Nagashima Spa Land hosts 12 roller coasters, but Steel Dragon 2000 is the crown jewel. When it debuted on August 1, 2000, it broke world records for height, speed, and length among complete-circuit coasters. Other rides have since surpassed its height and speed marks, but at 2,479 meters of track, it held the record as the longest steel roller coaster in the world for over two decades, until Falcons Flight in Saudi Arabia surpassed it in late 2025. Standing 97 meters tall, it ranks among the five tallest steel coasters on Earth. The ride's history carries a cautionary note: in October 2003, one of its trains lost a wheel that struck a guest in the adjacent water park, causing a broken hip. Steel Dragon 2000 closed for three years while engineers designed and installed sturdier wheels before it reopened in 2006.

Adjacent to the amusement park, Nabana no Sato transforms the concept of a botanical garden. Spread across roughly 230,000 square meters, this garden holds over 12,000 species of flowers -- tulips and dahlias erupting in spring color, begonias filling a dedicated hothouse garden. But from mid-October through late May, the flowers share the stage with more than 8 million LED lights in one of Japan's most spectacular illumination displays. The Tunnel of Light, the largest illuminated flower garden in Japan, envelops visitors in cascading color. Each winter season brings a new illumination theme -- the 2025-2026 installation, called ZIPANG, celebrates Japan's mythical heritage through choreographed light, water effects, and visual storytelling across more than 220 nights.

Before the roller coasters came the hot water. Nagashima sits atop natural mineral springs, and Yuami no Shima -- the resort's onsen theme park -- is the largest of its kind in Japan. The name itself, Spa Land, pays homage to these thermal origins. Visitors can move from adrenaline-pumping coasters to steaming mineral baths within minutes, a combination that feels uniquely Japanese in its embrace of extremes. The resort also includes three official hotels, a summer-only water park, and an outdoor outlet mall, creating a destination that draws visitors for weekends rather than just afternoons.

Despite its scale, Nagashima Spa Land operates in the shadow of Japan's megaparks. In 2022, it hosted 4.2 million visitors -- enough to rank as the 21st-most-visited amusement park in the world and the fourth-most-visited in Japan, behind only Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, and Universal Studios Japan. Yet outside of Japan, few travelers have heard of it. That relative anonymity is part of the appeal. There are no two-hour queue lines, no crush of international tour groups. Nagashima remains a place where families from Nagoya and Osaka come for the weekend, where the coasters run fast and the baths run hot, and where eight million tiny lights turn winter darkness into something worth driving across Mie Prefecture to see.