroaches run around like wild in the summer here). We put on the provided headphones and I'll admit, the story gets a little lost if your Japanese isn't so great. The sound effects are fantastic though, adding extra creaks, screams and whispers that make you question the integrity of the carriage. The seats also rattled along to the story, but we thought that was just the Ferris Wheel itself. It wasn't until later when I read more about the ride, that I learned the rattling was part of the zombie experience. The video itself was projected on one of the walls, making it look like you're seeing out the window of the Ferris Wheel while you watch helplessly as zombies try to break in and cockroaches run amok.

This is the story according to the website:

If you chant the mystic words while riding the ferris wheel, your wish will come true…
Hoping to have her wish granted, a young lady stepped aboard the ferris wheel. After getting into an argument, she’d become estranged from her parents, but now wanted to find them.
So she, along with her best friend, sat in the ferris wheel clutching her memento broach, as their gondola slowly climbed towards the highest point.
Was her wish granted? The sky turned an unsettling shade of purple. The gondola was enveloped in inky shadows. A howl rang out.
Just what is this place?

The highlight is that you're part of the story and have to do something with the broach to get what is called the True (good) ending, or the Bad ending. Since I couldn't really understand the instructions it meant my poor husband was on his own. Sad to say, we got the Bad ending and neither of us have any idea what you do to get the True ending. The whole ride lasted about 20 minutes.


It was cool, I'm not going to lie. But ultimately, I think I would have been more scared on the regular Ferris Wheel car where you could actually see how high up you were. The show part of this was fun but it didn't really need to be inside of a Ferris Wheel, I think it would have had the same effect stationary on the ground.

HIT IT: If you love zombies, cool zombie makeup and special effects. Also if you love haunted houses, because what made this one extra scary was knowing that there was no escape unless you were willing to go down.... very far down.

MISS IT: If you just want to ride a Ferris Wheel and be able to see the view. And also if cockroaches really aren't your thing.


Tickets are 1,500 yen each, 500 yen more than the regular gondolas. You can have up to six people per ride but my husband and I had the whole car to ourselves. I still made him sit beside me though so I could grab him when I got scared. The 'Zombie Ferris Wheel of Hell' runs until September 30th and tickets can be bought here.


 Photos: http://osaka-wheel.com/zombie/


 

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Location: 2-1 Senribanpakukōen, Suita, Osaka 565-0826, Japan

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