Universal Studios Japan (USJ) is one of six Universal Studios theme parks worldwide and one of only two in Asia (along with Singapore, known as USS), with recreation areas. images of blockbuster movies loved around the world.
With an extremely large campus, with many theme parks and shopping and food stores, visiting the entire place is an extremely big challenge for those who are coming here for the first time. Therefore, this article will help you know which theme park is the most worth visiting, what to eat and special photography angles that few people know, helping to save time on research and planning. .
- Location and transportation:
Universal Studios Japan is only a 12-minute train ride from Osaka Station.
Address: https://goo.gl/maps/iHebGEY7GFxM1q7Z9
- Admission pass:
USJ has many types of tickets with many different uses. But there are two main types: One day pass and Annual pass. You can buy tickets at USJ's homepage, or third-party companies like klook or kkday.
+ Link to buy USJ annual tickets: https://www.usj.co.jp/ticket/#annual_pass
Annual tickets are divided into two types: Standard and Grand royal.
With the Grand royal annual ticket, you can visit every day of the year, with no limit on the number of visits. Ticket price is about 45,000 JPY ~ about 8 million VND.
With a Standard annual ticket, you can visit almost every day of the year, except Some holidays and New Year days are designated by USJ. You can check the days when admission is not allowed at the ticket purchase link above. Ticket price is about 18,000 JPY ~ about 3 million VND.
+ Link to buy USJ day tickets: https://www.usj.co.jp/ticket/#studio_pass
Day tickets are also divided into many types, such as 1-day tickets, 1.5-day tickets, 2-day tickets... Ticket prices also depend on the day you arrive, holidays or weekends will usually be higher than weekdays. You should reserve tickets about 1-2 weeks in advance because they usually sell out very quickly on holidays or weekends. Day tickets can be purchased up to 1 month before the tour date. Ticket prices fluctuate around 7,000 JPY - 15,000 JPY ~ about 1 million - 2.5 million VND.
- Express pass: https://www.usj.co.jp/ticket/#express_pass
To play games in the theme park, you usually have to queue for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the popularity of each game. If you don't want to have to wait in line for a long time, you can buy an Express pass, there will be a separate entrance for customers who buy this ticket, the waiting time is only about 1-2 minutes. Note that this ticket is not an admission ticket, you must purchase this ticket along with the admission ticket to be able to enter.
There are 3 types of Express passes: Express 4 (quick access to 4 games in the list) and Express 7 (quick access to 7 games in the list) and Express premium (quick access to all games in USJ). The entry time for each game is also specified in the ticket, details you can see at the link above.
Ticket prices are about 7,000 JPY for Express 4, 10,000 JPY for Express 7 and 13,000 JPY for Express premium.
According to my experience, you should choose Express 7 tickets, because it is very difficult to play all the games in one day.
- And finally, a series of photos about the theme parks and the most worth-experiencing dishes at USJ:
- Super Nintendo World
Super Nintendo World is one of the two most popular theme parks at USJ. Whether you have an Express pass or not, you have to queue to enter the gate, so this place is always full of people lining up to visit. So to get the best experience, you should come here first, right after USJ opens to avoid crowds.
Super Nintendo World reproduces the famous Super Mario game associated with the childhood of most 9x generation.
You can purchase a Power up watch at the entrance to experience collecting gold coins like Mario in the game by wearing the watch and hitting the [POW] and [?] boxes throughout the campus.
- Attraction: Mario Kart.
Queuing time is about 30 minutes ~ 1 hour. You must have an Express pass to play this game.
After entering the gate, there will be a "museum" displaying tools and objects of Super Mario characters. Let's take a look around!
Racing training book 😀
Missiles and bombs used by racers when shooting at each other :v
Photos and helmets of Mario Kart racers
After going all the way, you will reach the racing area. You will be given a helmet with virtual reality glasses, 4 people will sit in 1 car, your task is to use the steering wheel to control the car and interact with virtual reality glasses to shoot as many bosses as possible. Use the steering wheel to navigate the car, use virtual reality glasses to aim and use the buttons on the steering wheel to shoot the boss. At the end of the journey, the system will calculate points and rank the rankings of 4 people sitting in the same car. An experience that I consider to be the best among the games in USJ, well worth waiting and queuing for a long time.
Rating: 10/10.
After finishing the game, we will go to the souvenir shopping area right at the exit with many accessories of racers in the game Mario Kart.
- Attraction: Yoshi's adventure.
Queuing time: 15-30 minutes. You must have an Express pass to play this game.
In this game, you get to sit on colorful dinosaurs. Your task is to press the corresponding color button on the car when you see a blue/red/yellow egg on the way. This game is more suitable for children. Adults can sit in the car to film and take pictures, because these cars will take you around the Super Nintendo world area. Let's look at the pictures I took in the car!
Game rating: 5/10.
- Restaurant: Kinopio's Cafe
The restaurant is located on the first floor of the campus, you need to get your order number from the staff standing in front of the store, before you can enter, because this area is always crowded. Waiting time is about 30-45 minutes.
According to my experience, you should come here to get lottery tickets in order after you finish playing Mario Kart, and go play Yoshi's adventure, then come back here after playing.
The restaurant campus is very large and beautiful, you can freely check in and take photos.
The staff here are also agile and enthusiastic. Always proactively ask and take photos for guests.
And finally, the restaurant's food, in my opinion, is very delicious. It suits your taste and looks beautiful too. Below are the 3 dishes I ordered: Block-shaped Tiramisu [?], mushroom-shaped pizza with a bowl of mushroom soup.
Restaurant rating: 10/10.
2. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Next is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, along with Super Nintendo world, which are the two most popular theme parks of USJ. This place recreates almost all the famous locations in the Harry Potter movies, such as Hogwarts school of wizards, Hagrid's garden, magic wand shops in Diagon Alley, platform 9 ¾, garden with birds By Ma,…
- Restaurant: Three Broomsticks.
The store is located right at the beginning of the theme park, opposite the area selling Butter beer, the famous beer in the Harry Potter movie. But don't rush to line up to buy beer here, go inside the restaurant, they also serve beer without having to stand in line for as long as outside, and you can also order more food in the restaurant.
The restaurant's menu is also very special, designed in a magical style like in the movie, watch the video below.
The value of this restaurant is not the food (because the food is actually terrible haha), but its amazing view.
Sitting from here, we can check in for hundreds of photos without being bothered by crowds queuing or visiting outside, and the view is much more beautiful than outside.
When you come here, remember to try a cup of Butter beer. The beer is non-alcoholic, slightly sweet, very easy to drink, and quite delicious (Harry Potter also likes it).
Restaurant review: Food: 5/10, Butter beer: 9/10, view: 10/10.
- Attraction: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
Before entering the game area, you must leave all your belongings in the locker, because this game flies around a lot, and can cause your belongings to fall.
Then you will line up and see areas recreating famous scenes from the movie. Because I wasn't allowed to bring a camera in this part, I took it with my iPhone :v
After lining up to visit, we will enter the game area.
The game takes you into the role of a Quidditch match like in the Harry Potter movie in 4D. You will have to face Death Eaters, dragons outside the field,... and catch the Quidditch ball.
Game rating: 8/10.
- Attraction: Flight of the Hippogriff
You will be able to ride a Pegasus flying around to see all of this theme park. This game is a kind of roller coaster but the fear level is not as high :v
Game rating: 7/10.
Remember to check-in this area before leaving. On a calm day and the water surface is still, the shadow of the entire castle will appear on the lake surface. But today I failed :))))
Let's move to the next area.
3. Minion Park
The area simulates the famous cartoon Minions with many models of mischievous Minions. This area includes many shopping and food stores, and especially many Minion ball throwing games for children.
- Attraction: Despicable me
The game is also in the 4D genre, taking you into the famous Minion Rush game on your phone.
Like other games, before playing, you can also tour around before playing. With Minions, they show cartoons inside, this part is more suitable for children. The game part is extremely fun, recreated quite similar to the game, many free falling phases are also quite scary :))) The game part also has a longer duration than other games, very worth experiencing once.
Game rating: 9/10.
- Restaurant: Happy kitchen
We can try the Minion-shaped dumplings here before moving on to another area.
4. New York
The area recreates the streets of New York City in the 1930s. This area has a completely opposite style to the above three areas thanks to its modernity, American-style streets and shops.
- Attraction: The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man – The Ride
As usual, before entering the game, we get to visit familiar items from the Spider Man movie.
Behind this room is the game entry area.
Another game with 4D genre. This time you get to play the role of the unfortunate passengers on a bus, being thrown everywhere by the sandman, Electro, Green Goblin =)) This part of the game has additional water spraying effects, hot steam,... making you Feel more real the dangers you are facing. Especially the final free fall is really scary =)))
Game rating: 10/10.
5. Hollywood
Right next to New York is the road to Hollywood with modern shops, music shows performed all day, and even the walk of fame here!
- Attraction: Hollywood Dream – The Ride and Back Drop.
Coming to USJ, you definitely cannot miss these two games, which are the roller coaster and the backward version of the roller coaster. This game is always crowded with people waiting in line. You should use the Express Pass for this game to avoid having to wait too long (there is a section to select games for the Express Pass when buying tickets).
Game rating: 1000/10 because I'm too scared to play =)))
6. Universal Wonderland
This area is a collection of famous cartoon characters such as Elmo, Snoopy, Hello Kitty,... very suitable for children.
- Attraction: Moppy's Balloon Trip
This game allows you to sit on a hot air balloon high up and see the entire scene below, suitable for children.
7. Other areas
In addition to the above areas, USJ also has Jurassic Park, Amity Village and WaterWorld. These areas, in my opinion, are not very attractive. If you have extra time, you can visit and check-in here.
Especially in Jurassic Park, there is The Flying Dinosaur game, similar to Hollywood Dream - The Ride, but the level of fear is double :v Unfortunately, when I went, it was under maintenance, otherwise I wouldn't have dared to go =)) )
We'll end our day of exploration at USJ by checking in here, the symbol of Universal Studios.
Thank you for reading to the end of the article, hopefully it will make it easier for you to explore USJ in your own way, a place you should visit once when you come to Japan!
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Hollywood ride is awesome. Must play twice. Author needs to smile more, less cute 😛
Dinosaur is more awesome
It took me 3 days to read this article
It took me so many days to finish writing :v
One of the most straightforward review I've ever read. Thank the author very much
Thank you for your support <3