[ Digitalian : Hey Yeah! ]

幸せって何なの？　笑顔あふれること
Just what is happiness?　It's when the smiles overflow naturally

Day 6, April 13th: Universal Studio Japan!

Website: https://www.usj.co.jp/e/

7.30 a.m: From Osaka station we took the JR Loop Line to Nishikujo Station and changed train to USJ (Sakurajima Line). By the time we reached there, it was around 8 a.m- had an hour plus to kill since Universal Studio Japan opens at 9.30 a.m. At the gate, you can see the roller coaster track and everyone was already excited; the lines were already formed.

The train stops at Universal-City Station

Before Mel arrived

And a-MUST picture, of course!

Roller-coaseter HollywoodDream/BackDrop right at the entrance- this raised the tension UP!

Here Mel, Ija and Nik's colleague from BNM who’s studying at Waseda University joined us. While Ija went to pick her up, Sham and Zeti planned on our ‘journey' for the day i.e. which ride to take first. Yes, as you can see, we were OCD like that and time matters.  

Hogwarts- where Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey ride is!

And we 'graduated!' One of the best rides EVER!

As soon as the gates opened, we rushed a.k.a. run for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (3D) in Wizarding World of Harry Potter- our intention was to get the 'timed entry ticket' (almost similar concept as FastPass in Disney Sea - read Day 3, April 10th : DisneySea! ) so we can spend the time waiting for our turn on another ride first but apparently there was no timed ticked for Harry Potter that morning, so we just went in instead (timed entry ticket may be needed during peaked season). This ride is HIGHLY recommended. It’s an indoor-suspended roller-coaster-like ride, with a caution of motion-sickness. You may also encounter fans with Hogwarts robes lining up along with you :D

Where to next? Hogsmeade of course!

Love love love Harry Potter area! And add the cloudy weather, it was almost like real winter!

Hogswarts Express

We took some time to taste the Butterbeer- sweet sweet caramalized drink, took some photos and bought some souvenirs.

Butterbeer came as hot or cold, with the mug or disposable cups :)

In one of the shops : Dervish and Banges I believe

Next, we headed to Hollywood area for the roller coaster ride: Hollywood Dream (front-forward ride) and Backdrop (backward roller coaster ride). In the interest of time, we chose Backdrop and planned to come back later for the other, but it had to be that exact moment when they had to pause the ride due to strong wind :( 

Quickly deciding which ride to take because we didn't buy the VIP pass

So we headed to Space Fantasy Ride, a 4D roller-coaster ride, also HIGHLY recommended. Next was Spiderman, another 3D-ride which is much like Transformer in Universal Studio Singapore (USS).

Then we went for Terminator 2- a 4D theatre, much like Shrek in USS; the interlude before we entered the main hall was entertaining, except if you can’t understand Japanese ^^;; If you look at the map below, we went from Harry Potter, then made our journey clockwise. From Space Fantasy, we went straight to Spiderman, then only went for Terminator- because of the waiting time (Terminator's waiting time was longer and Spiderman was shorter). They also have lockers to keep your belonging while you take the rides :)

Cyberdine System, where Terminator is taking place, situated in between Space Fantasy and Spiderman.
Refer to map below:

The route that we took - red (1st) then blue (2nd) then green (3rd); will be explained more below

We tried to catch Hollywood Dream (number 08 in the map above),  which has reopened after the wind subsided, but the waiting time was too long (up to 120 minutes!) so we went to Back to The Future in San Francisco area- another 4D miniride. It was nice but by this time, I had enough of 4D rides already. A walkthrough ride, Backdraft is similar to Hurricane in USS- with a lot of explanation before you enter the main hall and experience the heat of ‘how they make the scene’. So if you don’t understand Japanese, you can skip Backdraft, in my honest opinion. 

New York Area: Rides are Terminator 2 (3D theater) & The Amazing Adventure of Spiderman (3D ride)

Fooling around while the rest went to restroom

It was already raining by the time we finished Backdraft so we thought, what the heck, let’s get wet and go to Jurrasic Park! Here we have to take timed entry ticket, so the friendly staff helped us :) We had almost an hour to kill before our turn for the ride so we headed to Amity Village for Jaws, a water-boat adventure ride. Had some churros before we went in and took the ride with Mel joining us there (she went for Evangelion 4D ride in Universal Cool Japan after Harry Potter). Jaws from upfront made me go “Eh, just a boat ride?” but why, how wrong was I??! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I salute our boat driver for making it fun too!!

Waiting in line for Jaws- yes, there's a chance that you'll get wet!

The entrance

Apologies for the dark picture, we only had the chance to properly take photos afterwards, towards the evening

We ate lunch while waiting for our Jurrasic Park ride turn. Jurrasic Park concept here is more or less similar to USS but the boat is not the round-shaped boat, and the fall, for me was more abrupt and thrilling. It was already 4 pm by the end of it so we decided to catch Backdrop by hook or by crook AND managed to despite the long waiting time and had to wait some more for them to put clips on our scarves. But!! BACKDROP SAIKOU (the best)!! Two thumbs up!!!! You'll be seated in an individual seat with a music system personalized for you at your seat; so while waiting in line to get onto the ride, they'll list the song list on the tv monitors playing on loop. When you are seated, you may choose which song you wanted; I chose one of SMAP's song listed.

The on-loop video explaining about the ride

With all major rides done, we went to the Guest Service area to pray- they understood and would lead you to an empty room to pray :) On weekdays, USJ closes at 8pm. So we had another hour and a half to spend before going home and with everyone having different ideas on how to spend the remaining time, we split up: Me, Ira and Zeti went for souvenirs shopping and photographing session while Sham, Izzat and Ija went to catch Hollywood Dream, front-face ride and Nik and Mel went to catch the remaining rides that we haven't tried (we skipped entirely Universal Wonderland area & Waterworld area). 

Picture time! A-la in New York, haha!!

Try to find this alley for a picture with the Spidey!

We were lucky that when we got there, there weren't many people :D

  

Catching the sunset at the harbour

And dropped by Minion Mart for souvenir 

It was starting to rain by the time we finished shopping, hence the raincoat

Made it in time for the Magical Starlight Parade (we agreed to meet up at a corner near the Universal Cool Studio area by 7 pm) only to be informed by Mel that the parade was cancelled because of the rain. So we waited for others and decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe shop & Shonen Jump store outside USJ. It was then decided that we have dinner at Saizeriya J

I was already feeling very sick at this time, with headache and chills; Sham gave me panadol and drank a lot of clear fluid :(  On the way back, we dropped by the ticket counter in Shin-Osaka station to reserve seats for Shinkansen ride for tomorrow. By the time we reached the hotel, I was already having dizzy spell but the hot bath was sooooo soothing, felt like I could fall asleep in it!

Related link: Universal Studio Singapore (2013) (and upcoming Universal Studio Singapore, 2015)

Next: The Rain-Tour in Takayama

Preserved old town with streets and streets of beautiful traditional houses