Just as Tokyo has Disneyland, Osaka has USJ (Universal Studios Japan). In terms of both scale and history Disneyland still has the edge, but Disney is limited to Disney characters. USJ, by contrast, has the advantage of being able to collaborate with pretty much any popular character out there.
The entrance
The park opens at 9 a.m., but if you reach the station around 8:30 it is already packed with people. You could say the queueing war has already begun at that point.
On the way in
Well, this much isn’t really all that bad. We came on a weekday on purpose, and it does seem to have helped a little.
Merchandise
We stopped by the merchandise shop before going in — Jaws, Jurassic Park, all sorts of things.
Mario hats
I saw an awful lot of Mario fans that day.
Nolboo
I took the photo because it was nice to see something familiar — these days more and more Korean companies are moving into Japan.
Tickets
I suppose you’d have to say the prices have crept up a bit from the old days, right?
Express Pass
This Express Pass isn’t cheap, and yet it’s already sold out. Once you add the Express Pass to whatever you eat and buy inside, it works out at roughly 20,000-30,000 yen per person… which means a family of three can go through a million won in a single day. Seeing it sell out anyway at that price, everyone really is serious about their theme parks.
Jujutsu Kaisen
It looked fun, but we skipped it. The plan was to book the hardest place to get into first, and then drop in on the rest whenever the wait was short.
Finnegan’s Saloon
This place looked pretty good. In the end I never made it inside, though…
The SPY×FAMILY collab
They really do go all in on collabs. That beef stew surely wasn’t made by Yor… Anyway, if you look closely, places like this are tied in with Suntory too, and the word is that the highballs are good and the bar snacks aren’t bad either. That day, though, we had somewhere else to be, so I just breezed on past.
The scene inside the park
They were running a SPY×FAMILY code-cracking event, and it was quite a tough one. You pick up the hints at particular spots and have to work out six codes — not easy at all…
A New York back alley
Spider-Man shows up here.
Photo spot
It’s very well made, but I think this is the pre-Marvel Spider-Man. Sony’s Spider-Man, perhaps?
A view out over the harbour
The mood here isn’t bad at all.
Park Side Grille
Another spot Suntory has had a hand in, though all I did was look.
Jaws
This is the place for a souvenir photo.
A bridge…
Turns out it’s a real bridge…
Hot dogs
Honestly, eating at a food truck like this looked like better value than sitting down somewhere… but once you’ve been walking around all day you’re worn out, and you just can’t help ending up in a restaurant.
The theater
This is where they were putting on the SPY×FAMILY show.
San Francisco Candies
San Francisco seems to be the theme…
The Jujutsu Kaisen restaurant
A restaurant themed on Jujutsu Kaisen, serving Japanese kaiseki-style sets like the Gojo Satoru set meal. I think it came to somewhere around 30,000-50,000 won a head.
Jujutsu Kaisen popcorn
Buy the figure and you get the popcorn — that kind of concept, apparently. Fans would have loved it.
A Chinese restaurant
It wasn’t open that day.
Jurassic Park
This attraction is built so there’s no way you’re staying dry. It looked fun, but we were out of time, so we skipped it…
Mel’s Drive-In
A burger place, and it looked good, but again — skipped
The Universal Studios trademark
There were huge numbers of people queueing up in front of it for a photo.
Red Lobster and the Hard Rock Cafe
Feels very American, somehow.
Ekiben on the way home
Oddly enough there was a place selling Rikuro Ojisan’s cheesecake and I meant to buy one, but when I went by in the evening it was completely sold out… Gutted. Anyway, I picked up a bento and made it back safe and sound.
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