Alright, I'll go chronologically and start with Universal Studios Japan.
When I first started planning, I had a look at the park, and thought it really wasn't that much different to Universal Studios Orlando, which I had been to just the year before and likely to return to in 2014. So it was initially struck off the list. Then a couple of months into planning, during one of my many late night / early morning googling sessions I came across a new experience they had put together called Biohazard: The Real. To say my interest was piqued is an understatement. for those that don't know, Biohazard is a series of video games, better known to the rest of the world as Resident Evil. So they had basically built a real life 'game' for people to run through (with zombies and mutants, but I'll get onto that later).
As a new experience, it was only going to be around for a short time, and was going to close in time with the closing of Hollywood Horror Nights. That was just two days after I arrived in Osaka. Talk about fate! So shuffle the itinerary, and USJ is back on the menu
I'll just say that buying tickets from USJ was a struggle. You can buy them online, but to get all the different ticket variations (and there are many!) you need to use the Japanese site. From memory, there are only a couple of the most basic tickets available through their English website. And because I was going during HHN, the options were even more confusing.
From what I can recall (and what I could understand...!) they were running three different HHN experiences - The Mummy, Jason and Biohazard. You could choose one, and only one, to combine with your ticket or just buy a vanilla HHN ticket.
I had monitored the tickets for a while (the website has a calendar of availability) and looked good to buy a HHN ticket including BtR...up until the time I actually decided to buy, and suddenly they were all sold out!
Cue much clicking backwards and forwards between the ticket pages trying to somehow manipulate the system to sell me a ticket for BtR It seemed that if I wanted to buy a HHN ticket (which was about $50-60) I would also need to be a normal entry ticket as well (about $60-70). The tricky part was I couldn't buy a HHN ticket that included BtR plus a normal ticket, but I could buy a normal ticket that included BtR plus a standard HHN ticket.
I took a chance, made the purchase and hoped for the best! Ok, enough background, let's start the trip...
Like just about any trip around Japan, it all starts with a train ride and USJ does have a dedicated train that is all stickered up with pictures of their park characters. Unfortunately, because it was one of my first train rides around Japan and I was a bit nervous, I didn't get a picture of it, but you'll find plenty of them around the internet. I'll add here that, after a couple of goes, the trains in Japan are very, very easy to travel with. The ticketing system is amazing, the layout of the stations is usually easy to navigate, and the signs are almost always in both Japanese and English (along with the announcements on the train). I would recommend that anyone visiting should learn the katakana and hiragana characters to help you get by.
So, back on the platform, I knew I was in the right place because I was surrounded by teenagers and most of them were either dressed up or made up like zombies. I'm surprised I can't spot more of them in my photos, because they seemed to be everywhere! See if you can spot them haha
Once you exit the train, just follow the signs (or the crowd) up to Citywalk. I had a few shots along the way, but the crowd was hustling so much that most of them came out blurry (and I was clearly out of practice when it came to photo taking). This one as at the end of Citywalk, looking to the right:
And then looking straight ahead:
All pretty for halloween oh yeah, and it was drizzly that day. Didn't seem to bother me, but for the Japanese it seemed it took just a couple of drops for all the umbrellas to come out hehe what you can't quite see is just beyond those gates in the ticket gates. USJ is quite the opposite of TDLR where almost everyone needs to line up to talk to the person at the window (to buy or swap online bought tickets). So the line was thick, deep and very slow moving. I'm pretty sure I was lined by about 8:45, but didn't get through the gates until about 9:10.
At USJ you can buy 'express passes' and these are much the same (from my understanding) as those you can buy for USO. You get one FOTL pass for a ride (or in some cases a choice of rides). So once passing through the ticket gates I had to go to Guest Services to pick up my express passes. That part was quick, and like anytime I had to interact with a customer service person, they were very courteous. With a quick 'arigatou' and a little bow, I was on my way. Because I had to give up my express pass tickets one at a time, I took photos of a couple of them. Lucky for you guys, eh
And then onto main street
This shot is of a girl getting her face painted for halloween. There's no one waiting there at this time in the morning, but later in the day the lines for these stations (they were dotted around the park) were about 30 people long
Love the detail in the decorations in Japan. Look at the second floor window of this store and you make out a little ghost.
Oh, and speaking of theme-ing (is that a word? Google doesn't like it...), the whole time I was at USJ they only played halloween (sorta) songs. Loudly. And repeatedly. I have no idea how many times I heard the Purple People Eater or some other song about witches that I hadn't heard of before, but it was seriously mind numbing! They were all in English, which was odd, and made me think it might be less noticeable and annoying to the Japanese visitors. But yeah...wow it was strange!
Here's The Mummy. I'm not sure that it's actually a ride. I didn't get to go because it was closing at 3pm to be made over for HHN and so the lines were long all day
And Terminator.
Terminator is one of the express pass options - don't waste it. I walked right on, and because it's a theatre show, lots of capacity. Even though it was in Japanese (even the videos of Sarah and John Connor were dubbed) I still enjoyed it. Pretty easy to follow along, it's not the most complicated of stories lol
And I think if you keep walking down main street, on the left there is Space Fantasy and then a big store is the last thing on the left, and then this is directly in front:
i love a big Christmas tree, and this one was huge! It was only the start of the Christmas decorations, and pretty much all they had so far. Would love to see it all lit up! I think the lighting ceremony was about a week later (I saw ads for it, looks like it was a big deal).
Then turning right, there's Spiderman:
And next along is Biohazard: The Real
Now here's a sign that caused me a bit of confusion:
When I read it, to me it looks like it's pointing to the ticket buying to BtR next to Spiderman and the actual experience is more towards the middle of the park. So when my allotted time was nearing, I stood at the entrance of this (studio...?) but there was no one in site. There were a few other Japanese people who did the same thing. Eventually some service people came along (dressed in Biohazard gear hehe) and spoke to the Japanese people, who looked disappointed and walked away. Not knowing what they said, I continued to stand there looking confused. They were a bit hesitant to approach (there was a lot of this through my trip, sort of a hesitation about their English language skills, but more than made up for by their willingness to help!) and one tried to explain that the tickets were sold out. I tried to explain that I already had a ticket, and had to pull it out to show him, and then he pointed back to the sign to say I needed to be over near Spiderman.
Anyway, back to the story, right next to BtR was a photo place that had displays of Biohazard gear (almost all the merchandise was sold out
) and where you could have your photo taken in a Umbrella vest in front of a green screen. I had a photo done (of course I did!) but it's not fit for print here lol so here's some shots from the store
The experience itself...well, this is the only photo I could take
You walked into the building, and then up a couple of sets of stairs that were made to look like a subway. It was dusty and dark, with graffiti sprayed across the walls. It was really quite nerve wracking. Eventually we came to a little hallway, and were told to wait in front of a door. The wait wasn't terribly long, but the constant screaming from inside really set me on edge. Once the doors opened a CM started explaining to everyone about the 'guns' we had to use. They were like a long wrist strap that velcro-ed on. It had a LED display for your level of infection and had a cord connecting to the plastic gun that you held in the same hand. Just a handgun. I've been playing these games for a long time, and I knew I'd be better off with something a lot more powerful...! The objective is to remain alive. Each time a zombie got too close to you, your level of infection would rise to the point that you would become infected (basically, dead...or undead!) I was handed a laminated page in English that explained all this...and that the experience would be terrifying, so if I had any medical issues that would cause me to die from fright, I should probably sit it out. Pfft.
So then we waited at the next door, which opened to a sort of alleyway scene. I have to say, that the rest of my 'crew' (there were maybe 6 or 8 of us) were all couples. And they were all pretty much useless because the girls were all scared and clinging to the guys, and the guys couldn't do much because the girls were hanging off them hahaha so, walk through the alleyway and then a zombie pops out from behind a couple of garbage bins. I shoot at him a couple of times, and then another crawls out from around the corner (she is literally sliding army crawl style across the floor). To keep the crowd moving, a zombie comes out from behind the door we first entered to scare us and push us through the next scene. All the scenes were partitioned.
So after the first scene, I was pretty much at the front of the pack, with the clingers and clingees dawdling on behind me. Not that I was some kind of plastic gun slinging Milla Jovovich! Each time a zombie popped out I screamed. And screamed and screamed. But someone had to take the lead. So through the next door and it's a bar scene. The door opens to the right, the bar is on the left and there is another door just on the other side of the bar. As I walk through the door (first) a great big zombie (imagine an undead version of one of those padded sumo suits - I think it was actually an inflatable) rushes out and flings himself across the bar at me. Wahhh! I think it was at this point that I became infected. It was another couple of scenes before I had the nerve and sense to check the level on my wrist, but I'm pretty sure this is what took me out.
Of the other scenes that I can recall (I'm surprised I can remember, it seemed to go really fast!) there was one that was a tight, maze like walkthrough that was lots of corners. At one point you turn a corner, and there is a short wall in front of you (just a little taller than me) and on top of it sits a Licker. *shudder* It's an animatronic, but if you've ever played the game, you will know these things are lethal! One swipe of their claws or whip of their tongue and you're a goner! And it was positioned in such a way that you had to walk closely around it
The last scene I remember was probably the end of the trip. You walk into a room that's a lot more open than all the others, and there were two big arched gates. I think this was kinda like Resident Evil 4 where the ogre like monster comes out. There's a CM there waiting for us and she checks all our infection levels. We're all dead (or undead) so we're told to go through the gate on the right and the experience is over. I have a feeling if you manage to survive, you take the gate to the left for an extra part. Apparently the survival rate was less than 1%, so I don't feel too bad about my efforts lol
And then I took a knees-still-shaking walk down the stairs back out into the light and had a little sit down to calm my nerves hehehe
Well, my laptop is running out of charge, so I might have to stop here and do USJ part 2 later. (btw - just as well I stopped, I didn't know about the 25 images rule. I had to take all the emoticons out to fit! So just know the original version had a lot more smilies and laughing lol)