11/9 - Universal Studios Japan

Well, today was a play day at USJ, or Universal Studios Japan.  Of course, we started the morning with a Matsuya breakfast.  I wonder if the Matsuya morning staff are starting to recognize us.  It's a Monday morning, so we are caught up with some of the morning rush, but we find it curiously absent of salaryman having their breakfast.  We thought it'd be busier.

To get to USJ, we actually have to take a JR train today.  The JR train takes us directly to Universal City and the USJ entrance gate.  So we didn't use any of our special passes today.  We just paid cash at the ticket vending machines for our fares.  Also, because we'd be on amusement park rides for most of the day, I decided to not lug around my DSLR.  My shoulders needed a rest from all carrying all that stuff.  So we relied on N's little Canon IXUS for our shots this day.

We walked in from the Universal City JR Station to the giant USJ gate.  Again, it seems like Asia goes all out just before Christmas.  So USJ was all decked out in Christmas decorations.  And maybe you thought we had way too much Christmas back home.  I don't think so now.

So upon entry, we planned to head straight for one of the more popular rides to get it out of the way before the day got too busy.  We got to Spider Man The Ride, but found out that it was closed.  Grr... that wasn't a great start to our day at USJ.  So we settled for the Back to the Future ride next door.  Did you know that Christopher Lloyd spoke Japanese?  I didn't either.

After about a 30 minutes at Back to the Future, we just headed next door again to Backdraft. This is not as interesting because there's a lot of talking.  And since this was Japan, all the talking was in Japanese.  Ah, Ron Howard-san, genki desu ka?  I think Backdraft is a redo if I ever get to a Universal Studios in the States.

Just following the path, we then headed over to Jurassic Park.  This was a pretty fun ride with the huge water drop at the end.  We bought the el cheapo poncho from the vending machine.  USJ was definitely milking our money today.

After 3 rides, we were already feeling peckish.  We came across a little food kiosk that sold a Snoopy shaped bun.  It was very cute.  We bought one to share.  Of course, this experience would not be complete without a photo.  I was very curious as to the taste of the bun.  Once I bit into, I exclaimed, "It's a Chinese yellow custard bun!!!"  Seriously, it tasted the same as the yellow custard buns I can buy in the frozen food section of T&T, except that I paid extra for the stylishly black Snoopy nose, eyes, and ears.

All right, enough trademarked food then.  We made our way over to the Jaws ride.  It's funny how everything is decorated like a New England fishing town here, but everybody speaks Japanese.  Even our "boat guide" was a young Japanese gentleman who hammed it up with his giant "rifle" when the shark got really close.  Good thing he was expressive, otherwise, it may not have been so entertaining.  N got unlucky when some water got on her as Jaws "buzzed" our boat. 

As if there wasn't enough water involved with Jaws, we went next door to the Peanuts area where we came across Peppermint Patty's Stunt Slide.  It's basically an enclosed water slide where you ride a two person raft through the tubes.  Even though it was pretty similar to what you might experience in any waterpark, it was still fun for thrill.  How it's related Peppermint Patty?  No idea, but my pant legs were pretty wet after this ride.  Arrghh!

We grabbed some lunch in this Peanuts themed area.  N ordered the doggie meal, literally, complete with dog dish, but with human food.  I can't say that burger and fries were all that good, though.

After lunch, we went into the Peanut Gallery with whole bunch of Peanuts characters to take pictures with.  Birchwood School was there complete with Charlie Brown's teachers unintelligible speech.  I guess it doesn't matter what language his teacher speaks in, it never makes sense.

Once we finished visiting with the Snoopy and Charlie Brown, we headed to the only roller coaster at USJ - Hollywood Dream, The Ride.  This was obviously the big attraction in the park featuring the longest wait of all the rides.  Hollywood Dream features your choice of 5 songs to ride along with.  I originally wanted to listen to The Beatles, but screwed up and accidentally selected Enimem.  Not what I was looking for.  We would have to come back later.