Dragon Quest Island

The most fun we've had in a long time.  We went to a theme park Nijigen no Mori, and specifically Dragon Quest Island, which I'll explain more after a meme and the boring part where I talk about us waking up.

Woke up and taxid to the bus station, and had a got a ticket one way to Awaji Island, which is famous for its onions.  The bus rolled up and looks like this:

We already had tickets booked for DQ Island, although that didn't matter as a weekday in winter is a slow day for tge park.  Nijigen no Mori (which means 2D forest) is a really pretty park that has multiple themed outdoor parks based on video games, anime, and Godzilla.  Some have obstacles courses, ziplines, water guns, interactive outdoor screens.  Each one takes at least a few hours and are fairly physical, not rides so to speak.  

DQ Island is based on the long running video game series.  Players pick a starting class that's available.  Sarah picked Mage and I picked Goofball (joker/jester class).  You get a guide book in English and to take notes in and a wristband with a medal and an nfc chip.  So you tap it on various things to interact.

Backing up, the first thing we did was make snowglobes.  This was the only even remotely disappointing thing.  As it was like 18 bucks a person and the snowglobe was this really cheap plastic home snowglobe you put acrylic dragon quest guys in and pick your glitter.  And then you just put a sticker on it, it's ok.  

Backing up again... you start in a castle and the people working there are dressed as guards and guide you to the screen to make your character.  You then get ushered to a room where the king explains that evil Zoma is attacking the land and you have to save them with the orb of light etc etc.  You leave the castle and it's a village, Onogard.  It looks like a village right from the games.  You can go in houses and there are screens you tap the medal to speak with villagers.  They have quests like get 3 of these herbs in chests amd you need to go around town trying to find the chests.  

On top of that there's secret medals that can help you level up.  Sometimes you have to leave the town (there's an exit gate you tap the medal to get in and out of) and you go to the north forest.  Which is part of the park but with monster statues that you sometimes have to fight.

It was great. Words can't describe how fun it was.  And that's EVEN with our feet and legs being exhausted and now we were playing a theme park game where the main event was walking.

For breakfast we got a popcorn bucket shaped like an Onion Slime King.  Which needs double explaining.  Awaji is known for its onions, they're very sweet and flavorful, and so in this Dragon Quest Island there are slimes (which are traditionally blue or metal and are common low level enemies in the games) that are shaped and look like onions.  The popcorn was also onion flavor and we thought it could use a little more onion honestly.  

We did a side quest that took a little longer and had us walking up and down the hill in the north forest again.  We killed the dragon and got the orb.  And finally it told us we were ready to face Zoma.

We headed to Zomas keep and a robed masked woman (who was very nice) got us ready to face him (lined us up with another group).  The final battle was a screen with Zoma, and you have attack buttons you have to hit in the right order as they light up.  When he attacks it blasted cold air on us which was a nice touch.

In the end we got em.  It ranked us along with the 2 other people (we did better than them hohoho).  Left and got our picture taken and the classic "Would you like to buy your photo?" Which of course we did because its going to go on our next Christmas cards.  Then to get more of our money it spat us into the cafe with themed food, which of course we ate.  And then it spat us into the gift shop where of course we bought stuff because if you spent 2000yen you got stickers amd if you spent 5000yen you got a bag, and if you spent 10000yen you got a better bag.

And then we did the random prize raffle 3 times and won awesome onion slime prizes.

And we had to stop at the godzilla Cafe so Sarah could get a godzilla creme puff and a godzilla teacup.

It actually wasn't that much money than you exchange rate but also didn't even care.  We got to be outside with not too many people having a great time.  A+ theme park.

The ride back was tricky though...the timetable wasn't obvious and there was no bus stand to get tickets.  A very nice Chinese/Hong Kong guy helped us out even though he spoke little english and i spoke no Chinese.  I saw he had tickets and asked where he got them and said they bought in advance.  He realize we were going to Kobe and let us know there bus he was on was going to Osaka.  We thanked him and walked away, but he came running after us even though his bus was almost there to tell us he found the time for our bus.  Very cool.

We had to wait another hour but was alright.  We grabbed food at the same curry place as its quick, got asliced beef steak in the chinatown Kobe meat stand and then went back to pack and eat.  

Hopefully the photos convey better than the descriptions.

Spicy metal slime curry.  Wasn't very spicy, had 2 quail eggs, was very tasty considering theme park food.  Onion soup

Hamburger steak with an Awaji onion and onion soup.  Also very good