We checked out of Hotel Nikko at about 10am and made our way to Universal Studios Japan. It wasn't too far from the city unlike Disneyland or Disneysea (they're not even in Tokyo but Chiba). Once we got out of Universal Studios City Station, there were a ton of shops and restaurants. There was even a JUMP Comics shop and a Moomin Stand which sold bubble tea. I wanted to try it but couldn't wait to go into Universal Studios so I saved that for later.
Immediately at the entrance, we were greeted by all the Harry Potter banners. Little sis and I got super excited.
The ticket line was soooooo long. Luckily for us, we got tickets at the hotel beforehand so we could go in straightaway. The first thing you see when you enter are all the souvenir and character shops. We didn't bother much about it because it looked like the ones in Singapore. Everything was decorated all ready for Halloween. I was so happy! I love anything Halloween. We just carried on and followed the signs to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
On the way there, we saw a really huge rollercoaster called Hollywood Dream, little sis wanted to ride it and there was even a Hollywood Dream backdrop version, which means, the same ride but going backwards. I thought that was pretty sick but little sis insisted we tried both, but first, Hogwarts.
When we got to the entrance for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we were a little disappointed because you have to take a time scheduled ticket since they have to control the crowd for it, there was way too many people. We got our timed tickets and was scheduled for 5.30pm. We were bummed out since it was only 11.30am. So we decided to go to the other attractions first.
We went to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman first, the waiting time was about an hour but we had so much time to kill, we didn't really bother. While we were waiting in line, I was checking for the time for the last train back to Tokyo from Osaka. It was at 8ish pm and little sis and I thought it was too early and we wouldn't make it back in time since we really wanted and knew we would spend a lot or maybe too much time at Hogwarts. So, we booked for another night at a different hotel in Osaka.
It didn't take too long to get on the ride, I think it took less than an hour actually. The ride was pretty good. It was one of those that you had to wear 3D glasses, actually reminded me of the Transformers ride back in Singapore. In the ride you just follow Spiderman fighting villains, swinging here in there. It was fun.
After the ride, we went to the Spiderman shop which was soooo cute. I never thought Spiderman merchandise can be so cute, only in Japan. In the end, I bought a really cute pair of socks and underwear. I always never have sexy lingerie, lol. My underwear drawer looks like it belongs to a five-year-old. -__-
After getting those stuff, we went around window-shopping, the merchandise was actually really cute because they were Halloween themed. Thankfully, I'm not a big fan of any of those characters - Snoopy, Sesame Street, Pink Panther etc, if not I would have been broke.
We were getting hungry after some walking around, so we went to have lunch at Snoopy's Backlot Cafe and both of us had cheeseburger, fries and nuggets. The cafe was really cute but then, I was too hungry to take photos of anything. -.- After lunch, we went to Snoopy Studios which was really really cute. They had a mini rollercoaster and some other cute Snoopy stuff. I don't read or watch Snoopy at all but one of my friends (I've known her since I was 14) is in love with Snoopy, so I was taking photos and sending them to her.
After taking what seems to be too many Snoopy photos for my own liking, little sis and I waited in line to get on Snoopy's Great Race, which is the mini rollercoaster. It didn't take too long to get on it, maybe on 15 minutes? It was a fast and a really cute ride. It wasn't scary at all, all the girls were being dramatic on the ride screaming their heads off -__- It's a freakin' kids' rollercoaster.
After we were done with Snoopy, we went to do some more window shopping and we found the Room of Requirement. All that Harry Potter merchandise! Luckily I didn't fancy anything either.
After that, we were walking around Jurassic Park and didn't want to get on the ride since we sat it before in Singapore and you'll probably get wet from it, so no. We stumbled upon Back To The Future Ride, and I was telling little sis that I sat it back when I was really little in the US and she wanted to ride it as well.
It was exactly the same one that I sat in US when I was a kid, I can't remember much from that trip obviously because I was only 4. But I do remember entering a dinosaur's mouth on that ride. The ride felt really long actually. It was about 4 in the afternoon when we were back at the front of the theme park. Little sis decided we get on the Hollywood Dream ride before going into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
The wait was for about an hour. She initially wanted to sit the backdrop one but I told her I'd probably die from motion sickness, so she settled for the normal one. We waited for a little over an hour to get on. I was excited to get on the ride but was dreading the high drop. I'd prefer if the rollercoaster loop more and go upside down than drop. It always makes my heart want to pop out but I guess that's the fun of it?
When we got on the ride, there was actually a music player where you could choose to listen to one of the 5 songs while on it. I thought it was pretty awesome because the music would calm you down, maybe a little? The songs were from SMAP, One Direction and I can't remember the rest. I was joking with little sis that if they had death metal or some hardcore bands on the track list, it'd probably scare people more, including me, and I love heavy music, haha. I chose to listen to SMAP in the end.
The ride was about 3 minutes long and the drop wasn't as bad I thought it would be. It was fucking awesome actually. But I actually prefer Battlestar Galactica, both human and cyclone version, in Singapore because it actually goes upside down and you can see your feet hanging in mid-air. Once we got off the ride, it was about time to enter The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Little sis and I were waiting anxiously for it to be 5.30pm and once it was, we went in immediately with our timed tickets. We were so excited, and the first thing you would see was Ron's flying car near the entrance. After that, you'd see Hogwarts in a distance and that really made me and little sis so excited, we got goosebumps.
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| Look at how fucking excited we were! |
The first thing you'd see when entering The Wizarding World is the train from Hogwarts Express, and yes there was a captain standing next to it, taking photos with everyone. You'd have to go through Hogsmeade to get to Hogwarts. We saw a couple of Butterbeer stands along the way but was too excited that we rushed right to Hogwarts, passing by performances from the Frog Choir. We went immediately to line up for The Forbidden Journey Ride.
It took about an hour to get on it, also, you could see part of the castle while waiting to get on. You had to go through the dungeons before getting to the higher parts of the castle. I saw Dumbledore's entrance to his office, some talking paintings, Gryffindor's common room and some other things I can't remember now because I was too happy and excited to even be in the castle. Also, we had to put our bags in to lockers before going on the ride.
The only downside was all the characters spoke in Japanese and made it a little less "authentic" -___-, but oh well, I was more than happy to be there. The ride follows Harry as he fights the dragon (the one in Goblet of Fire) around Hogwarts, and there were dementors, the Basilisk, the Chamber of Secrets, Quidditch, spiders and even more dementors. I swear the dementors creeped the shit out of me. The ride was freakin' awesome. When we got off, little sis and I were just practically telling each other how awesome the ride was.
We went to get butterbeer the first thing out of the castle, though the lines were long, it didn't take more than 5 minutes for us to get it. I got the frozen and she got the normal one. It was soooo good and it tasted like caramel but more buttery, and the foam was so good as well. There was a right amount of sweetness, I got a churro on the way to Hogsmeade too. It tasted so good with butterbeer.
We went to a couple of the shops, Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment - they sold wands, hour glasses all kinds of contraptions here. I wanted to buy so much stuff but it was so expensive, Dervish and Banges, Owl Post & Owlery and Gladrags Wizardwear. We were taking our time walking around Hogsmeade and went to Zonko's and Honeydukes last. The line for those was so long, we waited more than we did for any ride that day.
I wanted to go to Hog's Head or Three Broomsticks for dinner but waiting to get into Zonko's and Honeydukes took so long, everything was closed when we came out of it. They sold all flavour jellybeans, chocolate frogs, exploding bon bons, acidpops and some other stuff at Honeydukes. I didn't get the jellybeans because I already tried it last time and it was really gross. So I got pumpkin juice (which I really like!), exploding bon bons and some acidpops. The stuff at Zonko's was really cute as well, but mostly quite useless in daily life, so I didn't spend money there.
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| me and all that Harry Potter loot. :D |
It was actually quite difficult to get good photos of anything because of the crowd. After finishing off at Honeydukes, little sis and I walked back to Hogwarts Castle for one last look. There was actually a lake next to the castle, and you could see the Dark Forest next to it as well. I hope they build it and open it in future. I would love to go to the Dark Forest and scare myself, haha. We really didn't want to leave but had no choice.
We came out of Hogwarts and immediately went to get dinner outside of Universal Studios. We settled for Hard Rock Cafe, and then I realised that we always eat at Hard Rock Cafe whenever we go to Universal Studios, we always do that in Singapore. I ordered steak and little sis ordered mac & cheese.
The train was so crowded on the way back, it was actually worse then Summer Sonic. We got back at Hotel Nikko at almost 11pm and took our luggage and moved to another hotel. The other hotel took forever to find. Once we checked in, we took warm showers and passed out. I didn't know rollercoasters could drain you so much, but when I was actually resting in the hotel room, my body was so tired.
Both of us were kinda worried about the next day since we were going to see lynch. and we weren't looking forward to sitting over 2 hours in the mosh pit with aching bodies.
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