Hi everyone! First time posting here. I recently went to Fuji-Q Highland with my friend and was able to squeal, run around in circles and jump up and down see the Sengoku Basara attraction and shop!! What better way to spend the last day of the year than with samurais and rollercoasters \:D/

Official site: http://www.fujiq.jp/special/basara/

This entry contains Sengoku Basara crepes, screaming children, and failure to defeat the fearsome Oda Nobunaga. It is also rather image-heavy and somewhat long and fangirly, sorry!!


The attraction
I'm going to be awful and direct link to this photo because I got way too excited and forgot to take a photo of the attraction outside LOL. I did take photos of the character posters lining the walls though!



Lining up inside, you're waiting in a dark tunnel and there are a few promo posters for Senbasa3.
Yeah sorry, you only get pictures with my ugly mug in these shots :P I'm all rugged up because it was like 2 degrees Celcius on that particular day.


Pretty much everybody who was lining up had no idea what the attraction was about. Most people were saying "What is this supposed to be?" or "Is it a game? Or an anime?"
At one point while lining up, some small children (maybe younger than 6 years old?) ran out of the attraction SCREAMING. Suddenly, everyone became more interested in what this game had in store XD

Once we got inside, everyone is given a character card. I scored Takeda Shingen :D


When everyone has been given their card, we watch a Sengoku Basara trailer giving a brief outline of the story behind the game, mostly explained by Date Masamune! (I had to bite my thumb not to laugh out loud at his ridiculous engrish) Then one of the amusement park workers explained the game play:

1) There are three levels to the maze. In the first two levels, we have to search for slots to put the cards in, and the card will be equipped with battle armour (see below for pics). There are several fake slots, so don't waste your time trying to put the card in. Be careful that some slots can also *remove* armour.
2) Once the time is up on the second level, those with 6 battle armours equipped can proceed to the 3rd level to battle with Oda Nobunaga (from what I can tell from the website, you swish a plastic sword at a hologram lol)

Anyway, you don't get a lot of time and there are a lot of fake slots, so it was really hard :/ I think only one or two people were able to pass to the third stage!


My friend got Motonari and only managed to get one armour equipped, whereas I got three (two are overlapping)

**slightly o/t** Before the Basara attraction was in place, the site for this game was actually called "Furinkazan" which you might know as Takeda Shingen's battle cry. The first two stages were slightly easier: you can work in groups, and you only need to collect the four elements of Furinkazan (wind, forest, fire, mountain). The third stage involved.. a room full of infrared rays that you somehow had to maneuver through the room without touching them. I failed that :P



The exhibition and shop and cafe!
Okay, so I was slightly fangirly before the game attraction, but when we got inside the exhibition I was nearly hyperventilating XD

I hadn't even entered the building and I was all OYAKATASAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! and shouting at little children. Yes.


The giant mural and armour replicas that greeted me when I skipped through the door.



Seiyuu autographs and scripts from games 1, 2, and Battle Heroes.



There were these adorable SD Yukimura and Masamune .. kite? things hanging from the ceiling. SO CUTE!!


I then proceeded to take silly photos in front of the character posters (there was one for Motonari but lol, ignoredddd)


There was also a small game arcade corner, none of which I tried (ufo catchers and I don't get along)


Purikura!!!!! I was responsible for decorating the Date picture, which I failed at, but my friend did a rather awesome job at giving us Shingenstaches :D


Then there is the cafe!!! It was full of crepes, waffles and cakes! om nom nom
I ended up getting the Date Masamune crepe, which had black sesame crepe wrapping, filled with whipped cream, green tea icecream, and red bean paste. DELICIOUS. My friend got the Yukimura "moffle" which is a mochi waffle filled with daikon and some other vegetables (probably burdock and carrot by the looks of it).
It was stragely bizarre ordering from the menu. I stared at the girl at the register and pointed at Masamune's face and was like, "eto.. Date.. Masamune.. nantoka .. kudasai?" (which basically means "uhh, Date Masamune something-or-other, please!)



There was a goods shop. Admittedly it wasn't overflowing with Basara goods. In fact there was only a small portion of goods relating to the franchise. There was a fair amount of items relating to samurais in general, with many t-shirts and miscellaneous items simply bearing the army crest.




BASARA FOOD. I really wanted to buy like, everything, but it would be just sitting in my room on display and never eaten ;_;



There was also a good amount of regional speciality items. For example, Miyagi (Sendai) is famous for beef tongue and miso, Nagano (Ueda) is famous for apples and wasabi, and Yamanashi (Kofu) is famous for grapes and Shingen mochi and houtou (see below for a bit of info on houtou).


After pouring through pretty much every single item for sale, I decided on a Senbasa 3 poster. The receipt had the name of the shop, Sengokujo Kamachi (Sengoku Castle Old Town? idk)




I actually live in the ~*~region of Kai~*~ aka Yamanashi prefecture. I can tell you that pretty much everything relates to Takeda Shingen. Everybody worships the guy. There's even a Takeda Shingen festival every April. There's also a reenactment of the Battle of Kawanakajima that locals can take part in.


Shingen mochi is a famous sweet originating from Yamanashi. It consists of mochi covered in kinako (soybean flour) and drizzled with kuromitsu (black sugar syrup). Lately some places have been selling Shingen mochi icecream, as shown in the picture above. It's HEAVENLY.


Another Yamanashi speciality is houtou. The noodles are flat and wide, and are similar to udon noodles but with a firmer texture. The soup is miso-based and is filled with various vegetables, usually pumpkin, mushrooms, carrot, onions, daikon, etc. Many restaurants will sell various meat choices to add to your soup, usually pork or chicken is the popular choice but some restaurants serve bear meat or wild boar (not even joking lol). I've eaten houtou many times but the other day when I was dining at my favourite houtou restaurant, Kosaku, I realised that the entire place is adorned with the Takeda Shingen armour crest :P I don't know why I never noticed before!


Overall, it was an amazing attraction! It's a definite must-see for any Senbasa fans in Japan!!
It's unfortunate that most Fuji-Q visitors had no idea what the attraction was about. Most people went to the exhibition to just eat at the cafe without caring about the gimmicks. It was a little sad.. but also kind of nice because I could take photos without worrying about crowds in my way?

If anybody has any questions about the attraction or goods, feel free to ask!!