Ride The World's Longest Roller Coaster At This Thrill-Filled Amusement Park In Japan

When a roller coaster is really lengthy, people often end up screaming for so long that they have to take a breath in the middle in order to keep screaming. That likely happens regularly at the aptly-named Steel Dragon 2000 at Japan's Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana, a roller coaster that's an astonishing 8,133 feet in length — the longest in the world, according to Guinness.

The nerve-racking "click-click" ascension raises riders up a steep 307-foot lift, before sending them rocketing back down on a 4-minute ride that can reach speeds of up to 95 mph, which would certainly get you pulled over on the highway. Built in 2000, the Steel Dragon 2000 has retained its record as the longest for over 20 years, and remains one of the fastest and highest out there as well (like rides found at the largest theme park in the Midwest). As with swimming, it's probably best to wait an hour after eating before strapping into it.

The fact that the Dragon in question is steel, and has that late-90s trend of putting the number 2000 at the end of names, lets you know this ride means business. Riders are sent down from the top at a 68-degree angle in feet-dangling bucket seats, plunging them through a cavalcade of twists, turns, drops, tunnels, and whatever else the track engineers can throw at you. It's a little more advanced that what you'll find at America's oldest theme park.

Along with the initial high drop, the roller coaster incorporates a figure-8 helix and 7 camelback hills, often bringing riders deceptively close to the ground as well while your feet ominously dangle. It is, in a sense, intended to create the feeling of riding a dragon, since we unfortunately don't have actual dragons to ride as of yet. Not that many of us would be able to hold onto a dragon for 4 minutes.

If hurtling through the air in a bucket seat at 95 mph after lunch isn't your cup of tea, there are fortunately much slower and calmer things to do at the park as well. The Big Ferris Wheel offers scenic views of the Mie Prefecture, and there's a jumbo-sized pool with seawater, not to mention hot springs, an outlet mall, and the Jet Coaster that's gentler than it sounds and runs through a forest. Or you can just avoid the theme park altogether for some of Japan's most stunning destinations.

But the elaborate rides are certainly the main attraction, and if the Steel Dragon 2000 isn't your speed literally and figuratively, you can take it down a notch with the centrifugal swinging Giant Frisbee, the Free Fall (which does just that), or the Arashi, the so-called 4th dimension coaster, with seats that swing you in every direction. It's really a matter of deciding which part of your body you want to ache at the end of the day, but you'll nonetheless find some of the more thrilling rides in the world.