2024年10月15日 星期二

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 5 - Kinopio's Café

 

I have a bad impression of restaurants in theme parks by their limited choices, high prices and poor quality. So in Hong Kong, I will bring some snack with me for my basic need and then go out for meal after experience.

There is a very good reputation for the food in USJ. Kinopio's Café is one of the most popular place in Nintendo World. Therefore, in my family briefing, I have told the kids - Try to have meal in Kinopio's Café but it cannot be guaranteed.

After Yoshi's Adventure, we arrive this cafe according to the reserved time. The Chef Kinopio and his colorful menu whetted our appetite.
He was speaking in Japanese so I had no idea what he was saying. By the way he was so cute!

Enter the restaurant, queue up, and then move to the counters for food ordering.

There is one thing that impressed me - seat arrangement. After you ordered the food, what you have to do is to wait for the staff assigning table for you. You and your family are not needed to walk around and guess who finish their meal first.

From queue, order and had a table, it spent 15-20 minutes only.
The overall good price is not high, too. Just similar to the fast food in Hong Kong theme parks.
For example, the price of the ice coffee is just half compared with Hong Kong.

The overall arrangement, food appearance, taste, and quality are all impressive.


The decoration of Mario World. 



By the "windows", you can see Kinopio and his friends playing.

Let's taste the food!

The outlook of them were fantastic!!
This mushroom actually is a pizza containing some sauce. I highly recommend it. It is delicious and beautiful

Friendly Smile and Soup in mushroom style - Worth to try.
My daughter loved the Yoshi spaghetti at the light bottom corner of above photo. She liked to eat Yoshi Egg so much!

Everything I asked my kids which is the most favorite restaurant you ever tried. They answered,'Kinopio's Café" it is a bit exaggerated but this meal was really impressive for my family.
I agreed this is the best meal experience in this Osaka trip.

Mario and Luigi are coming!


Hello Priciness!

I like Shy Guy. They keep walking around in the World.

No worry, this will not drop.

This was around 1:00 pm and before we left, it was necessary to buy some Nintendo souvenirs. 

It is too hot to wear this hat.

It won't spend much time for queueing There are many staff serving.

I like Petey Piranha most and it will move based on sound.

You can review your result by putting your bracelet closed to the screen in the World.

After four hours in Super Nintendo World, it was time to go. Change the bracelet to the magic wand and continue our journey.

- Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 5 - End - 
(Please notice that it is my journey in 2023, I have tried to review the information validity of that when I rewrite this in English. Moreover, my first language is Chinese so it would be great if I can get any feedback about my grammatic and writing mistakes. Thanks for your reading.)

Next Chapter - Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 6 - Harry Potter and his Magic Wand

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

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 2 - Preparation with Kids

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

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 3 - Time Entry / Express Pass Experience / Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 4 - Super Nintendo World

https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/universal-studio-japan-osaka-4-super.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




2024年10月14日 星期一

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 4 - Super Nintendo World

In last chapter, we had entry USJ and experienced 2 attractions. During this period, we had obtained 9:30 am Time Entry Pass. So we entry Super Nintendo World 30 minutes earlier than our original plan.

Below is the details of my Express Passes 7 on hand:

10:00 - Super Nintendo World Area 
10:20 - 10:50 AM Mart Kart Challenge
10:50 - 11:20 Yoshi Adventure
14:50 - 15:20 Forbidden Journey
15:20 - 15:50 Flight of the Hippogriff

15:30 - 15:50 Magic Kaisen the Real 4-D (Now is "Detective Conan 4-D Live Show: Jewel Under the Starry Sky", but the overall comments is not really good.)
Amazing Adventure of Spider-Man the Ride (Notice: This attraction is Closed)
Hollywood Dream the Ride or Jaws  


I am the one who had played the audio games - series of "Super Mario Bros", "Mario Kart" for more than 30 years. Therefore, when we stepped in Super Nintendo World, we have the feeling that the dream became reality. It is really an unforgettable moment.

Harry Potter is still very popular in USJ, but Super Nintendo World let USJ to become a more attractive place. 

It only took about 5 minutes to walk from Jurassic Park to the entrance of Super Nintendo World. Our arrival time was 9:25 - 5 minutes earlier than the time assigned by time entry pass. But there was nothing to do in waiting for a few minutes at this check point, so we showed the 9:30 ticket to the staff. Luckily the staff let us entry.
The time entry ticket check point.


Here we go!!

Although this popular shooting location is located outside the World, but you still need time entry pass to reach this location.
In addition, if you want to have better "water pipe photography effects", you need to queue up.)
Let me add some sound effect when I go through this pipe....."good good good good"
Wow, we reached!!

Although I had watched many videos about Super Nintendo World before I come, the moment I walked through the water pipe and entered the World, I was still inexplicably impressed by what I had seen.


The most fascinating thing about Super Nintendo World is the extremely high degree of restoration of the game graphics. 
According to my observation, it is the sole "layered area" in USJ. This design looked like a horizontal game world with several layers for Mario to jump up and down.

(SUPER NINTENDO WORLD MAP in APPS, there are two floors in the area. When you entry the World, you are on the upper floor.)

There are many different key challenges in the entrance level, including the "Power-Up Band™ Key Challenges" that requires you to obtain specific points in other adventures to experience. Moreover, the most most most popular attraction in USJ  - Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge™. 

Go downstairs to the lower level (There is lift so no need to worry about your baby cars), which is mainly the souvenir shop and the popular restaurant - Kinopio's Café™ and another main attraction - Yoshi's Adventure™.

There is no limit for the time you stay in Super Nintendo World so this area will only become more and more crowded throughout the day. Therefore, there are advantages for you to enter earlier.
You can experience the mini attractions with shorter queuing time, and reserve the table for your lunch in Kinopio's Café™. Moreover, you can have more time to queue for Star Popcorn.

Let review Our Express Pass on hand
- Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge™ (10:20 - 10:50)
- Yoshi's Adventure™ (10:50 - 11:20)

The queuing time for mini adventures was about 10-15 minutes. Their attractions' experience are very good but most of them are bracelets required. Therefore, I recommend each child had one. 

If you want to save some money and have a better experience. I personally recommend that you buy a second-hand bracelet (many people will not keep the bracelets after going to USJ) and then sell it after playing. It is quite popular practice among Taiwanese and Japanese but I am not sure whether if there is any second hand platform in oversea.
(The Children did not know how to play....)

(Bingo!!! I got 4 leaves. Hints - try to remember what symbol before the one you want to hit....)


This mini adventure is really challenging. The children have to cooperate well to overcome. But I did not think they can cooperate with this Japanese child.

When our kids was experiencing those mini challenges, I went to queue for the Star popcorn. Mrs. Mak went to restaurant to obtain the admission tickets for 4. (Most updated: the reservation of restaurant was done by barcode scanning at restaurant entrance now.)

Forget this, no tickets now - all restaurant reservation done by scanning.

The bracelet was borrowed from my friend in Hong Kong.
I bounded to my USJ APPS, which contains a lot of interesting information and missions.




While I queued for the popcorn for 40 minutes, our kids have experienced several mini adventures, and they have permit to experience "Power-Up Band™ Key Challenges".
(Many visitors have mixed up "Power-Up Band™ Key Challenges" and "Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge™". Actually they are not the same attractions.


Our children said they enjoyed the mini attractions. And they have experienced more than one for those easier challenge so as to get more points!

For Star popcorn, the queuing time is long because the staff will show you how to switch on the lighting, one by one.....Moreover, as I understand the shop in the Nintendo World is not the only one shop selling Super Star popcorn bucket. You may look for this in the shop nearby 4D show.

I bought the STAR as a lantern for Mid-autumn festival.


(I can say many people buying this bucket is not for food. Honestly the popcorn is not really good taste. You can simply say "Separated", the staff will understand and pack the popcorn and the STAR separately.)


(I just bought this at 10:40 am, my express pass time for Mart Kart Challenge is 10:20 - 10:50. This attraction is next to the shop so I still catch up.)

(Screenshot from the Internet: This castle is extremely awesome!!!)
(Scan the express pass code and here we go!)

As the most popular amusement ride in the park, Koopa's Challenge is the only ride with an EXPRESS PASS that requires queuing for more than 15 minutes. 
The waiting time in the morning was about two hours with express pass. The queuing area is indoor with air-conditioned, so it is still not bad experience for long queue - At least you won’t get heatstroke due to queuing.







After 20 minutes in Express queuing, we wore our AR glasses and ready for the experience.



You have to wear the cap with AR glasses.


Actually you are not needed to focus on driving. Instead, you have to shoot the targets to obtains points. the attraction is special that the targeting for shoot is operated by your eyes via AR glasses, instead of hands. What are funny and creative experiences!

Among us, only my daughter wore the bracelet. She had additional experience in golden coins collection during riding. However, we can still enjoy the attractions without bracelet so it is not necessary for those adults who won't experience mini-adventures.

Based on the new and special shooting experience, and the colorful and fantastic view - this is a perfect attraction in my mind.

After this experience, we were hurry to another attraction with express pass - Yoshi's adventure.



No waiting time for express pass visitors, but you have to queue for 1 hour without express pass.


Yoshi adventure is a round trip for the riders in Super Nintendo World.

"This is an express fast for you to experience burning sun...." My kids experience were not good for this outdoor attraction. But for me it was really a nice Nintendo view, even though this attraction may not worth for buying fast pass.

It is an attraction fit for young kids, the flowers will not move to scare you, no worry.

"Let smile, my loved daughter, even though it is hot!!"


11:35 AM - It is time for lunch!

- Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 4 - End - 
(Please notice that it is my journey in 2023, I have tried to review the information validity of that when I rewrite this in English. Moreover, my first language is Chinese so it would be great if I can get any feedback about my grammatic and writing mistakes. Thanks for your reading.)

Next Chapter - Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 5 - Kinopio's Café™

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

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 2 - Preparation with Kids

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

Universal Studio Japan (Osaka) 3 - Time Entry / Express Pass Experience / Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem


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