Universal Studios Japan

I was able to visit Universal Studios Japan in Osaka during my visit to Japan.

It was interesting to see young people dressed in costumes as they walk around the theme park.

Young people in different costumes

Young women in Minion inspired outfit

It was fun seeing Minions perform live on the street.

We also spotted the Minion Mart which contains various souvenir items.

Minion Mart

Minion shirts, capes and hats

Minion cookies

Minion popcorn containers

Movie inspired rides such as JAWS, Back to the Future and Spiderman are featured in the park. Visitors are not allowed to take photos during the rides so most people take photos only at the facade areas.

Huge JAWS figure displayed at the park

JAWS ride entrance

Visitors get on a boat ride that takes one to experience
the highlights from the movie JAWS

The car from Back to the Future movie

Back to the Future - the Ride gives visitors a feel of
how it is to be riding inside the fast car from the
 popular movie

The Spiderman ride takes visitors to the action-packed
world of Spiderman. The video is quite surreal since it
makes use of  video rendered in 4KHD X3D technology.

The most popular attraction at the park is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The overall look and feel of the area reminds visitors of the famous adventure movie.

A car from the Harry Potter movie

Entrance to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

 

Visitors get a chance to talk and get a photo with the conductor
of the Hogwarts Express train

Visitors may opt to buy a butterbeer drink as they walk
around the area

Zonko's Joke Shop

 

Unique novelty items at Zonko's joke shop

Facade of the Honeydukes store

Various sweets and candies are sold at Honeydukes store

Chocolate frog  is one of the popular sweets at
Honeydukes store

Magic wand may be bought as a souvenier
by visitors

The main highlight of the attraction is the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride which is featured inside Hogwarts castle. Visitors are not allowed to take photos inside and all visitors have to leave their bags inside a locker prior to the actual ride. 

Although it took us around 100 minutes to wait for our turn to take the ride, we were entertained since part of the experience is seeing the talking hat and paintings on the wall with people talking and moving. 

The ride was worth the wait since the experience was really amazing and unforgettable.  It makes use of 4K technology in 3D and one gets the thrill of joining Harry soar across the sky for a Golden Snitch race.

The Hogwarts castle where visitors get a chance to
experience the Harry Potter  and Forbidden
Journey ride.

If you are visiting Universal Studios Japan then it would be best to spend sometime to take the Harry Potter ride since it is currently one of the best rides in the theme park. 

Tokyo DisneySea Revisited

It was good that I had the chance to revisit Tokyo DisneySea last October.

Tokyo DisneySea is a must visit theme park in Japan since it is unique to Japan.

Mediterranean harbor at DisneySea

With the sea as inspiration for the theme park, visitors certainly feel that they are walking along the harbor since the park is surrounded by water. The theme park features seven themed ports such as the Mediterranean Harbor, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery and American Waterfront.

Vistors have the option to ride a boat, hop on a Venetian gondola, ride a classic vehicle or walk to get a tour around the park.

Boat ride at DisneySea

Vistors riding a gondola at DisneySea

Big city vehicle at DisneySea

Galleon and Volcano can be seen while going around
DisneySea

We wanted to try the Toy Story  Mania attraction but the waiting time was just too long so we just looked for other rides.

Toy Story Mania at DisneySea

Tower of Terror attraction at DisneySea

We were able to go to the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction.

As visitors move in the line, they get to see various sea voyage inspired objects displayed prior to boarding the submarine ride.

Another fun attraction is the Mermaid Lagoon where one can see the world of Ariel, the little mermaid and her aquatic friends.

Facade of the Mermaid Lagoon

King Triton at the Mermaid Lagoon

Blowfish Balloon race ride

Mermaid Lagoon Theater

The theater is filled with visitors who waited to watch
Ariel and her friends

Ariel glides in the theater and sings with her friends

Source : DisneySea website

DisneySea is a fun and cool place to go to in Japan. 

It is best to select and plan which attractions you want to go to when you are there since it is quite impossible to ride and go to all the attractions in one whole day since there are a lot of visitors lined up in the popular attractions.

Fun time at Tokyo Disneyland

During a trip to Japan last month, I was able to visit Tokyo Disneyland with my friends for some fun time.

As we walked towards the entrance, we saw the train with Mickey windows swiftly passing by.

We started our day by going to the Great American Waffle Company cafe and had Mickey waffles for breakfast.

Mickey waffles are freshly cooked  at the cafe

Cafe staff prepares the waffles. Available flavours are
maple, chocolate and strawberry and custard.

Mickey waffle with strawberry and custard sauce

Mickey waffle with maple sauce

After breakfast, we headed to the Pirates of the Carribean where we took a 15-minute boat ride and peeked into Jack Sparrow’s world. This ride was inspired by the popular Pirates of the Carribean movie which featured Johnny Depp, who played the role of Jack Sparrow.

The ride depicts various scenes from the movie and included moving characters, treasures, skeletons and pirates.

The highlight of the boat ride was when we spotted Jack Sparrow twice.

We also went to Alice’s Tea Party attraction. It is a fun ride that I took with the girls as we went for fast swirls while riding a colourful  tea cup. We had the option to make our cup go faster and change direction as we turned the wheel in the middle of our cup. It is quite a kiddie but fun ride that kids and adults surely enjoy.

After our tea cup ride, we walked around and took the boat ride at It’s A Small World where we got to see various dolls wearing traditional costumes from different countries in Asia, Europe, Central America, Africa and the Islands of South Pacific. This is similar to the one in Disney Hong Kong.

The facade of It's A Small World attraction

Visitors take a boat ride and see dancing and colourful dolls
in different costumes

We were a bit disappointed though when we saw the section featuring the Philippines since there was only one doll wearing a traditional costume included. Hopefully, they improve this in the future since it looks odd versus the other lively displays of dolls representing other countries.

The single doll wearing traditional 
costume which represents the 
Philippines

Our kiddie fun adventure continued as we headed to Mickey's PhilHarmagic to watch the musical film in 3D featuring famous Disney characters such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and many more. The popular Disney songs in the short film certainly brings back happy Disney film memories.

Since I am not fond of riding roller coasters, my travel buddies went to the Splash Mountain ride while I opted to just take a relaxing and scenic cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat where I got to see various displays that showed scenes on the Rivers of America and took photos using a DSLR camera.

I was able to see deers, and Indian villages during the cruise.

After the cruise, I met up with my travel buddies and we went around the shops. It was pretty cool seeing how the glass sculptures and glass items are made by Disney artisans.

To help one feel cool while walking around the park, a must try is the Disney ice cream snack by Meiji.

The cute Mickey ice cream is one of the popular
choices of visitors

There are quick snacks such as pizza and popcorn being sold in the park too.

Pizza, Disney souvenirs such as cups and Minnie inspired
popcorn container

We were lucky that we also got to see the parade with famous Disney characters.

Alice in Wonderland characters at the parade

Mickey and friends in the parade

We also bumped into Jessie, one of Toy Story movie characters.

Two of my travel buddies posed with Jessie for a photo op

Tokyo Disneyland is simply one of the happiest places to go to when you are in Japan since it  certainly makes everyone feel like a kid.  

Checkout my next blog post on the other theme parks that we were able to visit in Japan. Cheers!