Universal Studios Japan

On the long weekend of May 31st, we motley crew of Tottori JETs decided to travel down to Osaka for some fun at Universal Studios Japan. After enjoying an entertaining car ride swapping music with friends, we made it to our friendly hostel (after taking just a few wrong turns). After staying up late playing card games, we still managed to wake up early to reach USJ right when the gates open. If you want to see a good video summary of the day, Tim made a great vlog of the day, check it out!

Our first stop was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We queued up for the main attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Even the line was entertaining, as it took us through Hogwarts castle, complete with talking pictures, classrooms, and Dumbledore's office. Entering the ride itself was quite novel, as we stood on a conveyor belt floor under floating candles. The ride itself was a inventive blend of 3D video and traditional animatronics, viewed from a roller coaster seat. This hybrid was very exciting, which took us on a joyride through various memorable scenes from the movies.

We then ventured to the back of the property, to Jurassic Park. The new, main attraction was a massive flying coaster snaking the whole section. This was one of the best roller coasters I have ridden, with the weightless sensation created by the "seats" adding an exciting thrill to the massive drops and loops.



We also lined up for the other main ride in the Jurassic Park area, and while we waited I ended up signing some autographs for a group of Junior High School students. Tim Lum can tell you more about that. The animatronic splash ride, much akin to Disney's Splash Mountain. Yet this one featured a much steeper drop, which occurred surprisingly underneath the T-Rex. Definitely added an extra level of thrill, making the ride worth the wait.

Before we left, we saw a fun performance in the park where the staff shot a shotgun in the air to scare away a dinosaur. It was a bit surreal since the US would be too paranoid to put on such a performance these days.




Next up was one of my favorite rides of the day, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. This 4D ride has won the Golden Ticket Award (critical acclaim for amusement park rides) for 12 years straight, so it is no wonder I enjoyed it so much. While the set design was clearly dated, it brought a strong wave of nostalgia since the material was mainly from the 90s Saturday morning cartoon show. But the ride itself felt anything but old. Through an expert combination of 3D, cart motion, and pyrotechnics, the engineers had managed to fake the sensations of swinging and falling though New York City alongside Spider-man.


Nearby was the Back to the Future ride, which to my understanding, was closing up in just a few days. To celebrate it, tons of cosplayers had shown up, and USJ even had a Delorian available to pose with. Since my experience with cosplay has mainly been seeing US citizens dressing as anime characters at conventions, it was fun to see the inverse, Japanese people in costume from an American IP.

As we continued to wander the park, we came across a parade proceeding through the main street in celebration of the park's 15th anniversary. It was credibly random, with tons of foreign singers, an Indian Hello Kitty, and other fantastically bazaar floats. The lack of thematic consistency did not dull the fun though, but may have actually added to it.

We then ducked into the Hollywood coaster, which let you choose a music track to listen to as you rode the coaster, as well as if you wanted your seats facing forwards or backwards. We followed that up with the Evangelion 4D theater experience. I geeked out a bit as the theater got to experience a first-person Eva launch. The action was good, and the CG was solid. I had a feeling some of my friends who had not watched the series must have though the showing to be totally weird, as it consisted mostly of nods to moments in the movies from a different perspective. Unfortunately we were not able to see the Attack on Titan showing. I still managed to find a Survey Corps. jacket, which came in handy for taking pictures at the Attack on Titan displays, some which treaded a bit into the uncanny valley. But the best pick was definitely the wallrun shot with the Titan bursting out of the studio wall.



In the same area Tim and I checked out the Monster Hunter display, which featured life size replicas of in-game items, as well as two animatronic dragon displays which make impressive use of lighting and sound. If VR can get close to these kind of dramatic displays I look forward to the costly, silly future of video games. Outside we also got some sweet shots slaying a dragon!

We ended our day back at Harry Potter World to try Butterbeer. I chose to try the frozen Butterbeer, which was a Slurpee, and definitely the best variation for a hot spring day. As we left we saw that those who had purchased wands at the stores could wave them at scenery, causing "magic" to happen. One guest nonchalantly opened a bunch of chests, looked our way, smiled and wandered off like the coolest guy in the world. At that moment in time I would be hard pressed to contest otherwise.

I did have a cool moment myself punching a shark at the Jaws display as we left though.

Overall it was a great day with a fantastic crew! But this vacation was far from over, since I had taken the rest of this short workweek off to explore new areas of Japan.