Hi guys and gals,
Last September I visited Japan for most of the month. My friend Nic and I travelled all over the place visiting lots of theme parks and trying to experience as much of Japan as possible. Over on Coasterforce.com I've been posting my trip report of our adventure but I thought I'd share with you the part where we visited Universal Studios. For the whole story click this link.
Be warned my reports are photo heavy.
Day 14 - Friday 20th
This was the day I was really looking forward to and Nic was dreading, especially because of the all the marketing we saw throughout the trip so far. We were off to Universal Studios Japan. They had only just started their Halloween Horror Nights and the marketing was literally everywhere. So, anyway we grabbed some food and got on the train over to Universal.
Straight out of the train station you enter CityWalk which is really crammed and crazy compared to the Orlando one. There was also a construction wall on one side making it feel a bit more tightly packed – turns out it’s just for staff parking. The hotels looming over everything was weird too.
CityWalk has it's own Octopus ball museum
Turns out we turned up on a stupidly busy day. We had to join the masses in the queues for tickets. In a realisation that these crowds were by far the worst we had seen we had to splurge money on very expensive fast pass ticket things. The idea of spending loads on these was horrific but it needed to be done.
Crowds <///3
I'll explain now that in Japan the Universal Halloween is pretty much split into two events. During the day it's mardi-gras/festival themed and then in the evening the zombies come out to play and all the special attractions open. This is why you'll see loads of kids characters on posters and that. I love this idea though, best of both Worlds.
A Universal trip report wouldn't be right without a photo of the globe
EXCITEMEMT
We enter the park and the first thing which is a major shock to the system is that they have Streets of America (amazing theming I should add) under a massive roof. You don't really notice it apart from when you look back at photos.
So many people <//3
Their stall theming was amazing
There were a couple of characters roaming near the entrance so we had our photo taken with Bert and Ernie and the female woodpecker (name escapes me).
The theming was incredible
We ended up accidentally catching a Hello Kitty show which was random.
Everyone had gone straight to Hollywood dream so we decided to just go back to it later in the day.
The man with a sign was the end of the queue
Another odd thing about this park is that it's so close to everything else, just outside the park is a giant bridge that somehow just fits nicely into the background of the American street sets.
The detail in the sets was brilliant
This massive stage was for the kids Halloween show which we annoyingly missed because it's only on once a day.
After walking around for a bit and realising that all the queuelines were already horrific we ended up joining the first group of peeps for Terminator 2: 3D. Nic had never experienced this attraction and it was one of my favourites in Orlando so I was excited to be seeing it again despite the language barrier. It was just as incredible as I remember, the 3D is probably the best I've ever seen and all the effects and actors are just awesome. It's so sad to think that in a couple of years this attraction will be no more.
Glad we didn't have to queue in this stupidly long cattle pen
We randomly decided to head over to the very bright and colourful kids area known as Wonderland.
We ended up being big kids and riding the Hello Kitty themed 'cupcake dream'. It's just a spinning tea cup ride.
So many bright colours
The whole area is split into three themes, Hello Kitty, Snoopy and Sesame Street. As part of the Halloween celebrations the characters were themed to fit into a 'trick or treat' theme. It looked pretty awesome but it also looked like something you had to pay extra for.
We then headed into the Snoopy Studio where we queued around 20 minutes for the cred. I loved some bits of the theming like all the birds that stick out of the house once the train enters the brake run.
We were going to ride Jaws next but noticed that Waterworld was about to start and I really wanted to see it. So we ran and just about made it in before it really kicked off.
Suffice to say the show area and arena is excellently themed and I thought it looked amazing. The show itself is also pretty good with plenty of stunts and fire. Fire is always good (apart from on my face or in my home).
I'll post part 2 soon. Thanks for reading!
Last September I visited Japan for most of the month. My friend Nic and I travelled all over the place visiting lots of theme parks and trying to experience as much of Japan as possible. Over on Coasterforce.com I've been posting my trip report of our adventure but I thought I'd share with you the part where we visited Universal Studios. For the whole story click this link.
Be warned my reports are photo heavy.
Day 14 - Friday 20th
This was the day I was really looking forward to and Nic was dreading, especially because of the all the marketing we saw throughout the trip so far. We were off to Universal Studios Japan. They had only just started their Halloween Horror Nights and the marketing was literally everywhere. So, anyway we grabbed some food and got on the train over to Universal.
Straight out of the train station you enter CityWalk which is really crammed and crazy compared to the Orlando one. There was also a construction wall on one side making it feel a bit more tightly packed – turns out it’s just for staff parking. The hotels looming over everything was weird too.
CityWalk has it's own Octopus ball museum
Turns out we turned up on a stupidly busy day. We had to join the masses in the queues for tickets. In a realisation that these crowds were by far the worst we had seen we had to splurge money on very expensive fast pass ticket things. The idea of spending loads on these was horrific but it needed to be done.
Crowds <///3
I'll explain now that in Japan the Universal Halloween is pretty much split into two events. During the day it's mardi-gras/festival themed and then in the evening the zombies come out to play and all the special attractions open. This is why you'll see loads of kids characters on posters and that. I love this idea though, best of both Worlds.
A Universal trip report wouldn't be right without a photo of the globe
EXCITEMEMT
We enter the park and the first thing which is a major shock to the system is that they have Streets of America (amazing theming I should add) under a massive roof. You don't really notice it apart from when you look back at photos.
So many people <//3
Their stall theming was amazing
There were a couple of characters roaming near the entrance so we had our photo taken with Bert and Ernie and the female woodpecker (name escapes me).
The theming was incredible
We ended up accidentally catching a Hello Kitty show which was random.
Everyone had gone straight to Hollywood dream so we decided to just go back to it later in the day.
The man with a sign was the end of the queue
Another odd thing about this park is that it's so close to everything else, just outside the park is a giant bridge that somehow just fits nicely into the background of the American street sets.
The detail in the sets was brilliant
This massive stage was for the kids Halloween show which we annoyingly missed because it's only on once a day.
After walking around for a bit and realising that all the queuelines were already horrific we ended up joining the first group of peeps for Terminator 2: 3D. Nic had never experienced this attraction and it was one of my favourites in Orlando so I was excited to be seeing it again despite the language barrier. It was just as incredible as I remember, the 3D is probably the best I've ever seen and all the effects and actors are just awesome. It's so sad to think that in a couple of years this attraction will be no more.
Glad we didn't have to queue in this stupidly long cattle pen
We randomly decided to head over to the very bright and colourful kids area known as Wonderland.
We ended up being big kids and riding the Hello Kitty themed 'cupcake dream'. It's just a spinning tea cup ride.
So many bright colours
The whole area is split into three themes, Hello Kitty, Snoopy and Sesame Street. As part of the Halloween celebrations the characters were themed to fit into a 'trick or treat' theme. It looked pretty awesome but it also looked like something you had to pay extra for.
We then headed into the Snoopy Studio where we queued around 20 minutes for the cred. I loved some bits of the theming like all the birds that stick out of the house once the train enters the brake run.
We were going to ride Jaws next but noticed that Waterworld was about to start and I really wanted to see it. So we ran and just about made it in before it really kicked off.
Suffice to say the show area and arena is excellently themed and I thought it looked amazing. The show itself is also pretty good with plenty of stunts and fire. Fire is always good (apart from on my face or in my home).
I'll post part 2 soon. Thanks for reading!
