Osaka II: Universial Studios Japan

Day 1

We had another three days for a return visit to Osaka. Our main reason for heading back this time was to visit Universal Studios Japan, also known as USJ! Our first stop was the Osaka Pokémon Center. This time there were less people than our last visit, but still full of Pokemon plushies and merchandise. After Blake had his fill at the Pokémon Center we went to the Umeda Sky Building. 

                                          

The Umeda Sky Building is a high rise building with a "Floating Garden Observatory" on the 39th floor. There is an escalator you must take from the 35th floor to reach the observatory. You can see all of Osaka and even nearby Awaji Island on a clear day. It can get quite windy at the top since you are 170 meters (557 ft) off the ground.

On the top of Umeda Sky Building

Once we got our fill of the views from the observatory, we left the building and went in search of a place to eat. Thanks to google maps we found a Mexican restaurant! It was the closest we have found to Mexican food (at least so far), but it's just not like the food back home. 

 

Once we finished with dinner we walked to Denden Town in Nipponbashi district. Denden Town is a large commercial district that has a lot of electronics stores as well as as stores specializing in anime, manga and more.

 Day 2

On our second day, we woke up bright and early and headed to Osaka Museum of History. They had permanent and temporary exhibitions that highlight the history of Osaka. There are life-size reconstructions, scale models, artifacts, VR tours, photos and movies that you can see. They even had some interactive activities like the one below.  It was a scale to convert gold into yen based on weight. 

                      

Once we were done going through the museum we caught a train to Universal City Station. It was quite convenient because as soon as you exit the station you are right at Universal Citywalk. Universal Citywalk is the area right outside Universal Studios Japan and has many U.S.-style shops and restaurants. We had dinner at T.G.I Fridays. My first time going to a T.G.I Fridays and it was in Japan. There were not that many people in the restaurant and the couple that were there were other foreign tourists.

Day 3

   

The day had finally arrived to visit Universal Studios Japan (USJ)! We had bought our tickets the night before at our hotel. We headed toward the gates an hour before opening and there was already a massive hoard of people waiting to get in. We purposefully went on a Tuesday to try to avoid the huge crowds of people that are usually there on weekends and Mondays. It was definitely worth going on a less crowded day. We got to ride most of the attractions without a huge wait time, the longest wait time for us was about 35-40 minutes. USJ had Christmas decorations set up already for the holidays. We had fun checking out all the areas, especially The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and even tried some delicious Butterbeer! At the end of the night we saw the night parade performances. Now that I've been to Universal Studios Japan, I will have to visit the one in California also.