USJ Park Entrance

This post shows how bad of an Osaka person I am. This past Sunday was my first trip to USJ (Universal Studios Japan). and I've been living in Osaka City for almost two years.

Yeah...

I don't even have a good excuse for that D:

But I went, and now I can share..! I'm a theme park junkie, so I may ramble a bit :3




Access Information:
〒554-0031
大阪府大阪市此花区桜島2丁目1番33号
USJ is super easy to get to because it has it's own train stop on the JR line called Universal City Station.  Unfortunately, this particular line is is only accessible from the Nishikujo Station, and even though we were coming from Namba, it still took us about 40 minutes. Kind of ridiculous, and only fed to my distaste for the JR train system (I'm a real Kintetsu girl at heart ♥).

Here's the access webpage, which also lists how long the train rides are, however they don't take into account wait times, which were 15 minutes at some stations.

Universal Studios Japan
Upon exiting the station, the first thing you come upon is this neat little shopping center. There's a JUMP shop, as well as tons of restaurants, including a Hard Rock Cafe. Hotels are also located in this area with your standard set of conbinis.








Walking, walking, on a surprisingly sunny day. I think the weather report actually said something about clouds, but recently the reports have been pretty inconsistent these days. :/


If only I had my photo from Universal Studios in Florida from when I was 7 years old to put next this one..!

My friend and I were totally hyped upon seeing the huge globe. She's a Cali native, so she's got the Cali Studio experience.

Our excitement easily overpowered the rest of the peeps in our group.








I won't post all the photos I took because.. I probably edited more than were necessary, and it would make this post go on forever. I will be uploading them to the W♥K Tumblr though, so you can catch them all there..!

This was near the ride Hollywood The Dream. I don't really get the theme, and as far at roller coasters go, this is.. not really scary, BUT I loved choosing music to listen to for the ride..! I picked The Beatles, Kohei went with Bon Jovi (so Japanese) and Lisa ended up with Eminem. But since we were screaming and shouting the whole time, it really didn't matter in the end anyway. :P
ALSO, I've had a lot of people recommend riding this ride at night because it offers a spectacular view of the city and bay area. Will do on my next trip :)
Note: You have to stash your bags and loose items into a locker before you get in the ride line, You'll need a 100 yen coin, but you get it back after you reclaim your items. ;)

I guess this street was supposed to mimic a street in Hollywood..? I've been to L.A. once and.. it all kind of looks like this on a sunny, smog-less day..? Lol

I did feel natsukashii though, and almost a little homesick. :'\

Classic Jurassic

After Hollywood, we wanted to check out JAWS, but it was closed for maintenance.D: So we hobbled over to Jurassic Park.

Talk about natsukashii..!! I remember seeing this in the movie theatres, and freaking out and hiding behind the chairs. Scared sh*tless. Cue more homesickness. Lol

A kind of surreal thing about going through all these rides was listening to the Japanese dubs. For some reason, I just thought they would keep it in English, or at the very least have subtitles..? But, no. It's full on Japanese to American movie contact. You've been warned.

There were no shots of Samuel L. though, dang! I kind of wanted to hear his Japanese dub :D

After Jurassic Park, we headed over to Backdraft, which was even before my movie-going time. I wondered how many people in line had any idea about this movie or Kurt Russell, but then again, Japanese public TV is pretty good at playing old American flicks, so who knows **shrug**

Anyway, Backdraft is an attraction, and really only gets interesting toward the end. It is pretty cool how they're able to coordinate all the accidents and explosions inside the factory over and over again though.

I think this car is gone now ;u;

After Backdraft, it was time to go Back to the Future..! Now I actually did get on this ride back in Florida, scare sh*tless again, but mind you, I was only 7 :P
The Delorean is always a good photo.
Aside:
I had a friend in H.S. with that car. Coolest guy who is now some Navy pilot. See?! Delorean has powers.

I think our clothes were still wet in this photo from JP (totally a bad call on my part D: ).

Space Fantasy The Ride!

I didn't snap any photos of the Spiderman ride DD: I think I was just too tired to take out my camera or just trying to save the battery, but we did ride that too. It was also one of my faves and the one ride I bought a photo from..!! Dangit..

Anyway, this was snapped inside the Space Fantasy swag shop. That was a good ride, probably a slight rip-off of Space Mountain, but still fun in it's own special way. Definitely a close second after Spidey.

On that day, the park closed at 6pm, so we didn't get any time to see any other shows or attractions. But I guess it's for the better because the temperature drops a lot at night, and if you're not wearing a whiskey jacket, you probably won't have much fun :x

Look at that lovely sunset..!! I love sunsets ♥ I think I've said that a few times already..


Dinner was at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. I've only ever been to one (in B-more), but it was so nice to cram American food in my mouth again..!! So many tears of joy.

My wallet was also crying tears. Tears of pain and sorrow. An entree at that Hard Rock will run you about 2000 yen, desserts are 1000 yen and drinks staring around 540 yen. So for Shota and I, we ended up paying about 9780 yen. Yeah.. won't be able to go back there soon.. UNLESS they have a lunch special :DD Icanhaz??

Overall, an awesome-tastic day with friends old and new..!! I'm still contemplating a season pass because it would be nice to just head out there on weekdays to take time and explore. But at the moment, they start at 22000 yen, which is not in the leisure budget. D; But, pass or no, I'll be back again this year..!

For more park info, check out the English USJ site here or the Japanese site here.
Entrance fee is 6200 yen for adults, 4800 (under 5000, I forget the exact amount) for students who buy their tickets at the Lawson conbini outside the park..! :)

English-language Reservation Service for USJ: Voyagin 

Added 06/30/2016

If you're looking for an English-language service for getting your USJ tickets, check out Voyagin! They'll help you get your park tickets, they have express passes and they can get you train tickets for your trip to the park. If you need them to, they can even print and send your tickets to your hotel, but make sure to read the instructions on how.

Click here to access Voyagin's USJ reservation page.

★Peaces★

Check out that snowstorm trying to engulf the Daimaru building!!

Well, it didn't a rather poor job because 30 minutes later...

...

...

...
 
 It's like the storm didn't even happen. No snow on the ground, it was even a smidge warmer outside.

Mother nature is playing mind games, no doubt.

But that hasn't really helped my winter blues. Along with cold and uncomfortable weather, passing the days in ridiculous amounts of clothing that ususally end up making me sweat more than keeping me warm, my electronics have been throwing a fit. First my mp3 player (which resurrected itself), now my PS3. Except there is no ressurection this time. Only YLOD or the yellow light of death. And this marks the second time my PS3 crapped out on me. I made angry faces at everyone for a week, especially since Sony's customer service was of absolutely ZERO help. A word to anyone who was thinking of dragging along you American goodies, the company won't cover the shipping from overseas. Nor will the send you a box so you can send it to them (to be fixed for ridiculous amounts of money when it SHOULDN'T BE BROKEN...AGAIN).

Yea, I almost jumped to the Wii ship, but then I remember all the good times, all the man hours I've put into completing my sphere grid on FFX.. my golden Chocobo from FFVII, Kratos ripping the head off a shirtless snake-lady.. *le sigh* I won't be buying a new PS3 (mine is backward compatible all the way to classic PS), so I'll either save it to get repaired when I move back stateside or try to fix it on my own. Cue disaster.

So in a measure to relieve some stress.. I bought these. BEST SNEAKS EVER. I originally wanted spikey ones from Glad NEWS but I've realized now.. I will NEVER fit into a pair of GN shoes. Ever.

So I wandered down to the basement of OPA, and lo and behold, these called out to me from the CO&LU shelf they were occupying. I'm thinking about adding spikes to the black PVC parts, but I don't have enough spikes for both shoes. I must needs find a spike retailer.. Ame-mura should have something :D
I also ended up ordering these GOLD DOT because... I needed comforting. NEEDED it! D:
Can't wear any heels now because I'll lose feeling in my toes BUT.. when spring comes... Gloriousness...

All that's left is a pair of platform sandals.. preferably in some hippie-tastic color. With ankle-straps and feathers :D

Glorious.


The week before that, I gave my two-weeks (well, actually month and a half) notice. The hours, I can't commit to anymore, especially because I want to take some Japanese lessons this coming spring and try to take the JLPT (N3).

So I'm on the hunt now, who knows where I'll end up. I've always wanted to work in a bar... Then I could have as many piercings as I wanted :DD

So anyway, my co-workers and I went out for drinks and karaoke, which made me realize I'm gonna miss them. Sorely wish we had hung out more often, because they're a great bunch of guys and gals. :)

AND THEN.

This I found this behind my book case DD: Thank GAWD it's a tiny bookcase. But now I'm paranoid about any feint smell (this, mysteriously, didn't smell at all).
So yea, words to live by, BEWARE the MOLD. I had mold steal away a pair of awesome boots last year, and it tried to take a bag from me (saved it though). The best way to stop mold is, obviously, with prevention. So I've spread silicon gel all over my apartment. Everywhere.

And now I'll leave you guys with a little something Yuta, Shota and I found while walking down Shinsaibashi. Why is it there? Whose is it? Are they looking for them now? 

I could make up a billion stories for why these were on the ground, what about you guys??

Anyway, this was a pretty digusting blog post. Lots of mold, dirty panties and ranting. No good news here..!! Lol


Just another case of the winter blues. Here's hoping for better things come spring..!☻
★Peaces★

I originally hadn't planned on doing anything, but ended up buying sweets and wine at the store anyway *shrug* So much for that~
Anyway, I just wanted to teach everyone how to tell your Osaka or Kansai sweetie that you love them in kansai-ben, It's pretty easy really.
So go ahead and bust that out on them one time. :) I should be posting some nonsense around Thursday. I've mostly been hiding from the cold weather, so nothing too interesting. ;)
Take care all!♥