Day 2: Universal Studio Japan (Osaka)

27th March 2009

We start our journey on the second day with a hearty breakfast provided by Yougendo (the place we stayed) at 830am (730am Malaysia time).

Home-made cooked by Yougendo consist of plain porridge with scramble egg, mashed salted salmon, 2 types of vegetables pickle (one of them is shimeji mushroom, the one in round bowl), fruits cut (fuji apple and grapefruit), OJ and coffee.

The breakfast is setted a very traditional way. It was very warm and homely.

After breakfast, we took JR line to Osaka to change for our 7-days rail pass. On the counter then we know that actually we can activate the pass right at Kansai airport according to any start date we want. We thought we have to activate it on the day we want to use it *sigh*.

And since not all JR office can activate it, we have to go all the way to Osaka to finish this thing. I don't remember which station can do this activation but if I'm not mistaken, only 3 JR office, one in Kansai, one in Osaka and another one, you have to google hehehe.

(You can only buy Japan Rail Pass outside of Japan. We bought ours from JTB in Amoda Building, Imbi)

MrComot queueing at JR line. I don't know why he makes that face :P

JR pass we get in Malaysia. I forgot to snap the pass after exchanged. I'll post the example of JR pass later ya.

Then we off to Universal Studio!

The route:

For pass exchange/activation: Oji - Tennoji - Osaka

Universal Studio: Osaka - Nichikijo - Universal Studio

Transportation in Osaka VERY EASY! Everybody remotes by train (JR). All you need to know is where you want to go (but have to be very detail, can't say 'I want to go to Universal Studio', you have to know which station you want to stop - we brought printed routes that we planned/study since in Malaysia). But it's a bit tricky as JR station is very big and has many gate as opposed to us only one gate with 2 sides LRT. So we just buy the ticket to destination we wanted (can check through the map) and go to the staff (all their station got staff at the go-in machine and say, "Sumimasen! Oji!" and the guard will reply "Geto (gate) ten". Most of time they will answer in Japs and we have no idea what number is that, so sign language will take charge :)

We reached Universal Studio Japan (USJ) around 12pm. It's really recommend for you to go as early as you can (they open at 9am) as they are so many rides and it'll be rugi for you can't try all, especially for the featured play.

Us in front of the signature globe

Once I stepped into USJ, it feels like I was trapped in different world. The buildings are amazing and I was very excited like a little kid!

Below are some random pics :D

This Sesame Street bus will tour the roads stop at some point doing their group dances

Street performance and we don't understand a bit! It's all in Japs haha

Pic poyo ala-ala ada snow la tu :D

But seriously it was very cold. If you notice, everybody is wearing winter cloths. But the UV is very strong as there is no cloud at all.

Japan is not 'Islam friendly' (I think 90% of them are Shinto) so don't expect to find surau or mosque nearby tourist attraction. We only learnt this after we arrived USJ. We met a friend's friend in USJ to pass him some stuff (he is an Indonesian, working in Japan and can speak Japanese). So we asked him to ask any of the USJ staff if they can lend us some space for us to pray but the answer is NO. Maybe they afraid of what we meant by praying. So we have to make do anywhere that seem clean. USJ is very clean though but it's a bit weird for us to pray tepi-tepi jalan, you get what I mean? In Malaysia surau is very convinient and handy.

Zohor is very early, at 11am and Asar is at 2pm. Maghrib is at 630pm. And subuh is at 330am! Seriously, Subuh tu a bit hard to take up as it is very cold and we are hibernating.

MrComot performing prayer at one of the pathway. This is our first experience, so after that, we planned our journey after 11am for the next days.

We watched Shrek 4D movie and it was fun! It is like 3D thing where you have to wear the 3D glasses only they have extra function - movement! The chairs you are sitting on will move parallel with the story. When Shrek riding the horse, our seats also feels like riding it (not that I ever ride one but it moves! haha) and the funniest part is when in the movie, Donkey is having flu (or so) and bersin and ZAASSTTT, some water were splashed at our face. Haha! Very clever! We were laughing crazily.

Oh ya, we had to wait 90 minutes for the 4D cinema! Apparently, school kids starting their summer break so people were abundant with parents bringing their kids. All rides you have to wait over 100 minutes! Seriously it is wasting the time but everybody is doing it. So if you want to go to USJ (I heard in US is the same too), bring some snacks so that you can munch while queueing and maybe can save up lunch time. Another way is you can buy platinum ticket where you don't have to line up so long (got different line for this type of ticket) only it is double the price!

Spiderman ride is at 120mins! C-R-A-Z-Y!

The line for back to the future. I think this one also 120mins *sob sob*

In front of BTTF. It's veryyyy cooool! I recommend this one

Ebi onagiri. The friend gave us this for snacks (Thanks Gambit!). Nasib baik we met him, if not we won't know this thing exist! So onagiri has been our day-to-day staple after that.

We skipped JP's ride as it will be very wet that we have to buy poncho, and regret it later :(

One of the drinks vending machine. They have various of themes according to the ride area.

Around 7pm, we saw that along the main road were filled by thousands of people sitting on their mat waiting for something. We had no idea what's going to be, so we joined them, securing ourselves in some corner and wait. Rupa-rupanya they got this gala light parade as the closing everyday and it was very grand!

Magical starlight parade opening by gigantic Elmo! Made by lightbulbs and parading along the way. Everybody is cheering for them and seriously, it was very GRAND!

Meoooww!!

Don't know what theme.

The lightbulb is dynamically moving and changing colors and very pretty. I cried a bit (motippp?). I had this tendency to be teary when something cool and grand happened, boleh? Haha.

Anyway that night was way way colder than the day that I had to wear gloves, but sanggup ni buka and stand still to snap these pictures. Oh ya, camera also will ting-tong (most of the time they jammed!) because of the cold weather. So i had to rub it and warming it a bit for so many times. Not to mention that the system also went haywire! Too much exposure, focus too slow, etc etc.

So in the whole day we just play 2 ride/show (BTTF and Shrek). We were thinking, ala...it's OK, we going to hace so much fun later in Disneyland, only to find that Disneyland is sucks (this will be in my other next next entry hehe). So folks, hear me out, play as much as rides you can in USJ or if possible, buy the platinum ticket! If I can reverse the time, I'll definitely buy the platinum one. Seriously it's worth it, considering not everyday we going to Japan right?

We had our dinner in one of the local sushi bar in Oji.

Ebi tempura, boiled soy beans, deep fried squid tentacles and 2-pieces of sushi. The ebi tempura is to die for. The ebi is big and fresh, very scrumptious! Anyway seriously I can't recall kitaorg kenyang kah makan ni? It looks very little, right? Btw, this so-called little dinner cost us 2100 yen (about RM70).

When we reached our room, it shows 8 degrees! With everything closed, doors, windows, etc. We heat up our room to the max (31 degrees) and still need to wear socks before going to sleep.

Truthfully, the coldness is a bit annoying, but come to think of it, it is very special. It's like 2 in 1, get to see sakura and at the same time, get to taste the 'winter' :)