Universal Studio, Japan Trip (Day 10)

5th January 2015, Monday

Train to Universal City

Today, we were going to Universal Studio and it is a perfect day because it was sunny. We got up early and prepared ourselves. We had breakfast at the hotel canteen too and then we went off to travel to the theme park. We had to take the JR line and transfer at Nishikujo station and took the train to go to Universal Studio. Another alternative way to go there was by a 10 minutes ferry from Osaka Aquarium. We alighted at Universal City station and i was very excited to go to the theme park again. And they had built a new world - The Wizardry World of Harry Potter. We passed a lot of the shops and hotels outside the theme park but there was one side having some construction works going on. There were many people going to the park too. We ran to the tickets counters and queued to get our entrance tickets, the staff heard us wrongly and gave us 4 tickets instead of 2 tickets..hohoho....The tickets were with Hermione and Ron's pictures, and once we got the tickets, we went in quickly.

Woody Woodpecker

Pink Panther

There were a lot of people on the main street and some characters had also came out to greet the people. We tried to find the tickets machines to get our timing to visit the wizardry world (Need to get timing to go in due to overwhelming response from the crowds). There were also a lot of people trying to get the times too, we chopped 4.00 pm to 5.00 pm to enter. After we got our entry tickets, i dragged my friend to go for the Spiderman ride (it was like Transformers ride in Universal Studio Singapore). There was a very big christmas tree placed beside the Spiderman attraction. We went in to queue for the ride, the queuing line was super super long. We waited for almost an hour before we got our turn on the ride, it was so fun. I felt there was more space for the cars to turn around and back. After we came out, my friend was trying to get her breath.....She said it was not so scary than the Mummy ride in Universal Studio Singapore. I waited for her to get better before we started walking around the park again. We went to the street again and saw people starting to sit on the ground, preparing to catch the street parade. So we found a spot and sat down too, my friend went to buy hot dog and some snacks. We ate while we waited for the parade to start too.

The parade started at 1 plus, and it was enjoyable. The characters were all singing and dancing to entertain the crowds. After the parade was finished, the characters stayed on for the crowds to have photo with them. We went off to see the other worlds, wanted to watch Sesame Street 4D show but there was not enough time as it was already 2 plus and if we watched this, we will miss the Waterworld performance. My friend bought a small packet of popcorn too, which we finished eating it while queuing to go toilet in one of the world..hohoho....Then we went passed Jaws World and passed Jurassic Park before we reached the WaterWorld. We caught the last show for the Waterworld performance and we sat on the side seats. And of course the performance was in Japanese language, we just watched on the actions. It was still very entertaining despite i had watched it like 3 times (included in USS). After the show, I brought my friend to see the water roller coaster in the Juassic Park and we bought 1 turkey leg to eat. The staff was saying 1 whole bunch of Japanese words and was speaking very fast too. Suddenly she switched to English and asked us where we are from. Both of us were stunned and we both paused for a while, the staff had to ask us another time before we replied back to the lady. She asked us whether we like Japan and she was very happy when we told her we both like Japan. She thanked us and we said bye-bye to her. Then we walked to the wizardry world of Harry Potter while eating the turkey leg.

ButterBeer (Good to Try)

Entrance to Dumbledore's Office

Hogwarts Castle (Night View)

We went to the wizardry world and we still had to wait before we were allowed to go in. There was a long path to walk where Ron's car was displayed in the grasses. And when we reached the main gate, we were greeted by the cottage houses that was shown in the shows. At the side of the right side, there stood the Hogwarts Express Train. And my camera run of space in my memory card...grrrr....so i had to use my handphone to take photos for the rest of the day. There were much more people in this world than others, all the shops were packed with people. We can't even go in to see all the shops cos they were too crowded. But the shops were selling wands used by the characters in the movies, Hogwarts school uniforms, Owls Post, sweet and chocolates that were also shown in the movies. All the houses were covered with fake snow on the roofs. And there was something interesting that was selling on the streets - ButterBeer. It was a popular drink in the wizard world of Harry Potter. And of course, the queue for it was also long. We also went and queued to get one cup to drink it. It comes with hot or cold, we ordered the cold beer to try it. It was nice, it wasn't really beer and there was a layer of cream on top and it tasted like soda. I like it....hehehe...Then we tried to see inside the shops while drinking the beer. There were some 'students' performing trying to teach their pet frogs to sing on the stage. Then we went for the Hogwarts castle walk, it was a walk inside Hogwarts castle. There was another line for the roller coaster ride called Flight of the Hippogriff. Both queue lines were long, even for the walking trail, it took us almost half an hour to 45 mins to complete the whole trail.

Elmo

Blue Monkey

Pork Ribs (Hard Rock Cafe)

It was already past 5 plus by the time we came out from the trail. We went and bought another butterbeer drink but this time we got the hot beer. It wasn't so nice, it was having a weird bitter taste in it. Then we just walked around the shops and there was a nice reflection of the Hogwarts Castle in the river, just beside one of the shops. After walking around and finished drinking the beer, we left the wizard world and went back to the Hollywood street. We went to Mel's Drive-in restaurant to have dinner as my friend likes it. I just had a cup of soup as there were only beef burgers. After the meal, we walked back on the streets. The big christmas tree was lighted up with beautiful lights and we went to find a spot for us to sit down for the starlight parade. The parade started at around 7 plus, all the cars were lighted up with beautiful lights. It was enjoyable and this parade was only available during christmas period. I am glad i got to watch it this time back in USJ. After the parade, we went to the main stall to get our last shopping before we left the place. And of course, we went to take photos with the big Universal Globe outside the theme park. As we were feeling abit hungry, we went to Hard Rock Cafe to have something to eat. Tried their cocktails, the taste were very strong. Had their famous pork ribs too, it was not bad. After the meal, we took the JR line back to the hotel to rest.

Hotel Stayed:
Humor Resort New Oriental Hotel