#so fun though i got 70 $ worth of merch (three super awesome things)

[mieltelecheycrema]

the feeble will pay for pleasures with their mind and body come sunrise

[augustinjapan-spring2017]

Day 48: The wait was totally worth it

Yesterday was a long day, thus I had to wait till the next day to write everything I wanted to about it. Yesterday was also an amazingly fun day, because we went to Universal Studios Japan! In order to catch the first bus of the day, Trisha and I woke up at 5:55am in order to get ready super fast and catch the 6:34am bus. I will admit, despite how much I think I tried, I ended up making us late and we ended up having to run to our bus stop in five minutes.

Luckily we did make it in time and without forgetting anything too important. Slightly dying a bit from running for more then 5 seconds, we took the bus to the train station (bought a quick snack and water from the convenience store) and took the 7:01am limited express train from Hirakatashi to Kyobashi. From Kyobashi we took the Osaka Line directly to Universal City. One thing that was kind of cool on the train was that we saw two girls (maybe twins?) who were dressed up in the same outfit but opposite colors. They both had overalls, a hoodie underneath, and converse. Yet one had black hoodie and black converse with white overalls, and the other had white hoodie and white converse with black overalls. It ended up looking really cool seeing them both together. And twinning clothing was something that we saw all day. Some couples, families, and groups would all be wearing the same (usually very fashionable) outfit. We even saw a couple both wearing the attack on titan survey corp cape.

When we got to Universal City we walked through a collection of restaurants and shops that were not even open yet since it was about 8:00am. The park opens at 8:30am so we got in line for tickets and, $70 later, we were in line to go into the park itself. The first thing we did was go straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Now, I have also been to the Harry Potter world in Orlando Universal Studios, but Trisha had never been to it before. But even though I had been, the world building Japan did leading up to the park was really cool. They had an actual forest path that led up to Hogsmeade and had its own little section of the park so that this path was the only way to get there. We started by getting in line for the ride in the castle, a 4K3D ride that was absolutely amazing. Afterwards we almost immediately got into the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, which was just another little rollercoaster.

Since it was getting a little crowded and there was still a lot we wanted to see, we moved on from Harry Potter to go check out Jurassic Park. We were most excited for the flying dinosaur rollercoaster, but accidentally got into the line for Jurassic Park the ride. However, that ride turned out really cool, with the theme music from the movie playing as we encountered cool animatronic dinosaurs through a log-flume like ride. We were a bit worried about getting soaked but we got lucky because our seats were the third row back and we made it out without hardly getting wet (front seat got soaked). After that we went right into the Flying Dinosaur line which had a projected 3 hour wait.

So that’s what we did. Waited for almost three hours for a flying rollercoaster. It was totally worth it. By the time we finally made it to the top and sat in the coaster, I was exhausted. But the moment the seats lifted back so that our arms and head were dangling, able to look directly down, the adrenaline started pumping. It was absolutely amazing. It went up and down and upside down and around. We went in a tunnel and over the water and over a bunch of smiling and waving people down below. After flying dinosaur we got turkey legs from a stall (since we saw everyone with them while we were waiting in line and very hungry), and then made our way over to Neon Genesis Evangelion Ride.

Another 2 and a half hour wait in line brought us to my favorite ride of the day. A ride called Space Fantasy that had been temporarily decked out to be used as a temporary Neon Genesis Evangelion ride (which is an anime I watched a couple years back). It was absolutely incredible because the ride utilized VR technology. Just like any other VR set, we were given one to put on as we sat down in the car and we were set rolling. The VR set was perfectly timed to the coaster so we literally were watching an anime scene all around us that moved perfectly with the indoor coaster itself. I watched a fight scene between mecha aliens while on a roller coaster! Anime characters I know from a show I love doing things right in front of my eyes. When the monster attacked we would veer away from it. It was so cool! Definitely the highlight of the day and if I were to go back to USJ before we left I would totally go on it again.

After getting some merch from the stall afterwards (I got a little cape blanket for warmth with the NERV logo on it and some really awesome keychains), we decided to head back to Harry Potter world since we wanted to eat at the Three Broomsticks. The wait was not nearly as long as I expected, and soon we were seated with our trays of food (pictured below). While we were in Hogsmeade we also bought some chocolate frogs (I got the dumbledore card!) and we went back to Hogwarts to take the castle walk.

However, since dinner didn’t take nearly as long as we thought it would, we ended up having another 3 hours to walk around. With our leftover time we went to go on the Amazing Spiderman ride which was 4D and made excellent use of its effects. Then we caught the Terminator 3D experience which we (obviously) couldn’t understand most of, but it was still really cool because they kept switching in between live action actors and 3D film for really cool effects. Plus the woman who greeted the audience at the beginning of the performance was very expressive and funny (even if we couldn’t understand).

The last thing we did right before closing was check out the Godzilla performance, which was another 3D experience where we were in the perspective of a jet fighter trying to take down Godzilla that’s destroying the city/Universal park. Afterwards we visited the armored titan from attack on titan one last time (and took a few more photos/videos). It was super exciting to see such a huge replica from a show I’ve watched. Overall, everything we did was absolutely amazing but at 9:00 the park closed so we took the two trains and bus back. The rest of the evening was spent doing the Japanese homework I should have done a lot earlier.

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