Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 2 - Preparation with Kids

 

"We are ready to go to Universal Studios!"

Universal Studios Osaka may be a place that makes you feel grateful even though you have spent a lot of time for trying how to make the online payment.

(As a consumer, it may be a bit morbid to have this idea.)

"Try your best and God do the rest." Osaka's weather is not very stable during summer. If you encounter a typhoon or adverse weather, your schedule will definitely be affected. Thanks, after the typhoon in mid-August, there are several sequential sunny days.

Based on the opinions from different experienced visitors, I have compiled a list of belongings as below:

1. 500ML Water 
2. Portable electric fan
3. Floor Mat (you really need it when waiting at the gate, or you can bring UNO with you to kill some time.)

4. Mobile phone charger and Power Bank (In USJ, it is necessary to keep the USJ APPS on)

5. Admission Ticket and Express Passes Print Out (Just in case)
6. Raincoat (Optional) - "Jurassic Park - The Ride" has been closed so it is not necessary to bring raincoat. 
7. Umbrella - it is lifesaver amid scorching sun or heavy rain

8. Money, a lot of money (just kidding)

9. Anti-Dizziness Medicine ((I easily become dizziness when I experience riding attractions)

In addition, I borrowed a Nintendo bracelet and a Harry Potter wand from my friend. However, if you have two kids, one wand is fine for two. But it will be much better for each of your children to have their own bracelets.  

(The queue for the magic games is not long. If the staff is limited to one wand per person, you can queue twice for 2 trials. But it will be too time consuming if you do the same for Nintendo attractions. 

For clothing, I personally recommend wearing pants with "zippered pockets, because I had the experience of my phone slipping out of my trouser pocket while playing "Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem". There is also a but risk of phone dropping in the attraction "Forbidden Journey", but there is locker services provided for this attraction so you are not needed to worry.

By regulations you cannot bring any food, except water. The staff is very lenient with children's small portions of food. Moreover they won't check thoroughly during the crowded opening hours according to my own experience.

In my opinion, the food in USJ is fancy and delicious, and the price is much cheaper than that in Hong Kong. It is better to reduce the weight of your backpack and buy the food in the park. 

It is also a good option to prepare your breakfast when you are waiting for park open, just like a picnic. But you have to ensure you have finished all before your entry.

(The food in Hong Kong theme parks is terrible, expensive. They set a high price and regard that the tourists have no other options for food. It is not really good experience to have food in the theme parks in Hong Kong.)

物資預備好後，我向同行的小朋友們展示了USJ的全景圖。要大家對USJ有一個「鐘面的概念」，如下︰

After that, I showed the panoramic view of USJ to the children. Let them locate the point by "clock face concept". 

Main Entrance - 7 O'clock

Super Nintendo World - 4 O'clock

Harry Potter - 5 O'clock

Minion - 12 O'clock

Then I have told them that it is nearly impossible to experience all the attractions within one day, so we have to well communicate first and ask them about their intentions.

Mak: We have express passes for 7 attractions and they will definitely be included in our itinerary, regardless of your interest.

Children: OK

Mak: You have watched the youtube movie about Hollywood Dream - The Ride and The Flying Dinosaur. Do you want to experience?

Children: No, it is so scary. (Thanks God! I am scared, too.)

Mak: All Shows in Japanese, interested?

Children: No.

Mak: First priority is Fun, second priority is having meal.

Children: Agree!

Mak: Parade?

Children: No

Mak: Morning Call at 5:00 AM - Leave Hotel at 6:15 AM, Estimated Arrival Time: 7:00 AM

Children: No problem (I will be glad if they have same response for going to school.)

Good! Everything is clear. Our target is to experience all 7 attractions with express passes and maximize our attractions' experience.

(we have to get up at 5:30 because my daughter had to dress up as Luigi... )

There was a very important question - from Shinsaibashi to USJ, what is the best routing? 

I found 6 suggested routes via Google Map.

It is difficult to decide which is the most convenient way if you are not local Japanese.

"The fastest is to go by cap! Those Taiwanese asked me to help them call a cap and leave here at 4:30 am!", said by Judy, the staff in  Flag Hotel. She is from Suzhou and could speak Cantonese fluently.

(Definitely it is not my expected answer....)

She recommended us to go by Metro from Shinsaibashi to Umeta Station and then walk to Osaka JR station according to the road signal, and take the train to Nishi-kujō eki.....There is a ring line to USJ so it is important to get on the train in right direction and that is.

We left our hotel in Shinsaibashi at 6:19 am, no need to go by taxi, just 

(Above is the route proposed by Judy. However, when I check in google map during early morning, I found there were 5 other recommended routes... Luckily I capped a screen shot of Judy's route in advance.)

We left Flag Hotel Shinsaibashi at 6:20 am, arrived at USJ at 7:00 am - The long-awaited wonderful journey was going to began!

We arrived USJ gate at 7:06 am

(The first gate was opened when we arrived, it was time to go in and lined up - 29/08 - 07:06am)

- Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 2 - Preparation with Kids - End -

Below are other sharing about USJ, Disney Sea and The Making of Harry Potter:

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 1 - Basic Information and Some Tips for your journey

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/universal-studio-japan-osaka-basic.html

Disney Sea Tokyo 1 - Basic Information and Tips for your journey

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-basic-information-and.html

Disney Sea 2 - Busy First Half with Mobile Phone  (Tower of Terror / Journey to the Center of the Earth / Rapunzel's Lantern Festival) 

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-2-busy-first-half-with.html

Dinery Sea 3 - Busy Second Half Having fun (Peter Pan / Toy Story Mania) 

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-3-busy-second-half.html#google_vignette

The Making of Harry Potter (Tokyo)

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/you-can-make-magic-making-of-harry.html

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 1 - Basic Information and Some Tips for your journey

"Be well prepared to go to Disneyland." This is a dialogue in the advertisement when Disneyland was newly opened in Hong Kong many years ago. This advertisement bought an unprecedented counter-effects as many tourists felt hesitated to go Disneyland, since they regarded themselves "not yet well- prepared".   

However, if you have plan to go to Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, I can honestly say that it is necessary for you and your family to be "well prepared." 

In last year, I have prepared this USJ trip for almost 3 months in advance. This preparation was really  unprecedented. 

Therefore, in this article, I would like to share my experience and thoughts on the process from preparation to ticket purchase, ticket purchase, may be later, experience of attractions.

1) The first thing you have to to join the Universal Studios discussion forum.

There are a lot of information sharing in the forum, which is very useful for the tourists who plan to visit USJ. 

(Above is one of the USJ forum groups in Facebook - total 160,000 members in the group, they are mainly come from Taiwan and Hong Kong so their communication mostly in Chinese. If you want to know something about USJ, you can easily find the right answer. Please select to join different forum group according to your language preferences. There are many USJ experts, who are Taiwanese but stayed in Japan for many years. If you don't mind to use google translate, you can get a lot of useful information from them even though you won't understand Chinese.)

2) USJ Official Website

Then I would like to share some information about ticket. It is recommended to buy tickets in USJ Official Website because the time period of express pass for different attractions can be selected.

 

https://www.usjticketing.com/

However, please notice that the official website is in Japanese. If you don't know Japanese (so do I), you can choose the language in English but the booking site in English is actually operated by JTRWeb LTD. - an authorized ticket reseller of Universal Studios Japan. Then means the website will be automatically move from official to JTR one when you convert the language.

Some USJ experts or local Japanese will buy the express passes via Japanese websites as all the tickets/express passes released in Japanese web several days earlier than other platform. But no need to worry about if you don't know Japanese. According to my experience, it is still alright to buy the express pass via English website.

Currently you can only buy tickets and passes online via websites in English or Japanese, No Chinese or other languages can be served. 

3. Information about tickets and Passes

3.1 Studio Pass (1-day / 1.5 day / 2 day studio pass): The basic pass for entry. There are five main types of tickets: A, B, C, D and E respectively. They represent the expected amount of crowds - from slack days to peak days. D represents that there will be many visitors.

(It is quite difficult to imagine the situation of E.) 

Ticket A represents the day with expected fewer visitors, but honestly there is no slack date in USJ according to my own experience. On the other hand, you can buy the corresponding tickets by selecting the right visit day. A-E are just a price reference.

For example, I bought the tickets on Aug 31, 2023, and the ticket type A will be automatically indicated when you selected.

Although the one-day admission pass does not have real-name registration, the official announcement is that it cannot be resold (Actually there is no record about your identity in the tickets).

Therefore, If your friend was unable to make the trip and gives you a ticket, you still need to check which date the ticket can be used as their selling price may not be the same. 

(A-E is just a reference... USJ is so popular and full of visitors among the whole year)

3.2 Special Entry: USJ official opening time is 9:00 am in the morning. However, USJ is very special in their flexible opening time. Normally it will be opened earlier than official one every day. During summer they can even open at 7:00 am!! (How can the USJ staff get up so early with smiling face?) 

For example, when I went to USJ on August 31st, the actual opening time was 8:00 am on that day. 

If you have bought Special Entry Pass, you can have the right to enter USJ 15 minutes earlier than others visitors. (i.e. 7:45 am)

(I have to admire the "earning-money skill" of Japanese. It is the first time I heard "Early admission". (Now developed to other theme parks). 

Probably there will be express passes for restrooms or buying popcorn buckets in the future.)

The guests who have this special entry will receive the actual opening time message from USJ two to three days before their visit. Therefore, some visitors will share this time to let other visitors know the actual opening time of USJ.

The advantage of special entry is to save the time of queuing for first and the second attractions. 

Generally you have to wait at least one or two hours for those popular attractions, so 15 minutes earlier entry can save you a lot of time.

However, as a tourist, if the itinerary of the day before USJ is too rich and you are not sure whether the children (or you) can get up on time. 

I personally do not recommend taking the risk of paying extra for special entry. It is because if you can't arrive USJ  15 minutes before it opens, the special entry become useless. There is no priority or shortcut in queuing for special entry holders.

Undoubtedly, when I was sweating at the gate and waiting for the gate opened.

I heard the screams from the "early entry visitors", who were riding on the roller coaster, crossing on the sky. At that moment, I can only sigh with envy, "it would be great to be rich."

3.3 Express Pass: It is the priority pass in queuing. It can almost save you 99% of queuing time.

(except for the attraction - Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, which will spend you around 20 minutes in the queue even though you have express pass.) 

Express Pass is something that I highly recommend to buy. Although they are really very expensive, it is indispensable for a better attractions experiences.

USJ is so popular that the waiting time for a non-popular attraction is up to an hour. For popular attractions like Koopa's Challenge and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the waiting time is close to 3 hours during peak hours. Therefore, buying express pass become very important for you and me, as a tourists with an one-day pass.

There are several combinations of fast passes. Some include 4 attractions and some include 7 attractions. When buying, you should pay attention to which attractions included. Personally I highly recommend to consider the fast pass package which include two attractions - Koopa's Challenge and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. They are the most interesting and popular rides in USJ.

("Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem" is funny, too, recommended.)

On the other hand, the admission ticket is valid for a certain period of time, but the express pass is only valid for specific day. Therefore, if you need to reschedule your admission due to adverse weather or emergencies, the entry tickets will still be available but express passes cannot be refunded under normal circumstances.

(If the flight to Osaka is cancelled due to adverse weather. It is recommended to send an email to USJ to apply for tickets refund)

(Majority of the Universal express pass package is including either 7 or 4 attractions. I bought 7 for my family members. During the afternoon on August 31st, 2023, it took 50 minutes in queuing for less popular attraction such as JAWS. In order to have a better experience, I will recommend 7. Meanwhile, if you are eager to experience Mario Kart only and no concern for other attractions, 4 is a relatively cost -saving option.

3.4 Area Time Entry Ticket

It is a ticket for controlling the number of visitors. Currently, it is necessary to have area time entry ticket to enter the most popular zone in USJ - The Super Nintendo World. And now Super Nintendo World is the unique area that have such requirement. 

(Time Entry ticket is also applicable for some special or periodic attractions - such as "Resident Evil" during Halloween 2023. Several years before area time entry tickets are required to entry Harry Potter Area, but such requirement had been cancelled now.)

(My screenshot is in Chinese but you can select English, you can easily find "area time entry ticket / standby entry on the directory of apps. Before taking the ticket, please ensure all of your admission tickets of your companions have been registered in your USJ Apps. For example, I have registered all of my family members, total 4, into my mobile apps so I can collect the tickets for 4 at the same time. )

(This is the screen shot at 8:18 am, as it is still early, so there are several available time period of entry tickets for me to select. However, please notice that you can select one of them only.) 

(I have selected the time period 9:30 - 10:30 am, each ticket can have one time entry ticket only. If the available time period is too early for you, just click "back" to cancel your selection.  Once you click confirm the reservation, you will collect the entry tickets to entry Super Nintendo World and it cannot be changed.

(It is the time entry I have taken in 2023. Don't try to use that for your entry.)

Please note that the time entry tickets can only be obtained after all of your family members entering into USJ. If you entered USJ later than 10:00 am, there is very high chance that all the time entry have been distributed.

If you encounter this situation, you can raise your need on the forum and see if somebody who have collected the time entry but not decide to use them.

For the standby pass, it is recommended to forget this for now as the chance of getting this is not really high.

I would like to specifically mentioned 2 more points related to tickets:

First - Registering all the admission tickets is for obtaining time entry tickets to Super Nintendo World only but NOT for USJ park entry. When you entry to USJ, show your barcode, whatever on your mobile or print out instead of your Apps. When you open the apps and review the tickets, nothing can be shown (except "Close and Remove" as below) and it is definitely NORMAL.

Second, please notice that there is a chance that you find nothing when you try to obtain time entry tickets in the early morning. The reason is that the crowds in the Super Nintendo World is NOT yet up to the upper limit for control. Then the distribution of time entry tickets has not yet actually started. 

However, this situation will not be last for more than 15 minutes after the gate opened. When you rush to the attraction and open your apps again, click time entry passes and you will get this.

4. Restaurant - You have to register and reserve the table by scanning the barcode shown nearby the restaurant. Therefore, if you want to have a lunch in Kinopio's Cafe. Firstly you have to take the time entry so as to entry the World. Then you directly go to restaurant to see the queuing status and register. After that you can spend sometimes to experience the attractions in Nintendo World. 

Please notice that even though you have reserved the table in Kinopio's Cafe, when you leave Nintendo, you cannot go back without time entry tickets, so mostly you have to stay in the area until you have the meal.

Of course you can spend time in the queue to buy a Super Star Popcorn Bucket. I have waited for 40 minutes for this.

5. When should you get up?

Finally there are some hints about your getting up time......

We left our hotel in Shinsaibashi at 6:19 am, no need to go by taxi, just go by Metro to Umeta Station and then walk to Osaka JR station, and take the train to Nishi-kujō eki.....not complicated way.

We arrived USJ gate at 7:06 am

It is also a very complicated to buy the express pass online. However, it is another long story so I am not going to mention in this article. Hope these information can give the all of you have some basic information about USJ. If I have time I will share more about the attractions experience.

- Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) - Basic Information and some tips - End

Next: Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 2 - Preparation with Kids

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/universal-studio-japan-osaka-2.html

Below are other sharing about Disney Sea and The Making of Harry Potter:

Disney Sea Tokyo 1 - Basic Information and Tips for your journey

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-basic-information-and.html

Disney Sea 2 - Busy First Half with Mobile Phone  (Tower of Terror / Journey to the Center of the Earth / Rapunzel's Lantern Festival) 

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-2-busy-first-half-with.html

Dinery Sea 3 - Busy Second Half Having fun (Peter Pan / Toy Story Mania) 

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-3-busy-second-half.html#google_vignette

The Making of Harry Potter (Tokyo)

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/you-can-make-magic-making-of-harry.html

聽道分享 - 看！一個時代的復興（撒上3:1-21）

「上次我返嚟講既道，你有冇聽返？」若不是親愛牧者的再次提醒，我大概忘了對他「無返都會聽返」的承諾。畢竟我一向自定為「出席系」一 主日崇拜人到亦未必心到，人不到更談不上有心。

講題︰看！一個時代的復興（撒母耳記上3:1-21）    

日期︰2025年9月15日 

講員︰羅錦庭長老

每次小朋友懶上教會，對神對人又不太敬愛的時候，我便想起了以利。畢竟以利兩子的敗壞，為父為祭司的他其實責無旁貸。而這一天牧者的講題便是圍繞以利和撒母耳二人 —— 一個不稱職的父親與一個令信仰復興的關鍵人物。

一 「僕人敬聽」的失落

「當那些日子，耶和華的言語稀少，不常有默示。」（撒上3:1）

1.1 - 背景

以利身處的時代，宗教活動仍在卻鮮有來自神的說話。聖經形容︰以利眼目昏花，殿的燈僅僅是「還沒熄」的狀態而已 一 反映出當時民眾的信仰光景都處於危在旦夕的境地。

思想 - 對比今天，我們有神的說話沒有？ 神喜歡向我們說話，上帝的話亦好好印在聖經上。我們理應不缺神的話，只是有而不珍惜 - 沒有讀就即是沒有。

1.2 撒母耳的不知道

「那時撒母耳未認識耶和華….」（撒上3:7）

在聖殿「打雜」的撒母耳居然未認識耶和華，教導的以利在屬靈上沒有好好教育的嗎？

思想 - 至於我們，有好好教導下一代好好認識神嗎？我想自己的小孩對聖經算是有一定理解的。但就不太著緊是了。

「以利才明白是耶和華…」（撒上3:8）以利在神的第三次才想到呼喚撒母耳的是神，與其說以利對「神的話」有多不敏銳，倒不如說「神的話」對以利來說是多陌生。

思想 - 多想想神會透過那些身邊的人與事情提醒你，深信「神的說話到今天仍在」。

1.3 以利對對神呼喚撒母耳的回應- 

反過來要向學生問神有何說話本已是很不濟的事情，但以利面對「他家將受上帝懲罰的訊息」似乎顯得毫無悔意。（至少聖經沒有記載他有任何行動）

思想 - 也許我們也像以利一樣想好奇地想聽聽上帝到底要說什麼，但「身體最誠實」。回應與表現卻如此看出重視與否。對神的教訓表現得不痛不癢。難怪神不常有話。

二. 「僕人敬聽」的重尋：

「僕人敬聽」是以利教導撒母耳如此回應上帝。

「耶和華又在示羅顯現，因為耶和華在示羅藉他的話向撒母耳啟示他自己。撒母耳就把這話傳遍了全以色列。」（撒上3:21）

以利教導別人去「敬聽」自己卻沒有去行。結果是 - 「耶和華的言語稀少」

撒母耳以自己為「僕人」、「敬聽」了 - 結果是 -「神的話傳遍了全以色列。」

「主耶和華賜我受教者的舌頭，使我知道怎樣用言語扶助疲乏的人。主每早晨提醒，提醒我的耳朵，使我能聽，像受教者一樣。」（以賽亞書50:4）

我們很多時候既搞不清身份，不認清自己為僕的身份；態度亦不對，沒有敬聽的心。我們有沒有以認罪、謙卑的心去看待神的話？

思想 - 筆者自己有靈修的習慣（大概10天也平均有6、7天有‥‥‥），但個人經驗是使用手機APP去靈修就很少思考的安靜空間，有時幾分鐘看完一段聖經收工。自問不單是沒有敬聽，也沒有受教者的心。

思前想後決定放棄了一向覺得很方便的靈修Apps，在書架上找出一本不知何時買回來又似乎沒用過的靈修書，開了一本筆記簿 - 一切「推倒重做」。

「惟喜愛耶和華的律法，晝夜思想，這人便為有福！」（詩1:2）

讓神的話在我們的身上得勝！

感謝牧者鼓勵我在網上分享主日聽道分享。除了令我又可以沾沾自喜地繼續以「全能型多方位業餘網誌作家」自居以外，若是藉此分享可以幫助弟兄姊妹（包括自己）在追求「僕人敬聽」上有一丁點提醒，這對我來說絕對是一份福氣。

- 聽道分享 - 看！一個時代的復興（撒上3:1-21）- 完

以下是一些屬靈書分享連結︰

《孩子的同行者》- 董淑貞著 - 引導子女學習走不平路

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/is-interesting.html

《從聖經亮光看 - 教會素質增長》吳主光著 - 以謙卑心去造就別人的大原則

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/is-interesting.html

古道迴音（聖經人物描述）楊牧谷 著 - 信仰不是安穩而是改變

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/blog-post_17.html