When you visit Osaka, you may wish to pay a visit to Universal Studios Osaka! It is easily accessed by their local transport and very clearly signalled from the train station.
We did have problems getting the train tickets as it is not easy to read the Japanese characters on the train map. Luckily my sister is a frequent visitor to Japan and was able to figure it out quicker than I could. I would have probably stood there for a good 10 minutes before understanding the route. Also the ticket machines operate slightly differently compared to the UK. They require you to place the money in before you can select for the tickets.
Anyway, we arrived at Universal Studios rather early, before their official opening hours in fact, and there were a ton of people already queuing or had gone in! To avoid the queuing, it is always best to buy online. We did think to buy online but we couldn’t decide which day we were going to go. So we queue for a good 30 minutes before we went it.
By the time we were in, there were people setting up picnic blankets and hanging around the shops and restaurants. It was so packed that we could hardly walk around with ease. We went during their summer holiday season. We did regret and really wish that we didn’t go at all, especially as it was so hot! Everywhere we turned, there were hordes of people and the queues were huge.
We first went to the Harry Potter World but we didn’t realise it was on a ticket system! We did ask for directions for the ticket office but were told by three different staff three different locations. I was fuming and ended up following the crowd and found the ticketing area! The queue was massive and messy but luckily I managed to get in quite quickly and got the time slot.
We quickly made our way to the Harry Potter World but were very disenchanted. It was not as impressive as the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London. Also it required you to buy their wands in order to play the interactive games. The queue for the ride was over three hours long by the time we got there! We ended up disappointed and left.
We then made our way to Hollywood Attraction area for the Yo-kai Taiso. We arrived very early for the show attraction where guests encounter Yo-kai and perform the Yo-kai Taiso together. We loitered inside the building but were chased away by the staff as we were enjoying the air con and were not playing the games in there! Grr….. Anyway, I started to queue at 10.30am for the 11am show, and the queue was already enormous. I thought I queued too early but I was wrong. We then moved into the room for 5 minutes before we were allowed into the cinema. It can seat 300 people so you can imagine the mad rush! Also everything is in Japanese so we couldn’t understand anything. If you ask me if it was worth it, I would probably say not at all. Yo-kai is one of my daughter’s favourite shows but for the queuing to watch a 12 minute show didn’t justify it. Watch the video here and you decide!
Next we went to have a meal and again, there were massive queues everywhere by 11.30am. By the time we got to our table it was 12.10pm. The meal we had was okay.
The weather was so hot that we decided that we should leave at 2pm. We had paid over $350 Singapore dollars for the tickets, but we decided it wasn’t worth it. As we walked, we saw this Spider-Man ride that was highly recommended. They claim it was the world’s best attraction and the first to win the world’s best ride award for 7 consecutive years. It has been transformed into a whole new ride by gaining the world’s best technology “4K3D”! We decided to queue even though the ride info showed almost 2 hours of waiting! Yes, it was that crazy long. We made our way and the whole place was like an endless maze.
The ride was totally worth the queue and we all truly enjoyed it except for two silly teenage girls screaming at anything! Do prepare to get sprayed by water and enjoy! Watch the video here!
We didn’t stay for long but did pop by the Minion Park for a quick photo before we traversed through the stampede of people!
If you ask if I would go again, the answer would be no, not in the summer but if planned well, and on a quieter day, it would be a lot more fun! Also, plan what attractions you want to visit to and head straight there!
