Japan Diaries 2: Day 13

February 13, 2019

Day 13 May 29, 2018

Universal Studios Japan

Before sleeping last night, I checked if the weather forecast today would change for the better. Last I checked, it would be cloudy with a 10% chance of rain so the first thing I did when I woke up today was to check the skies for any signs of rain clouds...

Welcome to Universal Studios Japan! (Sorry about my wife's head)

Look who came to welcome my daughter...

You would surely love strolling at USJ

I'm very wary of today's weather because we booked a ticket for Universal Studios Japan (USJ). It was quite a gamble really as we had to choose between May 28 (yesterday), 29 (today), and 30 (tomorrow) for our USJ trip. All three are cloudy days with chances of rainfall according to the weather forecast. It only rained briefly yesterday and the day was only generally cloudy. So, we pray that the weather today would somehow be similar or better than yesterday.

Picture taking with Jaws!

God must have heard our prayers as it remained generally cloudy throughout the day. To make the day more special, Mr. Toshi and his wife decided to join us for today's trip.

That's right! Feed the T-rex some sugary drink!

Check out the T-rex inside the restaurant

Lunchtime with our Japanese family.

After breakfast, Mr. Toshi's daughter Ms. Sawa drove us to Universal Studios Japan. Since we already booked via Klook, it took us only a few minutes to line up and enter the theme park. Surprisingly, despite being a Tuesday, there were still a lot of local and foreign visitors in the park.

Say banana!

Unlike our first visit to the park, we didn't have the Universal Express Pass so we didn't waste time and immediately lined up for the rides on our list. We rode the following theme park rides in order:

Ready for our adventure!

Jaws

Jurassic Park The Flying Dinosaur

Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem

The Amazing Adventure of Spiderman: The Ride

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Ride

After lining up for an hour to try out the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Ride, we decided to have our lunch at the Jurassic Park Inspired restaurant where we experienced a "special encounter" with an escaped velociraptor. Afterward, we went to the Universal Wonderland Area where my daughter and I would have our father-daughter bonding while my wife bonded with our Japanese family.

Heading to Universal Wonderland

Look who's enjoying the parade of Snoopy and friends.

Ella and I rode the following theme park rides in order:

Hello Kitty's Cupcake Dream

Snoopy Studio

Flying Snoopy

Elmo's Little Drive

Moppy's Balloon Trip

Elmo's Imagination Playground

T2 Terminator 2 2D

We then went to meet my wife at Snoopy's Backlot Cafe and had some snacks there. Since it was getting dark already, we lined up to experience one more spectacle -The T2 Terminator 2 2D. True enough, it was a perfect experience to end our second Universal Studios experience.

Night scene at Universal Studios Japan

Meet and greet with USJ's performers

There was supposed to be a special night spectacle parade before the park closes down for the day, however, it suddenly drizzled before it even started. Although the drizzle lasted only for less than 5 minutes, the park management canceled the parade and had a meet and greet with the performers instead.

Look who enjoyed her day!

We left after the meet and greet and proceeded to the train station passing through Universal CityWalk. Before buying our tickets, my wife and I treated our Japanese family to coffee at Starbucks near the train station to show gratitude for accompanying us today.

Who'd miss out on the chance to have a family picture at the famous USJ Arch

Thank you so much to our Japanese godparents for accompanying us to this wonderful place.

Took a stroll at Universal CityWalk

After our coffee bonding, we continued on our way home. We rode the train just as we did three years back during our first visit to USJ. We reached home at around 11PM and called it a night after taking a late-night hot tub dip.