Just visited Universal Japan this summer.
Here are some tips to enjoy yourself and some money saving tips
Tips
1. Check the weather report. Make sure it will not be raining. Google the weather. Rides and queues are not all sheltered. Bring an umbrella if possible
2. Buy the tickets online to avoid queues and save money. Try Klook or KKday. WE did not buy the express queue tickets. We managed to get into Harry Potter, Spider man, Minions 4D, Backdraft, Sailormoon, gozilla, Attack of the Titans, the other Minions rides and one of the kids rides. We did not take any roller coaster ride as I have phobia of heights and dropping, but I did have fun even I did not take the Roller coaster rides
3. Reach around 845 to 9am, the queues are not that long in the morning. We went on a weekday and reach around 845am, there is already a lot of people waiting outside.
4. Avoid going on weekends as the queues will be much longer
5. Eat your breakfast as there is little time to waste, food are expensive and no outside food can be bought in. Bring plain water as it can be quite hot and tiring. There are water coolers around.
6. Go to the rides with the longer queues first.The queues were be peaked around 1 plus to around 5. Between that timing, take some photo, do some shopping, get some food and take a break. Leave the photo taking when the queue is long.
7. Do some research before you go as time is limited. You can't take all the rides. We watch street performances as we go along. Then we fnished all the 4D rides and the special anniversary rides as the must take rides and we finished all of them.
8. For aesthetic food, it will be the Minions and some of the small snacks kiosks selling cute desserts or sweets. If you are on a budget, try the less popular cafe like the Jaws. The price of the food can be around 30% cheaper and there is usually more peaceful
9. In the afternoon, a lot of people were sitting by the roadside resting around afternoon as it is getting hot and tiring. You can venture to less popular areas and there are rest areas with benches.
10. Stay till the night if you can as the park looks different at night. And there is the Harry potter night shows and a parade.
11. There are tons of options for Dinner at the Universal city outside Universal Studio so there is not a need to get in Universal as food options are limited and expensive
12. The only ride with English sub is Minions. However, the ride experience is more important than the story line to me
13. The map of Universal Japan is confusing. The restaurant maps are on the other side and rides on the other, no shops or landmark indication. There are a few signs around. Not all information are available on the map
14. There is not a need to get a numbered ticket for Harry Potter unless you are going on weekends or the summer Holidays.
15. Wear contacts if possible if you taking the 4D Rides and Roller coaster rides
Review of some of the rides
1. Harry Potter Ride and the forbidden ride (4D Ride)
This is our first ride. We took around 30mins to queue as it is our first ride. We rushed to queue for it when it just opened. The wait can be much longer. This is not an actual roller coaster but it is one of the more scariest and most vivid ride. It was fun, but scary to me. Worth a try.
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| 4D ride is at this castle but we start queuing at the entrance |
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| the queue was a long walk with some interesting things to see |
2. Spider-man The-ride (4D ride)
We were a bit lost. But the queue was not long. We took 10-15 mins to get to the ride. This has less drop and spinning. Graphics was good but not as vivid as Harry Potter. If you are not sure of whether 4D rides are your thing, you can try this one out first. I enjoyed this as I spend less time screaming for my life.
3. SailorMoon : The Miracle (4D ride)
We are really fans of Japanese anime and cartoons but this was the one of the special of the 5th anniversary of the Universal Japan. The setting is like a movie Theater, there is no dropping or turning. Just the character appear closer to you in 4D form. It is suitable for kids and elderly. The show is quite an interesting watch with the 4D animation.. Recommended for your heart to take a break from the excitement and a good place to rest your tired feet. We waited around 30 minutes to watch the show.
4.Attack of the Titans : The REal (4D ride)
This is a theatre setting too. This include real life actors/actress involves in this. There is slightly lesser 4D animation and the chairs does not move too. I did not enjoy it as much maybe as there is a language barrier to the storyline. We waited around 30 minutes for the show too
5. Minions : Freeze Ray Sliders
This is not a 4D ride. This is something like the kids" spinning tea cups but the spins are more intense and has some jerks here and there. If you want something outdoor but not too boring. I will suggest this ride. It was quite fun for me. The waiting time was around 15 minutes.
6. Despicable Me Minions Mayhem ( 4D Ride)
We queued an hour for this ride as this during the peak hours, around 3pm. The ride as animated drops and spins. It is more exciting than the Spider-man but less intense than the HArry Potter Ride. This is the only ride that provide English Subtitles. As I have taken this ride before in America. It is less fun due to lack of the surprise elements.
7. Backdraft
I was not interested in this ride at all as I read on how boring it will be except the last part. But my friend suggested it and the show was 5 minutes from starting when we walked past. The first 15 minutes was just explanation of backdraft and how the movie was made. It was all in Japanese. Then the last 5 minutes was the fire scene. Take note that there is no seats available. You stand and watch a clip in Japanese.
8. Elmo's Go Go Skateboard
The waiting time is around 5 to 10 minutes. I did not take the ride because I was scared. My friend took the ride. The skateboard roll up and down and a 360 degree spin. I did heard a kid tell the dad that the ride was really fun. We wanted to take the Flying Snoopy but as it was raining, we left the queue.
9. Harry Potter light show
We were exploring the Harry Potter in the evening as I seen some beautiful shots of it at night. As we were at the castle, I realise there were a lot of people standing around. We enquired the staff if there is a show coming up. He says there is a light show starting in 5 minutes. This is not listed in the pamphlets. We were lucky as we were back to explore the castle as the place looked beautiful at night. The show is a short but interesting to watch. I can't find the timing of the show at night, but I believe there is a few shows as I overheard the staff telling a person the next show timing. Just ask the staff about the timing available for the show.
10. Universal Spectacle Night Parade
We did not manage to locate the place or the parade was cancelled due to the on-off rain. We only have the staff there doing a photo session. Quite disappointing to us. We went off to watch the Gozilla show which was at the spot where we were waiting for the parade.
8. Gozilla vs Evangelion : The Real (4D Ride)
There is no waiting time as it is around 830pm and most people have left. This is the same theatre as the sailormoon. This is available from afternoon onwards. This ride is quite fun although it is in the theatre. The chair did jerk at some critical fighting scene and there are some other effects. I find it quite fun and not scary at all. I was happy that I did not missed this ride.
Food
The most famous food in Universal is the turkey leg. We did not eat it as it does not look appealing to us.
If you are there on budget, eat proper food at the restaurant as as meal can cost like 1500 yen or more. A simple beautiful looking ice cream or a cup of butter beer will be around 800 yen and it does not make you full. We only try the Butter Beer, we paid extra for the cup as it is one of the cheapest souvenir, extra 500 yen. The Butter Beer taste like Caramel. The rest just look good but really expensive.
We visited 3 resturant. We left the HArry Potter resturant when we really the food are quite expensive and not really Aesthetic.
We ate at the Minions resturant. We went around 1pm. There was a short queue. Everyone need to order a set meal. The price is not cheap but it includes a drink and a salad. We order 2 sets of the main course and a cream puff set. I was say the food is average but is visually interesting. The price of the main course is around $20+ each and the cream puff set around $10+. The whole meal comes up to around $70 even if we did not order 3 main courses.
We walked past Jaw resturant. The price of the food looks a few hundred yen cheaper than the minions resturant. If you looking to save a few bucks and avoid the crowd, the food looks decent. I googled the image of the resturant. It is quite interesting too.
What to do other than eat and rides?
When the queues have long waiting time and the weather is hot. Walk around for some photos, and run to any of the shop for air con and more photo taking. There is not a need to buy but some of the shops are quite interesting to window shop. There are also street performances here and there
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| HArry Potter |
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| HArry Potter |
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| HArry Potter Castle |
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| Catch some street performances |
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| chance upon the dinosaurs while exploring the park |
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| Baby Dinosaur |
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| One piece? |
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| Shopping, hide from the Sun and photos |
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| Night scenery of Universal. |
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| The last shot of the day. We had fun. :D |
I just changed my mobile phone and all the photos are taken using by mobile. I am quite pleased with the quality of photos. I took a video of the Harry Potter Light Show, I think the quality is quite good. However, I am not going to share it. I don't want to spoil the fun and the elements of surprise when you watch the show. Have fu!!
The reason why I recommend this park although it is quite an old park. Firstly, it is a beautiful park for autumn leaves and cherry blossoms. Secondly, this a quiet park with ample of space for kids to run and space to take photos. Thirdly, it is beside a mall with a good selection of food, place to shops aLastly, it is accessible, just beside the monorail. If you are bringing people who cannot travel far or only have stamina for a small park, this is ideal
