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 💞

Japan Trip October 2018 - Day 1 & 2 - Nara Park - Dotonbori, Osaka

Let's do this, reminiscing the good memories in Japan!

So Alhamdulillah I finally got a chance to go to Japan this year (bought the ticket using my first pay - been broke since then). This trip is for 10days, covering OSAKA and TOKYO, using JR Pass and our accomodation is fully using AirBnb.

5th October 2018 (Friday)

Our flight was at 2pm, and supposedly to arrive around 9pm in Kansai Airport. But we touch down at 9.30pm, and the custom check was really a long queue, all we want is to check in quickly since its already late and..you're at a foreign country! Since our JR pass is only for 7 days, we decided to use it on our third day in Japan, and just use normal ICOQA card for the first two days in osaka (its like our malaysian touch and go, but I borrowed from my aunt, buying that would cost you around 2000yen - if I'm not mistaken).

Excited to see Japan!

Since we live close by Kohama Station, so we took the metro straight from the airport station. Took us around 50minutes + 10minutes walking to our Airbnb and cost around 1000yen. Clearly the in flight meal is not sufficient, we decided to go out to the nearest Family Mart and purchase halal Onigiri! (Do some research to help you find out halal foods at convenience store, clearly helps us in case of emergencies - read: lapar gila)

Edited: Our Airbnb : https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21520505?s=51

I realised that rooms or houses in Osaka is bigger than those in urban areas such as Tokyo. We really love our accommodation in Osaka. They have a common room and also the kitchen, which we fully utilize (we even cook nasi lemak there).   

6th October 2018 (Saturday)

So the next day, we decided to go to Nara, as per my itenary. I'll share my full itenary after I've posted all okey? Mind you, cook some foods peeps, halal food is hard to find here.

Our nasi goreng sardin + serunding mama! Life savior!

We took the normal train (not shinkansen) to Nara, took us around 1 hour 50 minutes. 

Let me give you some tips here:

1) Use Google Direction Map. Just google your destination, click direction and put in your exact location - for us, we will always put in the train station name, easier. 

2) This navigation is the BEST! forget waze, unless you're using a car. Other than that, use this. THIS! It is so accurate it helps us a lot. Plus Japanese train has soooooo many platforms you'll get lost and confuse. Fret not, by using this, you'll also know the platform you need to go. 

When we arrived, its already noon. Since we took our time that morning, cooking and all. Considering its saturday, its not packed with tourist/local. Its totally free to enter the park, you just have to spend for the deer's food (optional). 

 

Hello N A R A ❤

Tips: They're aggressive, put the biscuits in your bag and just take out one at a time. 

They bite, careful! My shirt was bitten, and mind you....their saliva eww. 

There's a lot of attractions near the park, just prepare a comfortable shoes. 

Nara Park is behind me, see..its uphill. Good luck walking guys. 

We decided to eat our nasi goreng in front of the lake. 

We bought this at the store near Nara Park, its around 200 yen. 

Limited edition coke, around 250yen (don't remember). 

That night, we went to Dotonbori. It was lit, somewhat like our Jonker Walk in Malacca. 

With the famous Glico Man. (Nampak mcm takde orang kan, haa actually ramai gila!)

Takoyaki Checked!

Actually I wrote a longer version towards the end of this post, but the damn internet got cut off and I couldn't save a whole lot of my babbling here, so so so tired to write again. But feel free to leave a comment if you got questions, will answer them late.

xoxo,
Aiesya ❤