It's USJ day!!!
Though I'm a woose and not good with rides, we were really looking forward to USJ because of the Harry Potter theme park!! We had made grand plans to set off early to USJ as we read that it can get crowded. However, it was cold. The neighbourhood was quiet...
And we only reached the train station at about 9am haha. When we reached Universal City Station, it was about 9.30am. It was so exciting walking from the station to USJ!
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| One Piece with Naruto! |
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| Harry Potter! |
But. It. Was. So. Crowded. At. The. Gates
You can purchase express tickets and fix your timed entry ticket to Harry Potter via the online shop as well. I didn't make an online purchase as i was worried about redemption of the tickets. What if something went wrong?? It's like 13000yen per person, not 130yen.
So anyway we queued.........
And we purchased our tickets and express passes (express 5) after an hour. I heard the lady over the counter inform us that our timed entrance to the Harry Potter Theme Park was 9.10pm and i was shocked! I then realised she meant 19.10 (7.10pm), which is still no consolation since it was only 10.30am. *RAAR*
But! We didnt have time to feel angsty, it's USJ!! Yay!!!
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| Wooooowwwwwwaaaoe! |
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| USJ 15th Anniversary |
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| View from the lake in the middle |
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| People love minions with capital L |
Armed with our express pass 5, we went for the following rides:
Terminator 2:3-D
A 2 and 3D show with the Terminator, and terminator characters in Japanese. But it was entertaining and the 3D mercury man quite cool
The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
It was quite fun! Pretty similar to the Transformers ride at USS! Very classic.
JAWS
A peaceful boat ride in the beginning, with a very entertaining river guide. Giant sharks start appearing halfway through and try to attack the boat. If you do not like your hair to get wet, protect it when the shark appears.
Jurassic Park - The Ride
Another peaceful boat ride along the river with escaped dinosaurs and some trickling / spurting water. If you don't like to get wet, please purchase a raincoat or cover your hair with a thick hoodie. Very steep drop at the Eeeeennnnnnndddddddddddddddddd!!!
Backdraft
Special effects show with alot of fire and explosions. Very long introduction that made me go into suspension.
We skipped Shrek because we had been to the one at USS and it would probably be in Japanese anyway. And I just could not gather up enough courage to take Hollywood Dream - The Ride. I scared..... I humji...
When it was 7pm, we speedwalked to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. By then they were no longer restricting access and people were sprinting in. That made me mad, because i was holding a damn timed ticket for 7.10pm and people with no tickets were sprinting in anyway so tell me what's the purpose of spending money for a guaranteed ticket into HP?!
O yes, we got express entry into 5 rides. OK. Guess we're paying for the relaxing morning we had.
Anyway the Wizarding World was exactly how i imagined it to be!! Quaint buildings, big shop windows, Ollivanders, Honeydukes, Zonko, everything! We immediately looked for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and found out that the queue for express pass holders stretched all the way out of the Wizarding World. It was literally Out Of The World. By this time, i was ready to give up the ride. But RJ said 'WE HAVE TO RIDE IT' or something similar and so i stayed in the queue while RJ looked around first. I thought the queue would move slowly so RJ went off to buy Butterbeer. I asked for 2 as i had wanted to give the mugs to Da Jie and YK. RJ wanted one of her own. Suddenly, the queue moved so fast and before i knew it, i was at the castle (omg It's a super cool castle!!)
Thank goodness the staff allowed me to stand at the side while i wait for RJ. We had to finish up the 3 mugs of Butterbeer before going in. I tell you, i have never downed a hot sticky sweet drink that i do not really like so darn fast in my life. The good thing was, it really warmed me up cos queuing in the cold is no joke.
Things started to move fast in the castle and there wasn't much time to snap pictures. BUT the castle was super cool! WOOooot! I managed to snap one of the Sorting Hat!!
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
It's goooooooood!! It's totally worth queuing up for. If you have a secret dream of flying a broomstick or becoming a Qudditch player, please pack your bags and camp out at USJ at 7am, sprint into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and queue up again and again for this ride before you eat anything. Lol.
After we came out of the forbidden journey, it was too late and all the rides were closing. So we went to the souvenir shop and browsed. I got some stuff and we happily went off to explore the place. My phone camera really sucks at shots with low light, so RJ's phone was supposed to save the day (night). But! It was either too cold or her prints went haywire, because her phone refused to recognise her prints. Lolol. It sounds funny but i assure you it was not funny for her at all. Hahaha. For a while, all pictures taken were like that with my phone camera.
Don't bother trying to figure out what are those because i can't as well.
USJ closes at 9pm, so it was time to move out. We wanted to eat at Daruma before it closes for the day so we moved with a purpose. However, when we reached Universal City Station, i suddenly realised that my Harry Potter souvenirs were missing omg!! I ran back into USJ and wanted to launch an individual search operation however the staff did not allow me to do so. I had to go to the lost and found counter to fill up a lost report with a very pleasant staff who excused himself after i did so. I was upset and distressed. My HP souvenirs!!
But when the staff reappeared, i saw that he was holding the HP paper bag i lost! Omg!! I really couldn't believe it. And everything i bought was inside! Really couldn't believe it. I blurted out a series of 'omg, sumismasen arigato gozaimasu arigato thankyoy!' and like suddenly i have this overflowing love for USJ and Japan!
USJ and staff of USJ, and person who brought my lost souvenirs to the USJ lost and found counter, i love you, 我爱你, aishiteru. xoxoxo
So due to my misadventure, we didnt make it in time to eat at Daruma and after some miscomm communication, RJ and I decided to just return to the apartment n have convenience shop food. Saw this lone worker, cold night, gosh.
While walking back to the apartment, we sighted some potential food shops and ran into a small udon shop run by a little old lady.
The udon was not chewy but the kitsune rocked. The soup was just nice and the onions superb! Food just tastes so darn good when you are hungry.
