You've got red on you... Zombie hunting in Mount Fuji

by Emma Dean (Australia)

A leap into the unknown Japan

The lights flickered above as we peered up the dark hallway. Screams echoed throughout the building. Hidden behind a doorway ahead, just out of sight, lurked a waiting evil. I stared at my friend. There was no turning back. We clutched hands, took a deep breath and ran for our lives... Japan is a country of extreme contrasts. On one hand you have exceedingly polite people who uphold honour and rationality. On the other hand, you have a country that is the undisputed leader of horror with a population who love to scare the crap out of themselves. So that’s how I found myself in an abandoned hospital being chased by zombies. Welcome to Fuji-Q Highland. Fuji-Q Highland is one of the more spectacularly located amusement parks in Japan, a two-hour train ride from Tokyo to the Yamanashi Prefecture at the base of Mt Fuji. The park contains several world-record holding roller coasters, including the “4th Dimensional” Eejanaika, the 79-metre high Fujiyama, and Dodonpa - the fourth fastest roller coaster in the world. All of which give you an incredible view of Mt Fuji. But for my friend, Melody, the main drawcard was a two-storey, 900-metre fake abandoned hospital full of zombified employees aptly called: The Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear. ‘But I hate zombies!’ I had whined as Melody dragged me to the ride. Unfortunately, I had made her go on the fastest ride there so now I owed her. ‘Come on, it’ll be fun,’ she insisted. ‘Don’t be a wuss!’ Eager to prove I wasn’t scared, I obediently followed, choosing to ignore the rusted barbed wire fences and boarded-up windows of the hospital as we lined up with the other willing victims. Once we got into the hospital, we sat for a long time in a dimly-lit waiting room before we were split up into groups and taken into the ward. No lounge music, no bright lights, just the choking scent of musty antiseptic, broken furniture and the screams of other victims echoing around us. Finally, we were led into the ward by masked nurses, who handed us a torch and wished us luck. We followed the arrows and climbed the stairs, me leading the way, frantically lighting up the ground on either side, convinced something was going to grab my ankles. The attention to detail was incredible. Broken medical equipment lay on its side, bloody sheets hung off railings, beds sat empty, children’s toys were scattered about and lights flickered on and off. There was a morgue, several operating theatres and a bacteria lab chock full of fake-blood covered (yet enthusiastic) zombie actors. I don’t want to give too much away, but there was a lot of screaming, running, dead ends and zombies leaping out from behind counters. Halfway through the second floor Melody the zombie lover decided she’d had enough, so we braved the rest of the floor to find one of the evacuation points (oddly enough only labelled in English). We fell into the sunshine, laughing to cover up our terror, before doing the walk of shame past people lining up to get in. It’s fair to say our dignity was well and truly lost. So we admitted defeat and spent the rest of the day taking in the scenery before hopping on a train back to Tokyo for a much-needed drink. I think next time I’ll stick to being a wuss...