Hey Steemit!
So in the previous post, we started our day-long journey through Universal Studios Japan! We walked around all the usual parts of the park; the areas that were made to look like Hollywood, San Francisco and New York. We also caught a glimpse of Universal Wonderland (aka kiddyland), which was packed with parents, children and strollers. Anyway, today we'll be going through the area I was most excited to see - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
2 January 2016. Saturday.
Here's a map of USJ; turns out the huge Christmas tree we stopped at in the previous post wasn't in the middle of the park. Hm.
Source: usj.co.jp
Anyway, to get to Harry Potter we had to walk back towards the kiddyland, and when you go past the entrance it feels like you walked through an invisible portal right into the Wizarding World!
It felt like we were walking through a forest, until we saw this! Then I realised it was supposed to be the Forbidden Forest beside Hogwarts!
We've arrived at Hogsmeade!
Sorry for the picture quality :/
The first thing you'll see when you enter Hogsmeade (other than the shops and buildings and stuff) is the Hogwarts Express! It would've been so cool to ride in on it but I guess they don't have enough space for that.
Hogsmeade itself looked so great! I've been a fan of the Harry Potter books since they were first published; I read them all and watched all the movies too. So to actually step foot into Hogsmeade was incredible! It was like seeing the books come to life!
I was so excited to visit Harry Potter World I wore my time turner necklace that day! It's actually one of my coolest looking necklaces because it really spins.
I hadn't read anything about USJ and its attractions (and esp not about Harry Potter World) because I didn't want to get spoiled. So I was surprised they even had butterbeer!
I normally don't really like buying stuff at theme parks but Sean convinced me to try it so we bought 1 to share (with the cup)!
It actually tasted pretty good! It wasn't too sweet and didn't taste like beer at all (tbf I don't think there was actually alcohol in it)!
I was so happy walking through Hogsmeade! I love how accurate they made it too; all the shops I read about were there, like Ollivanders, Honeydukes, the 3 Broomsticks... Sean didn't get any of the references because he didn't read the books, but to me it was like heaven!
Well I thought it was heaven, until we finally reached the best part; Hogwarts itself!
It looked incredible! Granted, a tad smaller than what I imagined from the movies and books but the detail on it was astounding!
So this Wizarding World in Japan is actually the third Wizarding World to be created in Universal Studios. There are 2 others; 1 in Orlando and 1 in Hollywood. This one in Osaka is the second newest addition, built in 2014, while the others were built in 2010 and 2016 respectively.
But, this one in Japan has the Black Lake and live owls, which Orlando does not.
Here's the castle from the front, with the boar statues:
The sun was slowly setting at the time and I managed to get this awesome shot of the castle.
We saw varsity-like flags at the side of the castle, but I think there were actors getting ready for a choir performance walking through.
Remember in the first movie they had a choir performing with the big toads.
That evil smile
So there are only 2 rides in the Wizarding World; the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride and the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster, both of which had super long queues. But after taking a crap ton of photos, we decided screw it, let's queue up for the Forbidden Journey. They said the wait was gonna take like 120 min or something like that but there wasn't any other ride that we wanted to go on so what the heck.
The wait wasn't actually too bad; other than the fact that we had to stand on our feet the whole time. But the weather was cold so it was bearable. We passed the time playing Taboo and other games on my phone. The waiting areas took us around different places inside Hogwarts too, so that was cool.
Like Dumbledore's office!
And the greenhouse
I think we also went through the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and the Gryffindor common room, but I don't have pictures of that unfortunately. I think my phone was dying from taking too many pictures.
Anyway, after about 2 hours or so, we finally got to the ride! If you've never tried it, it is a motion-based dark ride that takes guests through scenes and environments in and around Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter series of books and films. You'll fly around Hogwarts, go to a Quidditch match, get chased by a dragon, see Aragog the king spider, the Whomping Willow, Dementors, and so much more! It was actually pretty long and fun! I think it was well worth the wait. The effects were really cool, it wasn't too fast/scary, and there are so many references from almost all the books/movies.
After that we arrived at the gift shop, which was really crowded!
After looking around at the wares, we went outside where they were having a light show on the castle exterior!
Hogwarts looks really cool at night; my phone doesn't do it justice. :/ Remember this is back in 2016.
The crowds were thinning a bit in Hogsmeade so we could finally take a look in the shops.
Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions!
I think technically some of the shops were supposed to be in Diagon Alley but close enough.
We had a bit of fun at Ollivander's:
We also went to Honeydukes, and the owl post office!
I found a new friend!
We finally got to go inside Zonko's and Honeydukes (which were actually connected inside)!
Here's a video (sorry for the shaky cam). I'm so glad they played the movie music inside the shops!
Zonko's!
After that we went back out into Hogsmeade.
The Hogwarts Express made a train whistle and started billowing smoke/steam all of a sudden.
After that we started walking back towards the Christmas tree for the nightly show. We walked along the lake/pier and I took a nice panoramic shot.
Before that, my phone had trouble focusing and I took this instead, which looks pretty good too tbh.
Anyway, I think that's all for now. Tune in to the next (and final post) where we wrap up our day at USJ with the Christmas and lights show!
Thanks so much for reading!
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