It was raining on the day we have allotted for Universal Studios Japan and we were constantly discouraged from going by our host, but that didn't stop us from waking up early to join hundreds of commuters that dreary Monday morning.
USJ was celebrating Halloween so as we got closer to Universal City Station, we saw more and more guests in various costumes. A lot of them had bloody faces, and there were more dressed up as Minions.
We did A LOT of lining up even though it was a rainy Monday. If you go early, expect lots and lots of people. I suggest going a little later on a weekday if you aren't pressed for time and plan on staying until closing hours anyway. Either way the timed entry tickets for the Harry Potter area are limited, so if you want to make real sure you can get in you might want to take note of that.
We got in at around 10am and got Harry Potter tickets for 1:30-2:30pm. That seems like enough time to line up for something, right? We thought so too. When we passed by the Spiderman ride earlier the line outside was so long that when we returned and saw it was significantly shorter, we shrugged at the 150 minute waiting time and decided to line up for it! It was the one other thing on our list and we had time to kill anyway.
Turns out the line INSIDE was longer. In the end we waited around three hours for a five minute ride. It was an enjoyable ride, but the wait really did a number on my feet.
Was the ride worth it? I don't know. It was a pretty fun ride, but I don't know if anything is worth waiting that long while standing up for. Still, that's normal in amusement parks. Please note that if you get motion sickness very easily, this ride isn't for you. There's a lot of jerking around and the 3D effects can get pretty overwhelming.
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| The entrance to Hogsmeade |
After getting out of the ride, the time to enter The Wizarding World of Harry Potter finally came!
While my feelings for and opinions on the Harry Potter of now (or at least the things J.K. Rowling has been adding to the HP universe since the series ended) are not too positive, I still have a lot of fondness of the Harry Potter books. I grew up on them, after all, and they were part of my growth as a writer of fictions. I'd go as far as saying that the books are what really got me very interested in world building—for the nine year-old me, the Harry Potter universe was an introduction to a vast and magical world created and powered and limited only by one's imagination.
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| I swear my brothers aren't twins but them posing here looking like a pair is pretty fitting, right? |
Going when the weather is very cool was a good idea. It definitely added to the overall experience and it gave me the excuse to buy myself a Ravenclaw (my Pottermore House) scarf. I imagine this place would be terrible in the summer, what with so many people!
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| My brothers with their Butterbeer in front of Honeydukes. |
The lines for the rides were ridiculous so we just went for the Castle Walk, which had literally no line at all. You just get to walk around inside the castle where it was super dark and I mostly had trouble seeing, but the little details were amazing. There were some 3D videos of some sort along the way, like the golden trio revealing themselves from under the Invisibility Cloak and speaking to the audience. Everything was in Japanese, though!
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| Some of these portraits actually move. |
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| Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment sells scarves and robes among other things, and it's connected to Ollivanders where you can pick up wands. |
Pro tip: many items can be found in several shops, so if you find that the cashier line at a particular shop is too long, see if you can find what you want somewhere else. There was a very long line to Honeydukes, which is why we didn't get to go in, but we managed to buy our Chocolate Frogs from Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods. If you go through the Castle Walk, you'll eventually end up here, although you can also get there from its proper entrance by the Flight of the Hippogriff.
I was on a hunt for a simple scarf, not the ones with the giant logo. There were some in Wiseacre's, but in the end I bought mine from Gladrags Wizardwear just across.
USJ probably had special events that night but we didn't stay until dark, mostly because we were all too tired from getting little sleep and walking too much. We called up our older companions who went on their own adventure in Dotonbori and we decided to meet up with them there.
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| Here's me with my Ravenclaw scarf in an obligatory photo in front of the Universal Studios globe thingy. |
The next day my brothers and I got to see Dotonbori in the light of day, as we spent the whole day in Namba with my friend, but that's a story for another post!
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