Halloween at Universal Studios Japan
Here is my experience of the Halloween at USJ. If you want to know more about what it was like continue reading.
Before going to Japan I knew I really wanted to visit a Japanese theme park. That being said, I didn’t want to spend too much time in one place. So we decided to only go to one (well, mainly me and forcing my boyfriend to join).
Tokyo Disney vs Universal Studios
For me there are 2 main theme parks in Japan, Tokyo Disney Sea or Universal Studios Japan. I’m generally a huge fan of anything Disney related. Especially now they’re doing live action and bringing my childhood to life. On the other hand, Universal studios can only really be found in a hand full of locations and are KNOWN for the Harry Potter Castle. After looking at lot of different blogs and watching vlogs especially those from KimDao I decided to go for USJ. As an added bonus, USJ were hosting the horror nights event during our visit.
We went through Voyagin to buy our tickets. I was a bit sceptical at first because they have a lot of mixed reviews, but decided to go with them anyway. Most of the good reviews were for USJ (and they are also the USJ official seller) and the other bad ones were for other attractions. That being said it seemed fairly safe.
It is a nice and simple process. You pick the day you want to go(Peak and Off-Peak days – we booked an off-peak ticket B which was slightly cheaper ), and pay. Simple. It will send you over your tickets You can print them off yourself or scan your ticket in at the gate. There are some terms and conditions which you should pay attention to especially for rescheduling.
A Day at USJ | Entry
The weather was quite gloomy and it was raining on and off for a while. The queues weren’t as long as I expected and we got through pretty easily. There is a website I found, where you can look at specific ride queue times. I was constantly refreshing the webpage where ever I could.
A Day at USJ | Rides
Here is a list of the rides and the order we went on them. We were luckily enough to go whilst they were having their Horror night event special so some rides were altered. There were also some rides we didn’t get a chance to go on due to the weather:
- The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – The Ride 4K3D
- Space Fantasy – The Ride
- Terminator 2:3-D
- Wand Magic
- Flight of the Hippogriff
- Happy Potter and the Forbidden Journey
- Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
My favourite ride has to be the amazing adventures of spiderman. I loved the VR elements and effects and even thought every thing was in Japanese, it was enjoyable. My boyfriend preferred the Happy Potter ride, which was amazing as well but I was more on the scared side on that one. Heads up. We didn’t get to go on as many rides but I did enjoy exploring the different areas, and shops.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
As a Harry Potter fan going to the wizarding world part of USJ was surreal. The transition from other parts of the park meant we were walking down a forest path for a while. Where you pass Rons crashed car, the Hogwarts express right before you’re led to Diagon alley. Just like in the movies, you’re surrounded by all the different shops, including Ollivanders. Here we got the chance to experience the scene where Harry Potter is assigned his wand. After riding the 2 main HP rides, we watched the light show which was projected onto the castle. It was stunning. We bought some butter beer to end the night (which tastes and probably is cream soda).
Food Dessert at USJ
There are a lot of different options when it comes to food at USJ, it was quite overwhelming. We decided to have lunch at the Happiness Cafe. You can’t run away from happiness. 😀 The cafe offers set meals – a main and a dessert set meal with refillable drinks. I totally took advantage of the refillable drinks. One thing I love about Japan, is that vending machines drinks come hot or cold. I was constantly topping up on warm matcha teas. As you can imagine (and see), everything was themed making it hard to eat but great for taking photos.
Halloween at USJ
Japanese people are pretty hardcore when it comes to events, especially for Halloween. People were completely dressed up in all sorts of costumes as bloody nurses, mad professors and some in massive groups all wearing matching outfits. I even saw a group dressed up in prisoner jumpsuits. It was only a small majority of people but was nice to see going all out. The evening event was on a completely different level.
Horror Nights at USJ
The park is flooded with actors dressed up based on the section. For example, in the Jurassic park section people were dressed up as zombie pharaohs and disfigured mummies. In the New York area, the monsters were a mixture of ragged dolls and machine mutants. It was pretty dark (which is why I don’t have photos) and I was terrified. Everywhere we went there were monsters coming out of the dark and they even walked a specific way and seemed very realist. At one point I could hear children crying in the background.
I believe is also a daily parade but because of the weather it was cancelled :(.
Shops at USJ, were pretty much zombie-fied for the Horror night events too. It was fun seeing all the creations like this the Hello Kitty Chucky.
That sums up our USJ visit during the horror nights event – Hope you enjoyed reading see you next time
