1-day visit to Universal Studios Japan!

I've teased this in two entries already, but I wanted to be able to give my first visit to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) its own post! This was one of the main attractions we wanted to hit when we planned the trip to Osaka and despite having been in the area many times over the years, I've never had the guts to go. I was always dissuaded by the rumors of intense crowds and intimidated by the express pass system! 

As Japan hopefully continues to open up, this last weekend in May seemed like the best time for us to go that would allow us to be there on a Monday without taking any additional leave from work. (Spoiler alert - we were wrong about the crowds.)

We purchased tickets about 1 week ahead of time online via the USJ ticketing website and the process was very simple, and luckily we didn't need a Japanese credit card in order to do so. The website also highly recommended downloading the USJ app which we did as well. 

On Monday, May 30, the operating hours were listed as 10:00 - 19:00. This seemed like a short operating schedule to me (compared to Disney at least), but at least that took the pressure off of us to wake up early and hopefully we wouldn't be dragging too hard at the end of the day! We had heard that you can get into the park early (before operating hours) but didn't exactly know what that meant and how early we should get there and what to expect. 

We casually left the Airbnb at around 09:10, walked over to Ajikawaguchi station which is just 1 stop away from Universal City station. 

We were surprised to see how packed the train was already. We entered the Universal City area at 09:30 and headed directly towards the park. It's a relatively short walk and a bit more straightforward than Disney's monorail system. There were already tons of lines forming at the entrance for a bag check and then ticket scanning. It took about 15 minutes for all of us to get through (but line speed seemed to vary). Tbh I felt pretty stressed during this period because I didn't quite understand what was going on.

Once we all made it inside the ticketing gates, we got our timed entry tickets to Super Nintendo World for 12:00 (options were 11:00 and 12:00) with a ride time frame of 12:10 - 13:10 via the app. (Not entirely sure what the ride time frame means. If someone has more knowledge of USJ and wants to help, please chime in! My guess would be that's when we're limited to get into line for the two rides but not entirely sure how that is enforced.) The Wizarding World of Harry Potter wasn't doing timed entry this day (implying that it wouldn't be crazy busy), so we didn't need to get one for that section of the park. 

From there, at 09:50 (still before supposed park operating hours) we headed to the nearest big attraction that we wanted to ride - Hollywood Dream: The Ride Backdrop. 

The listed wait time for the forward-facing Hollywood Dream was 75 minutes, the single rider for that was 65 minutes and then the Backdrop wait was 50 minutes. We were hoping that the Backdrop version would have the shortest wait, so this worked out for us. We got in line and waited our turn. This roller coaster has individual speakers per seat and you can choose from a selection of 5 songs to play during your ride. 

I was given these purple bands to keep my shoes on my foot since the seat is quite elevated. Even my husband's feet dangled a little bit.

The regular Hollywood Dream ride seems to have a few more cars (maybe 1 or 2? they are purple) than the Backdrop (cars are red) which does make that line seem to go faster although it may have more people in it. They both used the same track and loading area when we went so it seemed like a lot of people in the other line were "passing" us. For this ride, you will need to cross the track through the car and place your belongings in a locker assigned to your row. A staff member will even use a metal detector(?) wand to double check if you left anything in your pockets so even if you don't have any baggage, you should cross the track to the other side so they can perform the check. 

It is definitely a thrill coaster, made even more so by going backwards the entire time. I think this was a really interesting idea for a ride! Unfortunately this was the start of some mild motion sickness for me that I never quite fully recovered from wtf. 

We had about 1 hour before our timed entry to Super Nintendo World so we headed over to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section. There's a long (in my opinion, and also somewhat boring) tree-lined walkway to get to the exact entrance which is marked by this arch. 

High priority get for my husband - Butterbeer. I don't really enjoy creamy drinks and I was feeling a bit dehydrated so I got in line at the Magic Neep cart for a carbonated lemon water and a meat pie.

We then got in line for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride which had about a 60 minute wait. The Hippogriff line was 70 minutes, so we chose the shorter of the two. 

And, as most people who have gone on the ride know, that did not help my motion sickness one bit lol. I felt truly terrible after. I went from being at about 60-70% OK to being like 10% OK. I didn't end up documenting the rest of our visit as much as I would have preferred because of this (didn't enjoy looking at my phone screen), but hopefully I got enough to help illustrate my talking points.

After a small break, we finally headed over to Super Nintendo World. We scanned in with our timed entry tickets through the app with a big crowd of people. There was a long line at the first powerband cart right around the entrance, but thankfully M went ahead and told us there were more carts with shorter lines inside.

Even with the timed entry, it was quite crowded! And since I wasn't feeling all that well, I wasn't trying to get the best pictures ever, unfortunately.

Powerbands are 3800yen each and you can choose from Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi or Toad/Kinopio. The character corresponds to a "team" you belong to if you sync your powerband to the USJ app. I believe there's a "game" you can play by earning keys and then fighting a final boss, but with the crowds, we didn't attempt to do this. 

The powerbands seem to be like the "wands" of Harry Potter world but seem slightly more interactive with the app to me. You can earn stickers/achievements and there's some competition-type elements to it. I didn't get to explore it fully because I didn't end up using the app much while I was there because I wasn't feeling well, but we do intend to go back some time in the future and hopefully make better use of them!

These ? boxes around Super Nintendo World have a hit box that will trigger coins(? points?) to be added to your account. Each of these had a line for it that was several children long so we didn't go to all the different ones but maybe got 4 or 5.

The main attraction we wanted to ride here was Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge. Apparently, Bowser is also called Koopa in Japan. The standby wait was 100 minutes or 50 minutes for single rider. Since you're in a kart of 4 people and I was still recovering from the Harry Potter ride, we chose to do standby for this one. 

The initial part of the queue is a bit boring and longer than I was expecting but I guess that's what you get with a 100 minute wait. 

Just when we thought we were almost there, there was an additional part of the queue that had much better theming although it was somewhat dark so it was best experienced in person!

Near the end of the queue, Mario headbands are handed out by staff. There is a adjustable band similar to a construction hard hat on the back with a knob. After this, you still need to enter a large room with TVs that explains some of the ride mechanisms. 

It was quite fun! You need to snap on a little screen to your headband and it is synced to your movement and a little steering wheel that each person can control on their own. You want to collect coins, drift appropriately and hit enemies with shells. This ride works with the powerbands so you can earn achievement for that as well. Luckily, despite being like a 3D screen game, this didn't make me any more motion sick!

We moved around Super Nintendo Land a bit more but it was really just crowded anywhere of interest. We waited about 15-20 minutes for this single shell "calzone" filled with yakisoba and cheese. We waited in line to use the telescopes/binoculars. We waited in lines to bop the coin blocks. 

And then we were getting a bit hungry and not really feeling the crowds, so we left at around 14:45, about 2 hours after entering. Because of the timed entry, we wouldn't be able to re-enter. It also seemed like the timed entry tickets had run out by around noon. 

In the Jurassic Park area, we got a "sausage pie" (Japanese sausage in like a puff pastry-ish "bun"), a turkey leg and a frozen orange drink. M&M also had a slightly more substantial meal at the Lost World Restaurant while we figured out our next move. 

One of my husband's top priority rides was the Attack on Titan XR ride which is limited/seasonal. This is supposed to be a thrill coaster with VR effects, and I was feeling a bit better, but still not great, so I opted out. We split up guys and girls with the guys going to the Hollywood area intending to get in the single rider line for AoT (supposed to be a 100 min wait vs. 130 min standby) and the girls just exploring the park a little bit more since we still hadn't seen the majority of it. 

My husband really enjoyed this ride and was super glad they decided to go despite the long wait. Apparently the single rider line went a lot faster than the posted time and the effects are quite good! They described it like Space Mountain but with Oculus googles.

Meanwhile, we made our way to Universal Wonderland which has a bunch of the children's rides but also features cute characters like Hello Kitty, Snoopy, and the Sesame Street gang. 

We also went to check out the Minion Park area which is centered around the beloved yellow beans from Despicable Me. The Easter theme was still quite prevalent despite the holiday being over a month prior. 

Making our way to the New York area, it had started to rain and not really wanting to eat or shop at the moment, we thought we'd try to get into the single rider line for the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman 4K3D ride. Single rider listed wait time was 45 minutes and regular standby was listed as 65 minutes. We figured the guys still had about 40+ minutes left in their wait time based on when they told us they got in line, so in order to stay dry and kill some time, we went for it. Me, a little more apprehensively since I wasn't sure how I'd handle the effects since this ride is supposed to be quite immersive.  

The guys actually texted that they were done with their ride while we were still in line (about 7 single riders in front of us). Luckily, the wait wasn't much longer and we both got on within about 8 minutes (faster than the 45 minute listed time). This ride has 3D glasses and the cart mechanics are kind of like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland but obviously themed differently and with the 3D effects. Not great for motion sickness, but I came out of it only a little worse for wear. 

We met up with the boys and then split up again. M&M decided they wanted to go check out the Flying Dinosaur ride in Jurassic Park and my husband and I chose to take a small break. I really wanted to go on the Flying Dinosaur. It was one of my top ride picks going into this day but I knew I probably wouldn't be able to handle it since I could barely do the Spiderman ride. 

Instead, we went into Louie's NY Pizza Parlor to get another bite to eat and shelter from the rain. We got a pepperoni pizza set which included 1 slice of pepperoni (and sausage) pizza, french fries and a drink. 

Not particularly good but we also knew not to expect too much. It was just good to sit down and relax for a little bit. Meanwhile, because of the rain, the Flying Dinosaur ride wait time was basically reduced to 15 minutes (having been consistently around 50-70 minutes prior) and M&M decided to ride it twice!

We decided to meet up again in the Minion Park to check out the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride as a group. The standby wait was listed as 60 min. 

The queue isn't very exciting visually but at least they have plenty of these TVs which highlight some scenes from the movie in a fun way with small little minion "quizzes" in between. I think it played only around 1.5 times while we were in this section. It moves on to another section with a single large TV screen where you get an intro to the theme of the ride and then yet ANOTHER small room with a TV with more minion scenes and intros. 

M mentioned this seemed exactly like the Back to the Future ride but just with a minion theme. I don't remember the older ride myself but it's basically like Star Tours from what I remember as well. A shifting kart with a big screen in front of you that insinuates bigger movement. This made my motion sickness return with a vengeance and I did not enjoy it after the 3rd or 4th downturn and was just praying for the ride to be over. 

I did make it through, although definitely worse for wear. By this time, the park was near closing (it was around 18:45) so we started making our way towards the exit. We stopped to look in a couple of shops but they were insanely crowded and being in crowds of people was making me feel pretty terrible, so we just ended up just leaving right around the park closing time. 

One last picture at the Universal globe with a pained smile on my face because I didn't want to stand still. 

Overall, disappointing, but very much just because of personal issues. I can usually handle roller coasters fairly well and was a bit embarrassed about how much I was taken out by these! I know motion sickness can be more prominent with age, but I was almost completely fine at Fujikyu just half a year ago :(. The motion sickness, paired with actually liking and wanting to go on the rides, made it a less than ideal experience for me but I did still want to make it a point to blog what I could. That, paired with much more crowds than we were expecting for a rainy Monday resulted in this not meeting my expectations by a long shot, but it still seems better than a super crowded day when Japan is fully open!

Many, many less pictures than my usual standard and actually just a lot of updates on what made me sick or sicker, but hopefully this just means our next visit can only be better?? Hope we can make it back here on a middle weekday during a different season!