“Confirm can one!” was what we all replied in unison when asked to wake up at 6:45AM the next morning in order to skip the line for USJ. But the next morning…….
“Walao guys, it is 9 already 6:45 your head la!” was what I woke up to.
We left the apartment at 9:30AM and headed to the train station to grab some breakfast because we predicted all sorts of food available at USJ to be really expensive (turns out it wasn't too bad!). A small noodle shop in the train station was what we settled for and all of us got the Clam Noodle Soup. We were given a choice of either udon or soba and I, without hesitation, chose my favourite soba!
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| Food is ordered through this vending machine! Pretty neat hehe |
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| So simple yet so tasty! Finally feels like i'm in Japan |
The noodles were well-cooked and the soup, slightly salty but felt really light. A perfect breakfast for the current weather here in Japan.
USJ is only 2 train stops from where we stay so it didn’t take long before we got there. Initially, we thought of getting the express pass so as to not waste time but the price doubled! The express pass costs around the same price as an entrance ticket but does not include the entrance ticket thus the double in price.
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| Went slightly crazy in here and almost bought Naruto's frog pouch HAHA |
Upon entry, we were welcomed by tons of minions-wannabes. It was so weird! Apparently Japanese really love minions. We took a stroll around and managed to catch a few street performances.
The main focus of my trip to USJ was to try the crazy new rollercoaster ride and visit Hogwards + Diagon Alley so with that in mind, we went to claim our tickets and selected the 12:40PM entry. You apparently have to get a ticket and choose one of the designated time of entry before you can enter the wizardry world; maybe for the sake of crowd control.
While waiting for our time slot, we visited Sesame Street. That area of USJ was probably my favourite after Harry Potter because it was so bright and colourful! Just being there made me feel all sorts of happiness. Our original plan was to ride the carousel but we ended up unleashing our inner paedophile and stared at kids drive mini cars banging into each other. There was also a small section dedicated to Hello Kitty but, sorry Hello Kitty lovers, I really hate that cat so I zoomed past it as fast as i could.
I’m not gonna lie but it was really funny and interesting watching how some kids go all GTA while some barely even moved. Time well wasted!
When we finally got enough of laughing (oops) at kids, we realised we had to leave for Harry Potter. I was so excited. The first thing we saw was the car Ron and Harry crashed HAHAHA. Walking further down, we finally got to where all the magic happens (pun intended) – DIAGON ALLEY!
It looked exactly like how it did in the show and, with the music playing, felt so magical. I swear I really felt like a wizard!
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| Diagon Alley |
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| Can you imagine a shop flooded with these (wands)?! |
Hogwards was a lot darker than expected and we didn’t see much except for Dumbledore’s lair. There was actually a ride inside Hogwards but we didn’t take it because the queue had a 100 minute waiting time.
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| If you're a HP fan, you'd probably know what this is! |
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| They were talking, but in Japanese... I suppose it was some sort of story telling because there was wind, raining soap and a couple of other effects |
After leaving Hogwards, we headed for the ride! It was an outdoor ride with a 70 minute waiting time near Hagrid’s place. Not exactly the best but we had a good laugh because my friend had to move up front for being too fat. We’ve been disturbing him on how it’s illegal to be fat in Japan so this made it even funnier!
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| The butterbeer tasted a lot like root beer float |
SCARY RIGHT! But also so. Damn. Bloody. Fun.
The queue for groups was a 280 minute wait so we gave that up and went for singles instead. Singles is a queue for people who don’t mind sitting alone and can fill up the empty seats. We ended up only having to wait for an hour or so! Smartest decision we’ve ever made.
Here are some other miscellaneous photos I took during my time in USJ.
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| Jurrasic Park |
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| Attack On Titan (anime) |
Starving from having only half a bowl of noodles this morning (personally not a morning person so I can't eat much before 11 and gave the other half away), we settled for Kobe Motomachi Doria in the small mall beside USJ. I got the bacon and shrimp in creamy doria which tasted really good but got me jelak (meaning) after half of it. I guess I’m just not made for cream-based foods.
We visited the arcade after dinner and ended up spending way too much trying to get way too many stuffed toys. Almost all of us went home with 2 toys each. They weren’t small toys either! We even got Purikura (aka neoprints). It was funny seeing 5 teenagers constantly running in and out of the booth all panicky because there were time limits to everything!
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| Pretty embarrassing but all in the name of fun |
We headed back to the apartment to place our things down before walking to visit a small nearby shrine. It wasn’t much but it definitely beats staying in the apartment, especially when we can embrace the weather!
Tomorrow’s gonna be another long day because we’ll be headed for Kyoto bright and early. Wish me more luck T_T xx.
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