Day 8: You won't believe this, but we did another another theme park!

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Hello world,

Well today I ticked one more thing off my bucketlist… go to Hogwarts (YAY!).

We woke around 7am, we knew we would need money for Universal studios, so Brad quickly got dressed, took one of the bikes, headed across the harbour on the Ferry and returned. I was happy chatting with one of my best friends (Lauren) and my Mum about how excited I was to finally get to go to Hogwarts. Needless to say my friend understood my child like enthusiasm more than my mum, but she was happy for me just the same and requested that we stay safe in light of Paris. Brad returned at 9:00am and he was a little annoyed that I wasn’t showered, dressed and ready to go. I then did all those things, and we walked approximately 15 minutes from the apartment to the Universal Studio’s and joined the back of two very long lines to buy our tickets, Brad on one and I on another, having a race to see who could get to the ticket window first. My line appeared to be moving faster, so he jumped onto my queue. After purchasing our tickets (Fast passes had already sold out when we arrived, and we have our suspicions that people that stay in the hotels associated with the park have already pre-booked fast passes, making it impossible for people to buy them on the day) we then joined the back of another line to enter the park.

Once in, it was a similar reception as that of Disneyland, tones of Japanese families pushing, stopping and scrambling to go in whatever direction they were trying to reach. My own goal was to get to Harry Potter, with the excitement and adrenaline of a kid on Christmas morning, I was unstoppable in trying to locate and rip open my present. I jumped, pushed and I was shoved but my beeline stayed true and I followed a map (completely in Japanese) to where we would unknowingly discover the entry to the Harry Potter (HP) section, we were then instructed to go get ANOTHER ticket. Panic began to set in, thinking that we may not be able to enter the Harry section… what if (like the fast passes) they only sold a certain number per-day and we had already missed out. We pleaded with a guard… “Where? Tickets?” they pointed us in the same direction that all the flow of people traffic was going and we joined the stream. Then two wonderful things happened. Firstly, we were relieved to discover, they wasn’t an additional cost for HP. Secondly, we were ecstatic to find out that it hadn’t been booked out yet and that our timed entry to the park was for 12:50pm. With ticket in our hands we went in search of food.

Food while backpacking is difficult, it is also surprising how much unhealthy food is seemingly everywhere in the places we have visited. While there doesn’t appear to be as many overweight or obese Japanese people, a lot of the cheap food is fried or rice. Because our accommodation was not ready for us until after 5pm we were not able to buy and prepare food in the apartment that night to take with us to Universal. Making food, again, another big expense. While the sign above the park said, do not bring in food… we clearly saw that people had, and we strongly recommend if you visit any of these theme parks (now having done 3) taking/sneaking in your own food and drinks will save you a lot of money. As far has trying to eat a healthy diet, it is difficult… while I had read some travel blogs claiming that fruit is expensive in Japan… it definitely is, in comparison to Australia. Keep in mind that our dollar is weaker against the Yen, so we do lose money here.

Now, the section where we spent most of our day, Harry Potter... here are some of my thoughts on the 5 hours we spent in there. Now, to go into detail about everything would take forever, but here is a summary. We saw the platform 9 3/4 (unfortunately you couldn't actually go up onto it... kinda a tease, really) and we meet an actor playing the conductor who was British but spoke fluent Japanese. He did a great job of managing the swarm of people around him trying to get a photo with him. I had almost given up hope, when he said "wait miss, we can have a picture after these ladies" and i waited, and we got our picture taken (i was delighted) he asked us where we are from (we informed him Australia) and he made the usual joke "your a long way from home", we politely smiled, giggled and moved on. Now the park it's self is awesome for crazy fans, such as myself and Brad, but in saying that... it was no way big enough! with only two rides, the Harry potter 4D experience and the Flight of the Hippogriff (this one we could not bring ourselves to wait another 2.5 hours for a 10 second roller coaster), it felt more like a money making enterprise, rather than something designed for the fun of the average HP fanatical park goer. The amount of merchandise shops (while all themed) did not really stack up to what you would expect in terms of their reference to the either the movies or books. With what appeared to only be 1/4 of a replica of the castle that in some sections just had a massive white box sticking out of it, (which one can only assume was to house the ride inside) detracted greatly from the feeling that this section of the park was trying to invoke. I was hoping that the lead up to this ride was going to be as detailed and as impressive as the ride it's self. I am sorry to report, it wasn't. While we firstly we lined up for 3.5 hrs to get in, we then had to place all out belongs in lockers. This was a frantic rush by all that had just (FINALLY) made there way to the start of the ride. We then went through a small hall of portraits, that like in the move, talked and moved... however, it all being in Japanese we couldn't understand them.... i could have stayed longer but was pushed along by people trying to get to the ride. We then went through a quidditch locker room, and Dumbledoor's office and saw the sorting hat... all in a space of less than 3 metres. We again could not stay to appreciate any of the detail work that had gone into the reconstruction of these sets and now getting a little perturb i can recall remarking to Brad "I don't want to leave yet, I haven't seen it all", he agreed and we were once again, shoved along. We had finally reached the end of the queue and were about to board the ride, with all the warnings out front, i was a little scared and excited at the same time. I have never thrown up on a ride, but hey, there is always a first time for everything, i was just praying it wouldn't be one this one. The safety barrier came down, my toes curled (and because i had worn thongs that day, i was scared of losing them) and then... it started.

The ride, was honestly amazing. I am not going to describe or explain it, because i hate spoilers and i wouldn't be able to justify the experience in words. All i can say is this, i understand approximately 3 words in Japanese (the ride, of course was in Japanese) and it didn't make an spot of difference. If you ever have the opportunity to get to a Universal studio and try this ride in your lifespan, you will agree with me that it is awesome. I think that to date it was one of the most progressive and sophisticated rides, using contemporary technologies to amerce the passenger for what must have been seconds, but felt like minutes. I can confidently report, I have still not been made sick by a ride, and to to quote the famous Mr Gump "that's all i have to say about that".

Next we ventured to the 3 brooms sticks for a late lunch (it now being 3:00pm) we were excited to be eating there, and also very hungry. Brad had fish and chips and a beer, i had chicken, potato and an entire cob of corn. It looked amazing but the taste was very average for the price. Brad was completely underwhelmed by his choice, i was happy my hunger was satisfied but also not deeply impressed. Food that we have bought in japan has been either extremely salty (this coming from someone who loves salt) or extremely sweet. I was shocked to discover that Butterbeer, something my friend had raved about since being to HP in America, was way way WAY to sweet for me to even stomach. With having eaten our (sorry to say it) but disappointing lunches, we then made plans to check the Flight of the Hippogriff wait time. It was still to long, but we had seen on the map that there was Hargrid's Hut on the queue line, so we went down for a look. We tried and failed to bring ourselves to stay for the ride. We then were getting ready to leave, doing last photo's down near the fake pond, and doing one last lap for merchandise, has it had been a struggle to decide what trinkets we would buy to commemorate the experience. We both decided that a wand would be most fitting, so we ventured into the wand shop (sorry to disappoint that it was not exactly Ollivander's although all the packaging would suggest that, that also turned out to be a magic show, with a ridiculously long queue) Brad got a massive Alder wood wand, which suited is personality (although he was very inclined to buy Professor Snape's at first) and i couldn't decide on a personality wand, so i went with Hermione's. Happy with our purchases we then went and picked up other things for friends, then headed into Honeyduke's for candy and Zonko's joke shop (which were connected). Unfortunately, there was little to anything to purchase in the joke shop which was again a bit of a disappointment. Having seen everything we possibly could have seen in the HP section of the park, we decided it was time to move on.

So the rest of the evening we spent exploring the rest of the park. Because the numbers of people were slowly dwindling we headed for the top end of the park and decided to try and get on as many rides and see as many shows as we could before the park closed at 9:00pm. we went on the following:

- Jaws ride, great experience, still got a fright out of me, we both enjoyed, but don't condone the killing of any marine life, even if they are mad

- Back to the future ride, which was really dated in comparison to the HP one, but still a cute experience.

- Spiderman ride, was super cute, cartoon version 3D and the kids in front and behind us made it even better seeing their reactions.

- Backdraft show, scared the crap out of the elderly Japanese man next me which then freaked me out... good show.

After leaving Backdraft when then caught the 8:30pm light show parade... it was strange to see Alice in wonderland (a child version) along with Cinderella, there was an Arabian Nights themed float section that closely resembled Disney's Aladdin. which all meet back at the biggest christmas tree i have ever seen in my life (bigger than Disneyland's) the amount of light bulbs was gob smacking, and i would hate to be the person in charge of changing them, hehehehe.

Lastly we caught the Shrek show as the park was closing. It was good and interactive, but again a think a little bit lost in translation. we both enjoyed it though and were stoked to squeeze in one more attraction before departing.

Before we left, we stopped in two more shops just to make sure we had not missed any HP or other merchandise that we may never be able to find again at home. we left with 3 minion key rings. The walk home seemed to take forever in comparison to the walk to the park, we took a detour not wanting the day to end, and saw more restaurants and cool shops, that we did not have the energy or finance to even contemplate looking inside of. We accidentally then did a massive square block of out side of the park and then were on our road home, by foot. Once reaching the apartment, we check FB, made some popcorn and crashed.

Universal was an amazing day on our holiday, and Brad said there was "no way, that we weren't doing it" knowing how much of a HP nut I am. Out of all the theme parks, i would have to say that Disneyland and Universal were my favourite. Disney sea... while most people think that is better for adults, it really didn't hit the mark for us. It is a possibility thought that it could have been that if we had done it first (before disneyland) that our opinions would be different. I think in terms of theme parks, we have had our fill, for a LONG time. Neither Brad nor I, had done any major theme parks as children and in being such close proximity on this trip we felt it was necessary to see what all the fuss was about.

Now to Kyoto, to find some more traditional Japanese culture and get a little less Disney and a lot more spiritual about this adventure.

Sayonara for now lovely people, thank you for reading.

P.s. I know it was a long post, sorry for that... please leave a comment if you are enjoying it, we'd love to hear your feedback (BTW i know my spelling and grammar sucks... so no need to point those mistakes out i'll fix them eventually lol)

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Comments

[Lauren]

HP yea yea yea!
Love reading your blogs guys. Woooo i got noted! Sorry Brad for holding her up! Hugs and Kisses to you both x