Day 5/11
Saturday, and also Universal Studios day! Harry Potter world!
I met with friends (inc. Vivian and Dale) at Saiin station in Kyoto at 8:30am, and took a few trains to get to Universal City station in Osaka. The trip was just below 2 hours.
We went through the gates at 10:50am, and aimed to get a nice time-slot ticket for Harry Potter world. Earliest time-slot turned out to be at 7pm though, so we wandered everywhere else.
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| I was lucky to get Hermione on my Universal Studios ticket. Everyone else either got Harry (on or off a broomstick) or Ron. |
Dale and I got to go on a 4D Back to the Future ride; I waited 100 mins in line for that. Luckily we got in before 5:30pm (at 4:30, actually) because they would change the ride to fit more with the Halloween theme that the rest of the park was having.
To kill some time, we lined up for the Jurassic Park ride that had an expected wait time of 180 mins. The line seemed to go along finely at first; we shuffled forward every few minutes or so until 5:30pm. The line stopped for 20-30 minutes. Then artificial thunder and lightening happened nearby, most of the lights blacked out and school girls screamed. Japan.
At 6:50, we gave up waiting and went on our way to enter Harry Potter world.
Dale had already gone on the ride so he accompanied a friend who only wanted to see the interior of the castle, whilst Vivian and I lined up for the 4D ride that's also in the castle.
The ride was awesome. The wait was 100 mins or so here too. We didn't need to pay extra for the lockers as they provided us those. Also, there were huge spiders on this ride. The smallest spider was the size of your face, and some of them move up and down on its web. Luckily, Dale had prepped me about them so I didn't wet my pants. I think my fear of spiders has lowered actually, due to this ride and the preparation. Yay.
Anyway, before we got on the actual ride, we climbed up static stairs (thank goodness, I would trip if they moved) AND THE PAINTINGS ON THE WALLS MOVED AND TALKED AND IT WAS DONE VERY CONVINCINGLY. Oh, and they were understandably dubbed over in Japanese. Japanese Ron sounded funny at first hear. My British voices...where art thou?
After the ride, we went to get our robes. Luckily the ones we wanted (Gryffindor and Slytherin) were still in stock. When I got there, there were 2 Gryffindor robes left. After I got my robe, there were 3 left... A few people were taking the robes off the hook, putting them on, and taking selfies before putting the robes back on the hook.
I also got a wand that's a replica of Hermione's. It's so elegant~
Left Universal Studios at 9ish. Because I wanted to visit the Pokemon Centre that's also in Osaka the next day, stayed at a hotel in Osaka instead of returning to Kyoto.
I had late dinner of okonomiyaki and takoyaki! The two foods Osaka is well known for.
Day 6/11
Pokemon! Gotta catch 'em all!
There were also capsule machines, my latest addiction.
Got these pins from them. These pins are apparently exclusive to Pokemon centres.
Then I returned to Kyoto and got this lovely custard pancake at Hoshino Coffee. There's usually a wait list to get in. It was only a 5 minute wait though, for 3 people at around 2:30pm on a Sunday.
