We headed to Osaka in the early morning, and when our last transfer, which would take us to USJ rolled up, we knew we were in for a good time!
After a couple of stops we arrived at Universal Station. The park is just a 5min walk from there, on the way you go through "Universal Walk". An area filled with shops and restaurants and stuff (not all related to the park, but lots are).
Finally we were at the big gates!
They had a huge rotating globe inside which I went to take some pictures of while Naomi stood in the very slow moving long line. The place was crazy busy. Although, unlike what I thought, we didn't wait that long for rides and events. The longest was about 40min I think.
Inside the whole place is designed like a big American movie set. Pretty fun to walk around. Here is some shots of the first area.
We never did get a chance to find out what they meant by "4D". Maybe one day!
First stop was the "3D" show of Terminator. You head into Cyberdyne Systems, the company that builds Skynet in the movies and starts it all. When you go inside its all done up like you are going on a company tour. They have these propagands videos all over showing the company and things it does (all clearly made in the 90's and dubbed over in Japanese, but still a riot).
You couldn't take photos after this part but sadly but what a fun show. First a very charismatic nutty Japanese lady comes out and talks to you about the company. At one point she shows a video which gets interrupted by the 2 main characters of the movies. Next you go to the stage area where they first show off some of their killer robots (doing some target practice) then the place gets attacked by the good guys. Its a mix of live action and 3D video, which was all done with the actual actors (including Arnie!) which was really fun to watch. A crazy experience.
Here are some shots of the gift shop after.
Next up was Spiderman the Ride 3D!
They sure are good at making waiting times not so boring. You line up inside so while you slowly get to the ride you are basically walking through a tour of the Daily Bugle (the newspaper company Spiderman works for). Its really fun actually. Pictures aren't so great as its not that bright inside, but here are some.
That darkroom was funny, as in the top corner you could see some footprints on the wall. They also had spiderman cartoons playing in a lot of the rooms, in Japanese of course.
The ride was great. Your in a small vehicle that is going through the city. You get attacked by a group of famous villains (all in 3D) which is great fun. Your car gets tossed around and hit by various things. The climax being you getting thrown up to the top of a skyscraper by a baddie then Spiderman trying to catch you as your falling and fight the bad guys at the same time. You really feel like your there too, its done really well. I had to keep telling myself we were not really moving up or down, just rocking around in one spot, or else I would probably start feeling sick!
Here is some more shots of the roads on the way to the Back to the Future ride.
I'll take this point to mention the overpricing of..everything..here. The food is crazy expensive as well as all the soveiners. But it was to be expected. In the end it didn't stop us from buying things though, but its still quite lame. We stopped for some deep fried octopus and pop as well, which was tasty. We bought it from that Coney Island Snacks truck. I wonder if they actually sell it there..
You can also buy beer everywhere here too if you want.
Next up is Back to the Future! This was a pretty good ride. You are in the docs laboratory and one of the bad characters steals a time traveling car. You give chase in your own. You see little videos, filmed using the actual actors as well, telling you whats going on and what your doing. You eventually get in your car then go on an adventure threw time chasing the guy. Its a big stomach wrenching as you often fly up really high or start falling huge distances. Its really fun though. The car is actually just sitting in the room and rotating around and stuff.
On the way to the next place we saw a random sesame street performance on the road. You actually see a lot of white people working here in various shows.
Next up was the Jurassic Park area (my favourite place this day by far!).
This place was great, the whole area done up as part of the Jurassic Park theme park from the movie. First up you can see some Velociraptors and smaller dinos over a broken car. After that the "refresh area" which had a ton of Coke.
We opted to get lunch before going on the ride, so headed into the Discovery Restaurant.
Inside was awesome. They had a big model T-rex on display and paintings all over the walls.
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I went for the T-rex ribs and Naomi had a Raptor Chicken dish. You actually only have 3 choices for meal and its all quite school lunch program looking. I guess you get what you pay for..or in this case, not really..as its all overpriced!
After this we headed to the actual ride! You can see a car used in the second movie outside, and inside a monument to the guy who made the park (in the movies).
Here is a shot before you get on the ride showing what it looks like. You couldn't take pictures on the ride sadly..
This ride was great. You are on a raft tour basically, going through the park. You see a few friendly dinos on the way, which look awesome. On the tour you end up accidentally drifting into the dangerous dino holding area, which has clearly met some kind of disaster! From here you get various dinos jumping out at you and such and end up going up an 80 foot or so building. The climax being at the end a T-rex jumps out at you and you fall out of the building at his feet, suddenly dropping all the way to the bottom. Needless to say this scared the hell out of me. I was so caught up in the awesome stuff that I guess I didn't clue in when we started going up up up the building. I loved it though, after I hit the bottom anyway. Here is what it looks like after you come out. We did this ride 2 more times later in the day.
After this we headed out the huge gates shown below,
and off to the Jaws ride!
The Jaws area is done up like an old fashioned American fishing village (the one from the movie). A really fun place to explore. Here are the pictures from the area.
The ride itself is fun. You are on a boat tour of the area when of course, jaws strikes! Your boat captain struggles to get you out while fighting off the shark. Lots of nice effects here. Stuff is falling and ships sinking. At one point a huge gas station explodes right by you (its hot!). Not quite as scary as I hoped but a fun one still!
After this we headed to Snoopy land. We took a ride down a water filled tube slide in a small rubber boat. Our butts were soaked after that one. But it was fun! We planned to go back later to do more here but in the end didn't get the chance sadly.
Next was off to a live show of Waterworld! I loved this movie as a kid and saw it so many times. This is a live 15 min or so version. This was great fun to watch. Lots of crazy stunts and fight scenes and stuff blowing up. If you were in the first 5 or so rows you got certainly got wet (we of course were in row 2!). The talking was all Japanese, of course, but that didn't really matter
Next up, Naomi just HAD to go on the big new rollercoaster they had.. I hate these. She was all in great spirits, till we got closer to the front anyway. This thing starts by taking you up probably 4-5 stories then dropping you right at the start. From there its more ups and down and some big turns, but thankfully its not that long. In your seat you get to choose to listen to different music, one of the options being "Get Back" by The Beatles. I credit that song for getting me through it. By the end Naomi was crying and yelling out "Okasaaaaaaaaaaaaaan" (meaning mommy!). I thought that was funny. Not so tough after riding that one! She didn't wanna do it again, needless to say.
That was the last big one we did. After this we spent time going back to get souvenirs at different shops and riding the Jurassic Park ride 2 more times. We did it so we could get a good studio shot of us on the ride (they take your pic just as you are falling down at the last part). We pulled it off perfectly the last time! Here is some various shots around the park.
Before the park closes they have their big parade. It was quite neat actually albeit very loud.
This wrapped up our day at the Studio! We did everything we planned to do and more, so I was very happy. It was a really great place and I would love to check out the US one now actually!
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