26/02/12 Universal Studios Japan (Picture heavy) - ユニバーサル スタジオ ジャパン
Hey guys!
I have finally finished all my assessments for this semester (but still have exams coming up.. sigh)
Today I have another Japan blog post! This time I'm going to blog about my time at USJ (Universal Studios Japan) in Osaka. This post is very picture heavy since I took heaps that day xD Some photos were taken by friends who were with me on the day too~
We woke up early to get ready, my look for the day~
We wore matching outfits that day
Along the way we stopped by
Matsui Mama and Papa's store to take photos with them
Since we came by too early we couldn't have breakfast at their store, so instead we went to Lawson's (Japanese convenience store) around the corner to buy food
I just bought a nikuman (pork bun) to eat at the train station
To be honest it wasn't very good :( Oh well, it was only 100 yen haha.
Transferring stations
On the train
We then took the train to USJ. It was about 45 minutes away from where we were staying.
At the station
We walked around a little bit
We stopped by another Lawson's conbini to buy food to bring inside USJ, since food is likely to be really expensive inside there.
I vlogged a lot at USJ so I will try edit the video and will try get it up soon!
Arrived at the front of USJ!
We then got to USJ to purchase our tickets! To be honest tickets are overpriced, 6200yen for an adult 1 day past (Approximately $90). More expensive than Disneyland/DisneySea and I think that USJ is a lot smaller than those theme parks. If you guys can get your hands on an international student card, you would only have to pay around 5000yen a ticket I think, which is around $75. However you have to buy the ticket in the Lawsons near USJ to get the discount. We went to the counter asking for the discount but couldn't get it, and since it was too cold that day we couldn't be bothered walking back to Lawsons.
The ticket gate
As soon as we entered USJ
We went into a souvenir store to buy headbands to wear around for the day! I originally wasn't planning to buy anything but I saw this really cute Hello Kitty hat and couldn't resist!
There was Hello Kitty everywhere!
You guys are probably going to get sick of me after this post, I took so many photos of myself on that day LOL
We had to wait for another friend to come so we walked around a bit first, and went to our first "ride" which was the Shrek 4D cinema. Apparently it's the same ride as Universal Studios in Singapore but it was in Japanese.
Waiting around for our friend to come
Friend walking towards us
After he came we started walking around. It was SO cold that day that we just decided to walk to a small cafe quickly to rest where it was warm
I love the old fashion theme!
My 3 friends wanted to ride on the roller coaster, I'm not good with scary rides so I decided to not go on and just eat my food :P
Sat down outside to eat my Curry pan! (Curry bread)
Right next to me was a stand selling Apple Churritos and Hello Kitty Pork buns (I think). SO cute but they were pricey so I didn't get any :(
Walking along we saw another Hello Kitty Souvenir store
Snoopy! So cute!
We then walked around more to go on other rides
It was absolutely FREEZING so this thing helped me a bit along the day hahaha
So pretty!
Then we went onto the next ride, Spiderman!
Inside: it was really dark so didn't have many good photos inside
During the ride, towards the end they take a photo of you which you can buy, but I usually always take a photo of the screen haha.
After the ride..
Would've loved some icecream if it wasn't like -2 degrees that day T_T
The others wanted to go on the Jurassic Park ride so we started walking towards it
Along the way we decided to go to on the "Back to the Future" ride. The line was so long and it was absolutely FREEZING standing outside in line T_T
After the ride we walked through the Chinatown area
Now heading towards Jurassic Park
Unfortunately (for them xD) the ride was closed for renovation so they couldn't go on. Since it was so cold and we were getting a bit hungry, we decided to go into the Jurassic Park cafe to warm up and eat.
Food time!
Since we all wore matching outfits we wanted to take a shot together, but it was too cold outside to take our jackets off so we decided to take it in the restaurant
We then walked outside again to have a look around
While walking around, I was always holding a camera on me, a group of Japanese guys walk past and say "とってとって!” (totte totte!) which just meant "Take a photo!", so I just did lol
We then passed by the Jaws area, but didn't go on the ride. Apparently you would get splashed with water on the ride, and since it was just freezing that day, none of us didn't want to make it any worse
We wanted to go to another warm place to sit down, so we just kept walking around a bit more
Finally! A warm looking place! haha
It ended up being like a zombie musical show, luckily when we arrived people were just starting to go inside. I recorded a lot of the show, it was amazing! I will put bits of it my video when I edit it
We were pretty much done with the theme park after, so we then decided to go shopping for souvenirs
So much pink!!
We went into the Hello Kitty store
ssosososo cute!
There was this cool machine where you put in a 100 yen coin and you get a souvenir coin out of it
Janelle and I decided to go outside for a bit to take photos
It got too cold (again lol) so we decided to go back into a shop to warm up.
There were SO many cute couple charms I wanted, but my phone doesn't have a hole to put on phone straps :(
After that we decided to take some last few photos at the entrance of USJ before we headed off to get some dinner~
At the end of the day we couldn't be bothered finding somewhere nice and cheap to eat so we just went to Lotteria for some fast food.
Overall I thought it was a good day, however I think USJ is slightly over priced. The themepark itself was very small compared to Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea. We finished walking around in about 4 hours and that included waiting times for the rides. I would go back at the end of 2014 however since I heard they are making a Harry Potter world, but otherwise I wouldn't go back there anytime soon. If you haven't gone to any Universal Studios themepark before then it is fun to go once, but I heard that the Japan one is pretty much the same as the Singapore one, except the rides are all in Japanese. If you don't understand any Japanese you may not have as much fun since you won't understand anything people say in the rides, but overall I think it would be fun to try out.
If you want to save money however, then you aren't really missing out much if you don't go. I would much rather go to Tokyo DisneySea. If the tickets weren't so pricey then I wouldn't mind going back more often to USJ.
So that's it for now! If you made it all the way to the end then congrats LOL. I know this post is super long, I just went crazy taking heaps of photos (my Tokyo DisneySea post is probably going to be a lot worse :P ) but hope you guys enjoyed it! I will try put up my vlog from this day up asap!