Want to Take a Ride Down a Super-Long Slide...Backwards?

Although merry-go-rounds and teeter totters may be a distant memory on most American play grounds, slides have remained a main attraction for the most part. But the following slides in Japan put the short, plastic, static-cling-inducing contraptions frequented by U.S. school children to shame.

Check out this rider's point-of-view footage from a man going down the slide frontwards and then backwards:

The poster of this video states the slide is located in Japan where "mom's have no word for worry." But believe it or not, slides such as this are actually pretty common in Japan. Japan Probe points out these two slides in a park in Nagano prefecture and another in Okayama prefecture.

Watch those slide rides here:

nagano slideby movedsouth

long slideby poor9817probe

But neither of these hold a candle to this next one. Who can forget the viral sensation posted on YouTube in 2009 of the 82 meter long slide sitting on a mountain on western Kyushu's coastal plain? The video has more than 2 million views.

Watch a rider tackle that slide, which he says made him "scream like a little girl" and caused him to "lose feeling in my rump" but was still the best slide ride of his life. (Note: Video contains some profanity):

Would you go down any of these slides?

[H/T Gizmodo]