Universal Studios

Sunday was Universal Studios day!! We were all really excited, and managed to get up early so we could be there for when the gates opened. The train to take us to the park was brightly coloured with characters such as Woody Woodpecker and Snoopy, so even that was enough to make me even more excited and kid-like! We arrived at the park, walked past a street of enticing foreign-looking shops, and Hard Rock Café (which we went back to later!), and entered Universal Studios Japan. We were all extremely excited, giggly, and I just wanted to jump up and down on the spot (Paul, remember what I was like at Disneyland Paris!!!)

Our first ride of the day was to be Spiderman, and so we joined the 75 minute queue, and began playing Kat’s games to help the time pass more quickly. Spiderman was my favourite ride….it was sooooo good! We were flying round New York, along with Spidey, and we were wearing 3D glasses, which made all these baddies look as if they were all coming straight towards us. The movement of the car-thing we were in, was not as violent as a rollercoaster obviously, but it was just as thrilling, as sometimes the things you can see are even more scary than the sensations you feel. It was definitely my kind of ride, as I don’t really like big rollercoasters, and WILL NOT go on anything that goes upside down, so this was just the right amount of movement, scary, spectacle and thrill for me! I think we all enjoyed it, that’s for sure!

Next was Terminator 2, which was good, and also quite scary in places. The bext thing about this ride though, was the actress-woman who was supposed to work for the evil company, and who did the most over-exaggerated acting I have ever seen in my life. 10 points for the enthusiasm though, jeez!

After a gift-shop and hotdog stop, we were on to the next ride, Back to the Future. I was soooo looking forward to this one, and it didn’t disappoint. After quite a short queue, we were in the delorion, hurtling through the air, speeding across the town you see in the movie, and then other scary areas, like deep ravines, and volcanoes! It was great!! Of course we made sure we has a photo next to the famous car when we left. Next stop was Backdraft, which was disappointing to say the least. It was quite a long queue, but we had decided that we would do all the rides, so we stuck at it. Im sure the ‘ride’ is better in America, where the video clips of Ron Howard talking about the movie, and about what a ‘backdraft’ is are not dubbed into Japanese. Seriously, I never thought I would be watching Richie from ‘Happy Days’ speaking in Japanese!!! The actual ‘ride’ part consisted of various things exploding into flames, a lot of heat being blasted at the audience, and then a sudden jolt when it finished, which made us all shriek but did not make up for the lack of an actual ride!

I had mixed feelings about going on the Jurassic Park ride. I don't really like dinosaurs…think they’re a bit rubbish, and sometimes scary, and Im not a big fan of big-drop rides! This was a big-drop log-flume through Jurassic Park land, and so I was not that keen! But, I went along with it, and bought a ‘ride poncho’ to at least stop myself from getting drenched! The ride was good…not long enough, but good. I screamed and scrunched up my eyes through the entire drop, and on the photo I bought afterwards, I look terrified! But yeah, it was ok. The funniest part of the ride though (apologies in advance Louise!), was at the end when the screaming had stopped, the drop was over, and I had opened my eyes. I realised that I hadn’t got wet (phhhew!), and glanced around at the others. Poor old Louise, who was sat at the edge of the boat-thing was absolutely drenched, her hair plastered to the side of her face, her lovely white and green skirt a little transparent in places, and a look of ‘oh-my-god-what-just-happened’ on her face. Bless her! I wish I had taken a photo…I think the others did! To reward ourselves for our dinosaur bravery, we all bought huge turkey legs to eat, from a stall next to the ride. Unfortunately they were a little weird tasting, more like ham, and I didn’t really want to eat much of mine. My hands smelt of smoked ham for the rest of the day!

And then it was on to Jaws! Im sure I don’t need to explain what happens on this ride…you’re on a boat, there is a shark…it’s pretty easy to fill in the gaps!! It was good fun, and silly-scary rather than aaaaaaarrrrrggghhh scary! I realise that I have met my match in the competition for person who screams the most at theme parks (it’s not just me Paul!), as Kat screamed almost immediately as we saw the shark’s fin in the water. I think it’s more a case of she’s very dramatic, and getting into character, rather than her being actually scared, but it was still nice to have a screaming partner!

We wandered around the shops for a while, and I found another Hello Kitty shop. In Osaka I bought an okonomiyaki kitty (soooo cute!), and here at Universal I bought Marilyn Monroe Kitty (in the white floaty dress!), so it was definitely a good trip for kitty shopping!

Our last ride of the day was E.T. This was my other joint 2nd! It was sooooooooooooo cute and cool! We were on the bikes that go across the moon, we saw E.T.’s home planet (which was actually a little creepy at times, with its huge bright flowers, and singing E.Ts), and at the end E.T. said goodbye to us, using our own names!!! Bless! I made my best purchase of the day at the E.T. shop, as I found E.T. dressed in yukata (summer kimono)!!!!!!!

By this time we were all completely knackered, and ready for a sit down and some food. So, off we went to Hard Rock Café. Cocktails, onion rings, nachos, and fajitas were a great cure for the fatigue, and extremely yummy! The whole day (and in fact the whole weekend) had just been so un-Japanese, and so western, and this was the perfect end to a great weekend.

Back in the city, the others headed back to the hostel, whilst Ellen and I decided we had just a tiny amount of energy left to go on the giant red ferris wheel in Umeda. It was great fun, with wonderful views again, and just relaxing watching the world go by. By the end of the ride, I didn’t want to stand back up, as I just felt soooo sleepy! But we finally made it back to the hostel, and boy, did I enjoy my night’s sleep that night!