I Finally Rode The Carlator

  • June 10, 2026

Last January we visited Kobe, and amongst other things we wanted to visit an ‘amusement park’ but couldn’t because it was closed. I was determined to go, which is one of the reasons I’m back here in Osaka.

Therefore today I day-tripped to Kobe (about an hour away) and finally visited Samaura-Yuen park!

The train station closest the park is right at the base of a ropeway leading up Mount Hachibuse. I purchased the ‘full course ticket’ which gave me round trip fares for each ‘ride’ for ¥2100, and was on the ropeway a few minutes after disembarking the train.

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The view from the carriage was lovely, especially on a day as nice as today. The above photo views south, and Kobe/Osaka are to my left. The pier structure is Suma Fishing Park, a complex where you can pay an admission fee to fish from all day!

Immediately after the ropeway comes the ‘Carlator’. This is a transportation system which is essentially an escalator but instead of standing you sit in a large metal basket. What has made this strange conveyance infamous is that it’s also said to be the most uncomfortable ride in Japan 🙂

The bouncing and shaking is incredible, and I was laughing like a maniac throughout. We’d learned of this on YouTube but the jerking was much more than I expected. If you’ve never heard of a Carlator, that’s because only two were ever made and the other (at another Japanese location) was closed over fifty years ago!

The Carlator was immediately followed by ‘The Sightseeing Lift’, a single-person chairlift with (as you can see in the photo) no seatbelt. The seats were sized for the average Japanese person, which means they felt a little small for me, and this ride was actually a little scary. It felt unsafe, but then it’s been running for 60+ years now so I’m sure it’s perfectly fine 🙂

Incidentally counting this chairlift I’ve now been on three ropeways this trip, none of which I’d ever rode before! Could there be any more to look forward to before I leave Japan?

And then came the ‘Cycle Monorail’, a short monorail that you (the rider) need to power via cycling. I did something like this once at Yokohama with Bernard, but given this one was about 250 meters up a mountain you can appreciate the views were much better. The pedals were difficult to move, and after my unending exertions these few weeks that was a bit of a challenge!

I rode the chairlift back and went to the top of the ‘observation tower’ which did indeed have good sights. Look closely and you’ll see the chairlift in the lower right of the above pic.

The above is looking east toward Kobe (near) and Osaka (far). The visibility was fantastic today and I could see to the far distant mountains. It had become hot by this point but there was one more attraction in the park I needed to experience.

Inside the tower was a revolving restaurant! This was perhaps what I was most looking forward to at the park, and I happily ate my ‘beefsteak pilaf’ while watching my view very slow change as the entire third floor of the building slowly rotated. I think I’ve experienced a revolving restaurant before but was probably young enough I’ve forgotten the experience (or maybe it never happened at all) so now I’m happy that I’ve definitely cross this one off the bucket list!

The second floor of the observation tower is a game center with retro prize and video games. Many of these had seen better days but still worked, although I think the should have put more retro prizes into them.

They only had four video games: identical Space Imvaders DX cocktail cabs. One was broken, and the picture-tube screens of the other three showed evidence of decay. I don’t think there’s much life left in these guys.

“Write down anything you want”, said the visitors book. On a page with a striking depiction of Pikachu, I did just that!

Samaura-Yuen was dated and rickety and in need of maintenance but I greatly enjoyed my short stay. I’ve got a video of me on the Carlator and I think I just laughed the entire time. I arrived right at opening and had the ‘rides’ (and most of the park) to myself, but I was happy to see when I left that the ropeway carriages were bursting with people heading up, including young people. I like to think that this quaint and nostalgic old park has many years of happiness left in it.

To Osaka

  • June 9, 2026

Nara exists now only on the postcards winging their way to you. I left early this morning for Osaka, where I’ll stay for a few nights.

My room here is big and comfy and has a wonderful thirtieth-floor view. It also has these in the cupboard:

These are large boxes containing food, water, medicine and toiletries. This is in case of an earthquake, and reminds me when we stayed in Osaka a few years ago and KLS was ‘stuck’ on the 36th floor (of a different hotel) for several hours after the Noto earthquake shut down the elevators. Interestingly, we stayed in this very hotel five months ago and our room had no such supplies!

After checking in I headed to Den Den town to look in the game shops since I’m hunting for something. I had no luck today with that particular item, but did see many other interesting things in the few hours I browsed. I’ll get to games in a blog before this trip ends.

I then went jewelry shopping for KLS (which was a long process!) before taking a ride on the Hep Five Ferris Wheel:

I like this wheel and have ridden it a few times before. I may even do it again this trip at night because the views – it’s on top of a mall right in the center of the city – are great:

On the way down, at a Sanrio store, I spied this:

It’s a rubber stamp maker! You design your own stamp and the machine makes it in the spot. The mechanism is fascinating and the stamp is self-inking. I made two: one for a student of mine and one you’ll see on a postcard 😉

It was another long and tiring day and even isekai anime on the room TV much larger than the one we have at home can’t keep me awake much longer…

Oh Deer!

  • June 8, 2026

As with every onsen I’ve stayed in this one rotates the gender of the baths periodically, so this morning I had a different outdoor experience that was even better than last night! Surrounding the bath are waterfalls, heavy foliage and even a torii gates (!) and this ambience made my dawn soak extremely relaxing, suitably preparing me for another big day.

Would you believe I saw some deer?

While there were loads of tourists yesterday in the rain, today the sun was out and tourist numbers were bonkers. Even at 9 am when I set out, there were much bigger crowds around the deer than I saw yesterday.

Many deer congregate at the edge of the park closest to the station, since they’ve learned that’s where most tourists first encounter them. What happens is everyone goes agog when they see the deer, lingering and taking many photos, and Mia importantly buying deer crackers! By the time most tourists have continued further into the park the thrill has worn off since there are deer everywhere!

But Nara is more than just the deer, and I explored the shrines and temples of the park today as well. Most of what I saw today I’ve seen before, but as I said it’s been a decade since I was last here so I wanted to refresh my memories. The building above is the famous Daibutsuden – the largest wooden building in the world – which houses this:

That’s Daibutsu, a fifty-foot tall Buddha statue. Over 1250 years old, this is one of the most famous sights in all of Japan. When I was there today I shared the building with what seemed like a thousand school kids, who themselves were only a fraction of the screaming hordes of children that i saw in Nara today. To say the deer excited them was an understatement!

It was starting to warm up after the Buddha, and I observed the deer behavior was notably different from yesterday. While in the rain they were very active, today for them seemed like a rest day and many of them were just loafing.

The boys have impressive antlers right now, and they’re so relaxed you can touch them and they hardly react. The antlers feel flocked and slightly warm. Here’s a macro photo of what one looks like close up:

It’s only the fact that I’m basically a local in Japan that these handsome beasts accept me. If you visit Nara, you’ll want to pay attention to the warning signs:

I headed further east into Nara park and came upon a series of temples built on a sloping hill. These looked ancient and were very scenic and – since I was early and the deer were uncommon here – mostly empty of tourists. The clouds had returned now (it was around noon) and humidity descended like a heavy blanket so I was overjoyed to find a shaded rest house and a drink machine containing a life saving beverage:

When I rose from this brief repose I felt a twinge in my leg. Perhaps all this activity had caught up with me, and I hobbled slightly as I continued on. Providence smiled on me that moment since I came upon a small shrine to a dove spirit, and didn’t hesitate to purchase an ema (wishing plaque) and beseech the god for aid. Here’s my wish:

After only a few steps I thought I heard the flutter of a doves wing and feel my pain immediately disappear almost as if it had never existed in the first place! Maybe wishes can come true!

I saw a lot of babies today, which was interesting because I saw none yesterday. These were favourites of the tourists, and unfortunately I saw a few being harassed by people approaching them when signs (obviously) said they shouldn’t.

And then I purchased an ice cream, and as I was setting up a selfie with a picturesque shrine in the distance (which required me to crouch), this happened:

The sneaky little girl wanted my ice cream! Or maybe she just wanted to be in the photo 🙂

I’m so glad I stayed here. For most visitors to Japan Nara is only a several hour day trip and I doubt many ever return. But I had very fond memories of this place and this stay has reminded me why. If you’re ever in Japan, be sure to come and visit the deer!

Later in the day I went to a nearby mall to visit a ‘Goldfish Museum’, the less said about the better. Fortuitously the mall also had a gigantic Round 1 game center in it, and I happily fed medals into the Monster Hunter medal game for a half hour or so. Apparently my medal game luck hasn’t abated, since for at least half that time I was winning much more than I was putting in and I had visions of walking away from buckets of medals like KLS and I did in January!

As I was about to leave the mall I noticed this sign:

What this?!? They use AI to make (free) stickers of photos?!? I set a land speed record walking to the booth and airdropping a photo to a helpful young man, and in about two minutes he handed me this:

This one is going on a postcard tonight!

It’s dusk now and the tourists are all heading back to Kyoto or Osaka or Tokyo. The shops are beginning to close and (as the hotel girl that speaks some English claimed) the deer are heading to ‘the jungle’! Could it be they are secretly wild beasts who only come to town in the day to be fed by charmed tourists? I’m skeptical, but then I’m also too tired to go out and see if they’re still there after dark.

That’s a quest for the next time I visit Nara 🙂