If you're reading this for Universal Studios Japan tips, your cheat sheet is coming up first. If you're reading this to vicariously experience our day through us, you can skip to the "Our Day" section.
Cheat sheet
Brief overview regarding tickets
Every ride at Universal Studios Japan has an express pass/ timed ticket line, and a regular line. The express pass is expensive, almost as much as the cost of admission. They're valid the entire day and for multiple trips on the same ride. Timed tickets are your cheaper option, but you have to seek them out, they're only valid for a certain time interval, and only once per ride. The timed ticket kiosks are in rather random locations (sometimes close to the ride, sometimes in another area entirely). Have all admission tickets for all wanna-be riders with you when you approach the kiosk. Park employees will be on hand to guide you through the options. You will have a list of time-spans to choose from. When your time comes, head to the ride and show your timed-tickets to be allowed through the short line. It will significantly cut your wait time. Popular rides often have wait times of 100 minutes, but toward the end of the day (even without an express pass or timed ticket) all but the most popular will have wait times around 45 minutes.
A word about Harry Potter
To even enter the area, you have to wait in line as if it were a ride. You cannot enter the wizarding world at your whim, which means you can't even get to the shops or snacks or walk around inside unless you've passed through the entry point. We used a timed ticket to get in. After you get in, you'll have to wait in more lines if you want to ride any of the rides or take any of the tours. Even if you don't ride any of the rides there, it's still an incredible experience. The facades look amazing, the shops are full of interesting items, the snack carts are different from the rest of the park, and the area is full of things to see and do.
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| Entering the Wizarding World |
Ride heights in the park
Most commonly 122 cm and above is required. The milder rides require 92 cm and up. For the advanced rides you need to be at least 132 cm.
How scary are the rides
Some can be very scary. I don't recommend the Backdraft experience for young or sensitive children because there is a long sequence of very scary scenarios involving real fire and explosions. All of the rides in the Snoopy/ Hello Kitty area are fine, and the Wizarding World area and the Hippogriff ride are lots of fun for kids.
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| I was very impressed with the Backdraft experience, actually, but it was way too intense and frightening for my kids |
The app
There is a Universal Studios Japan app that we did find helpful. If you can read katakana you will probably be able to navigate it just fine. (Katakana is relatively easy and can be learned with a few hours' practice, and what better motivation could you have?) When you are inside the park you can access wait times for all the rides, find your location relative to the rides you want to go on, see what time events and attractions are scheduled, find restaurants, and get height requirements for each ride.
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| Universal Studios Japan app for iPhone |
Food
Restaurants, carts and kiosks are scattered all throughout the park. Popcorn and churros have the longest wait time. All of it is expensive. Technically you are not allowed (cough cough) to bring in your own food or drinks. Nobody checked our bags. Just sayin'.
Our Day
We wanted Universal Studios to be our first stop on our trip to get the anticipation over with for our kids. My husband and I aren't big theme-park fans because we don't like waiting so long in line for something that is over so quickly. It feels like we're spending money for the joy of waiting in line, which is stupid. Our kids are definitely on the opposite end of that spectrum, because they can divert themselves by pestering us about when we'll get to ride the rides, so they're fully entertained.
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| Wonderland, with Hello Kitty, Snoopy, Sesame Street, etc. |
Even though we went on a Thursday, the park was packed and the lines were long (welcome to spring break in Japan). We arrived about 2 hours after the gates opened so that we could start the morning without alarm clocks and rushing. Our strategy was to take a relaxed approach to the day and hopefully hop on the popular rides just before the park closed for the day. By the end of the day the wait times did lessen by an appreciable amount, but not for all of the rides.
Wonderland
We used the Universal Studios Japan app to help us track wait times. Since the Wonderland area had the shortest waits, we headed there. Our son was embarrassed to no end when we wandered into Hello Kitty's Ribbon Collection. Some interesting fashions in there but it's mostly geared toward the most hardcore Hello Kitty fans. You get to meet Hello Kitty and have a picture taken (¥2000 for 2 pictures).
I knew we needed to get on some rides to appease the kids (it's what we came for, after all), so we spun ourselves silly on the Cupcake Dream ride.
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| Hello Kitty's Cupcake Dream was good fun for all of us |
We rode the carousel next, and then we decided to try to find a bigger thrill. We wanted to go to the Harry Potter area, but we didn't realize that we needed to wait in line just to reach it. We decided a timed ticket would be better than waiting 80 minutes, so we tracked the ticket machines down, noted we had 2 hours to kill, and headed off for other entertainment.
Backdraft
While walking around we saw that Backdraft had a really short wait. I asked the attendant in Japanese if it was scary and she assured me it wasn't. Spoiler alert: it was. It really really was. It's not a ride, it's a show, but it's more than that. First they lull you with clips of explosions from well-known movies while you wait in line. Then you enter a room where you stand and listen to an introduction from Ron Howard (dubbed in Japanese). Our kids started to complain that they were bored, even though they could understand the Japanese better than we could. We were guided to a second room where they talked about explosions, gave us a brief safety warning, showed a clip from the movie that started to make our kids nervous, and then they lit a few things on fire. So far, not too impressive. Finally we were guided to a third room. Again a short safety reminder, and a quick minute later they started the fires. Just fake smoke and lighting effects at first, so we started to roll our eyes. Then some loud pops from fireworks and more smoke Okay, not great but not bad. Then a bigger explosion, more fireworks, more smoke, and that's when the pyrotechnics really got going. We could feel the heat from where we were standing, even though we were a good distance away. Flames billowed out in a gravity-defying river from the back room. Smoke started to rise to the ceiling. Things on the set started to collapse and crash. I knew that everything was rigged and carefully controlled, but to a kid it looks like mortal peril and chaos. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it got scarier. Our kids were wrecks afterward, and it took a while to calm them down.
Family Shows
We hoped to balance our scary experience with something funny and silly, so we went to the Monster Rock and Roll show. Everybody had a good time with that one. The costumes and set were good, and all of the performers sang and danced well. It helped our kids feel better after having the pants scared off of them.
There was just enough time for one of the outdoor Minion shows. All in Japanese, and fun.
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| Minions singing, dancing, and changing costumes |
Harry Potter
Then it was finally time for our main event: Harry Potter! We showed our Timed Ticket and went right in. Well, sort of. There's actually quite a long path to follow before you get to the Wizarding area.
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| Not exactly the Deathly Hallows |
Once you're in that area, it's really quite impressive. All of the park employees are dressed in wizard robes and other costumes. The shops are all akilter and look like the movie set. Even better, they're filled with some really interesting merchandise.
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| Perfectly crooked |
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| Zonko's Joke Shop |
If you stop in Ollivanders, you can spend ¥5000 and purchase a "working" wand for yourself. All of the wands are the same price, but they look different. You can purchase wands used by different characters, from Snape to Harry Potter to Bellatrix Lestrange, or choose wands by what material they're made from.
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| LOL, not the best pic of my husband, but check out those wands! |
Choose a wand that has a spell map (available in Japanese or English), which shows you spell-casting areas inside the Wizarding World. There are also instructions for how to perform each spell. At each location a park "wizard" will guide you through the steps, and different effects will greet you depending on how well you cast your spell.
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| Hogwarts Castle is especially well done |
Finally, we got in line for a roller coaster. Flight of the Hippogriff only had a 45 minute wait by this time, which is quite short for this ride. It had just enough thrills to please both our kids, without being too scary. We rode one more time, and then it was time to head out for the day to beat the crowds.
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| Getting a good look at Hagrid's hut as we wait in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff |
If you're researching for your own trip, I hope this post is helpful. I tried to learn all I could before we went, but I still had a lot of questions. If we were to do it all again, I would find all the rides that allowed a timed entry and get our times locked in. Other queries, like "which rides are too scary for my kids" could only be answered from first-hand experience, unfortunately.
Lastly, try hitting the Mos Burger (outside of the Universal Studios park) on your way out if you have kids who like toys with their meal. Their toys have a high replayability factor and will make a nice souvenir of your trip!
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