Jono and I happily took a day off work to go to USJ with Jono's family. We set off for Osaka nice and early and seemed to beat most of the crowds. As I (Jodi) had already been to USJ in March, I was keen to go back and do some more exploring. This time around the whole place was decorated in a Halloween theme. Street flags, souvenirs, drinks, ice creams, lollies, staff uniforms and a stage performance. "Happy Halloween" was the popular phrase of the day.Jono, Verity, Phillip and I headed straight to the roller coaster called "Hollywood Dream". It was a REALLY COOL coaster, with at least 4 parts where you lose your stomach and a scream creeps out of your mouth. A unique feature of this coaster was the personal stereo. There was a control panel on the safety guard where you could choose which song you wanted to listen to on the ride. I chose "Get Back" by the Beatles as it was quite fitting. The music made the ride that much more enjoyable and gave you something else to think about other than the massive drop in front of you (well, maybe).
The other rides we went of for the day were:
* Jurrasic Park (another hilarious photo came from this)
* Jaws (This was really good and even shocked me a couple of times. At one stage there was a fair amount of fire and I felt ans though it would singe my eyebrows!)
*Spiderman (I didn't go on this one, but everyone said it was just incredible)We also caught a number of shows:
*Backdraft
*Waterworld (This was both very impressive and hilarious. The show started with the hosts trying to wind up the crowd. If they weren't happy with the crowd's involvement they sprayed a bucket of water on them! So many people were sopping wet and it was hilarious because it wasn't us! The drama show was all in Japanese but we were excited by the boat chases, jumps and stunts. Brilliant.)
*Monsters Live Rock N Roll Show*Blues Brothers Show (Verity and Lesley were pulled up on stage and did about 15 seconds of dancing! Very funny.)
We had lunch at Mel's Diner which is in the theme of the sixties rock 'n' roll. Burgers were the menu choice which were delicious. Other treats which we couldn't go past were the long donut sticks (pumpkin flavour), orange and strawberry muffin, ice cream and melon soda!
There were many different characters wandering around the park and we took the opportunity to have our pictures taken with them. We met Woody Wood Pecker, Popeye, The Pink Panther, Betty Boop and Hello Kitty. They were very cute and thankfully not being mobbed like Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland.It was a fun day with the family and after okonomiyaki for dinner we headed home for some much needed rest!
VISITORS COMMENTS:
Initially I (Phillip) was a little cynical, Theme Parks are Theme Parks the world over. But gradually USJ won me over. The roller coaster was great, but Spiderman was the most fun. Checking out the food was interesting, because it was American Theme Park food transformed into a Japanese style. Sometimes great, other times just plain weird. Still a great day.
