Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 October 2020

Japan Trip October 2018 - Day 5 - Universal Studios Japan (USJ)


Like seriously, I can't believe I have been procrastinating writing the favourite part of my Japan trip. With the car accident and fever, I can't wait to write this post the most! 

P/S: I couldn't upload my pictures and videos since the iPhone somehow has a different format from my windows laptop. So recently I purchased Mac and hence explained why I suddenly got the urged to continue writing this post. This draft has been kept for so long! 

9th October 2018 (Tuesday)

So we started the morning early, getting up as early as possible, I'm wide awake at 6am. We went out at 7am to take the earliest train. Universal Studios Open at 8.30am and it means that we have to be there before that! It is not surprising that even on weekdays, the theme park was so crowded. I have been doing my research months before buying the tickets, and I have been dreaming on going to USJ literally because they have the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, considering that I'm a Potterhead, it was...a dream came true!

I vividly remembered us being so excited early in the morning running! I wouldn't say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, for me its definitely USJ =) 

(I tried to attach the video of people running (RUNNING ...SERIOUSLY) when they opened the park. and a lot of them ran towards the Harry Potter world but there's an error on downloading them so I'll try to do it again later. So, guys, you don't have the time to study the theme park map there! do it before or else you'l' have to queue!)


The famous car! As soon as you enter the theme park, run to your right. Then you'll see the familiar trees as in the Harry Potter movies, just run along with other people.

Well of course I studied the map months ahead to make sure we got the best from our limited time there. When the park opened, we quickly ran towards the right of the park where The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is. Now the tricky part was identifying the entrance. We nearly got lost and almost lose our chance of being the earliest while queueing. 


Universal Studios Japan Park Map

 

My tips would be..run as fast as you can, take pictures along the way so by the time you're done with your rides, you will get the chance to leisurely enjoy the park. We're so lucky to have a sunny day during our trip, all of our pictures turn out great!

There is nothing better than to be able to ride an attraction twice! When we first got into the park we quickly queue for Harry Potter and the forbidden journey 3D ride. Although we also bought our fast pass, we decided to use it later in the evening for the same ride. 

When you got off the ride, you will enter the shop where they sell all of the Harry Potter merchandise. Bring a lot of money if you are a Potterhead like me. 





*Some of the merchandise sold in Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Merchandise

After that, we went to queue for the next ride which is Flight of the Hippogriff

The best part is that this is an outdoor ride, so if you have time in between the screaming while on the roller coaster, you could actually get a whole view of the park. Well, I certainly didn't! 



Then we went to Ollivanders to buy a wand so we could actually try to cast spells in 8 designated area in the park.




Well, you know that feeling when this is all you remember about in your childhood and finally to be able to experience all this :') not crying, you are. 




Honeydukes is what I expected it to be, the brightest shop amongst all Harry Potter world. I didn't buy anything from here though (most of them are snacks) since I'm Muslim and I couldn't read Japanese, so I skip buying these. 



Later we head to the Three Broomstick to have our late lunch/early dinner before going to wait for the night parade. During our trip, it was early October so Halloween is around the corner. The night parade has an additional showcase of zombies and ghost. I mainly sit around the corner or near the entrance of any shops so I can straightaway flee every time I saw zombies coming 😂



Memories at the Three Broomstick restaurant with the castle as the background 😻




We decided to head back at 8pm since we need to depart early in the morning to Tokyo and didn't want to risk missing our shinkansen. 

xoxo, 
Ayie 💞

Thursday, 22 November 2018

Japan Trip October 2018 - Day 4 - Hiroshima & Miyajima Island

8th October 2018 (Monday)

So it turns out that a few weeks before our departure to Japan, I accidentally checked the Public Holidays for Japan and guess what, they have the National Sports Day on the 8th (which we originally intented to go to USJ, LOL). So I switched our itenary and decided to go to Miyajima Island instead. 

Today was our first day of the Japan Rail (JR) Pass 7 days pass, and the JR included the Miyajima Island Ferry. So the total transportation, is FREE! Let me show you how the JR Pass looks like. 



So this is how it looks like, I'll share the steps on how to change the JR Pass in some other post okey.


Read the travel terms and conditions when you're planning your trips. 

We started off our day by going to the shinkansen. Let me show you how to go take the Shinkansen. So we're from Kohama Station (since we live near there), using the google maps direction, just follow the instructions. To take the Shinkansen, we went to Shin-Osaka Station. If you're using JR Pass, it is totally worth it, the total cost to go to Hiroshima (one way) is already 10,930 Yen (approximately RM405 one way). For those who wanted  to take a day trip to Miyajima Island, it is recommended to stop by Hiroshima since there is no DIRECT train from Osaka to Miyajima. 




This is the Shinkansen Track in Shin-Osaka Station. 


And, it is recommended that you pack some foods to eat in Shinkansen (since Shinkansen routes are normally taking a longer time than subways, Japanese tend to pack some bento to eat). But since its hard to find Halal bento there, we cooked some fried rice to eat in the train. 


Hello ❤

And here's another tips for you guys, when we're in Hiroshima, we found out that there's a free tourist bus (for JR Pass holder) that stops by every tourist attractions in the city! (Say about luck!) The bus is called "Hiroshima Meipu ru-pu". 

However, if you don't have the JR Pass, they offer an affordable price of 400 yen for one day pass. 



You'll see a lot of tourist taking this bus. 


There are 3 types of routes, and you can take any bus that suites your itenary. 
For us, we took the Orange Bus. 


Our first stop is the Hiroshima Castle, so damn hot!




Infront of the Atomic Bomb Dome.


Hiroshima Peace Park


Atomic Bomb Dome. 

Around noon, we decided to continue our journey to Miyajima Island. Its around 30 minutes from Hiroshima


The view from the ferry. 


On our way to the large orange shrine.


Accidentally found a cool house (read: instagram-worthy pictures) 



omg they have starbucks on the Island.


Yayy finally, its quite a walk from the ferry port to the shrine.



The cute shops on the Island. 



We bought this Momiji (Maple) Manju, there's only one flavor that is Halal (I really wanted the chocolate flavoured bread, sobs)


On the inside.


Cute Momiji Manju. 

I'll write about my trip to USJ in the next post ❤

❤, 
Aiesya