FUJI Q for FIVE YEAR OLDS

I am feeling quite proud of myself. I wanted William to visit Thomas Land at Fuji Q Theme Park before he totally outgrew the over-priced phenomenon.
I wanted a sunny day without oppressive humidity. I didn't want to have to deal with crowds. So, I figured the week that most Japanese school children are headed back to school should have at least one sunny day. This week has had many. And WOW! We arrived an hour after the park opened and parked 10 cars away from the main entrance.

I did notice some of the rides were half-staffed, or 1/3 staffed, but Thomas Land was wide-opened. SCORE! William loves to run and pretend he's a train. Of course, this means he follows the seams in the sidewalk and stops randomly at imaginary stations. This can be a problem in a crowd. With nobody there, he got to run on the sidewalk with the 'tracks' in it, go through the maze, cross the different, fun foot bridges, go under the waterfalls cave, and run, run run. I didn't have any problem keeping line-of-sight with him.

I had gotten a hint from a friend to not buy the expensive all-day, all-rides pass ($33 for Wm, $45 for me). So, I paid $18 for both of us to get in on the basic entrance price,

 and $32 for individual rides. Children under 6 have to be accompanied by a parent, so it wasn't like I could send him on all of these rides by himself. I don't know, maybe we would have done a few of the other rides in the park, had we bought the pass. We focused on Thomas Land. I've learned trying to do too much with a kid can ruin a day, so focusing is a better deal for us. Interesting side-note: There are rides with age restrictions. Some you can't ride on until you're 3, 4, 10. And a few you can't ride on if you're over 54 or 59! WHAT? 14 more years of roller coasters for me?!?

There were plenty of places for photo-ops, without a crowd of people trying to take turns.
I did enjoy the shopping. While we didn't buy anything (William is now into Shinkansens and Cable Cars), I loved the Thomas stamped nori. That's a sheet of seaweed to wrap around your rice ball or sushi. 
There were more practical printed items, I'm assuming that Thomas can be a really USEFUL engine at times!
William had a blast, and to afford better buffering times, I have edited them into 2 videos.