A day of pop culture with not a temple or shrine in site, as we decided to head of to Universal Studios today and see how it compared to the one in Los Angeles (and knocking something else off of my Japan to do list).
It is pretty easy to get here, from Osaka Namba Station you take the Hanshin Namba Line to Nishikujo Station and then transfer to the JR Sakurajima Line for Universal-City station and a five minute walk through City Walk takes you to Universal Studios. Entry to the theme park was Y7500 which is about $84Aus, and I think about $20 cheaper than the one in LA.
The one thing I did notice that also differs is the clientele....duh you may say as you are in Japan and not the US, but the Japanese are so cutely adorable as they wander around the theme park, many of them dressed up either in couples t-shirts
which is so damned cute or as Minions which is a mega-craze in Japan and you couldn't turn a corner without seeing someone dressed as a Minion.
The first thing you have to do when you arrive is go to the ticket booth to get time-stamped tickets for both Harry Potter and Jurassic World as they have timed entries, after this you can plan the rest of your day around the park and there is so much to see and do like any theme parks. The park was crazily busy and I dread to think what it would be like in the height of summer when everyone is on their school holidays or a weekend.
Many of the rides are similar and the have the same issue as the one in LA, long queues so we probably didn't go on as many rides as I would like to have done, but the Japanese wait patiently and they seem to enjoy the people watching as much as I do.
The one thing they don't have which I really like about the one in LA is the film tour and the working studios which was such a fun and integral part of Universal in LA)
As a Harry Potter nerd my favourite part of the park was of course Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, drinking butter beer
and seeing inside the stores (and seeing which wand I would choose or hoping that the Every Flavor Beans that you got weren't the gross ones. There are two major rides, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippograff and as magical as the stories themselves. It was such a fun place to visit and if you are a nerd like me you could almost believe that you were really there. (Would love to see it in winter with snow on the ground and it would seem even more magical)
We had a wonderful day and it's always fun finding that inner child, but now i want to go to every Universal Park and have butter beer in all the Hogsmeades and see how they compare.
We ate at the part, snacking on the usual theme park treats so by the time we made it back to the hotel we weren't hungry or anything but our usual pork buns and sushi rolls, and that was another pleasant way to finish our day.