Universal Studios Japan Review
Universal Studios Japan is located in the city of Osaka. Osaka is roughly a 3 hour journey on the bullet train from Tokyo. The length of this journey can vary half an hour either way depending on which type of bullet train you travel on. The park itself is then a short train ride from Osaka station. There is a train station directly outside of the park. The name of this station is Universal city.
Travelling by train is extremely convenient in Japan. The country has the best rail system in the world and all signs at train stations across the country are also in both Japanese and English.
This was my first ever visit to Universal Studios Japan. However, I have visited the Universal parks in both Orlando and Hollywood several times in the last few years.
Like the parks in Orlando and Hollywood there is a Universal City Walk located just outside the park. The parks entrance is similar to both Universal Studios parks in the US with both the famous Universal globe and entry arch being situated just outside the parks gates.
Universal Studios Japan is formed of eight different lands. These lands are as follows (going clockwise around the park from the entrance); Hollywood, New York, Minion Park, San Francisco, WaterWorld, Amity Village, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Universal Wonderland. The layout of this park is most similar to Universal Studios Florida with the lagoon in the centre and the parks different areas built around the edge.
Hollywood
The Hollywood section is located at the parks entrance. The initial section of this land, which contains the major shopping area of the park, is completely covered by a large glass roof. This large enclosed area of the park is a great idea as rainy and stormy days are very common in Osaka. Hollywood is the largest land in the park. There are many shopping and dining locations within this area as well as two of the parks major attractions. These two attractions are Hollywood Dream The Ride and Space Fantasy The Ride.
Hollywood Dream The Ride is located to the right of the parks entrance just after you have passed through the initial stretch of shops. The ride itself is a large steel rollercoaster. The ride is a Bollinger and Mallibard hyper coaster similar to Mako although smaller. On the ride you get to choose from five songs to listen to during the ride. This, along with the position of this coaster in the park, definitely reminds you of Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Florida. A particularly unique thing about this attraction is that the park also runs one of the rollercoasters carriages backwards. A separate queue is available for the backwards carriage and the park has even given this version of the ride a separate name, Hollywood Dream: Backdrop.
During my visit to the park I went on both the forward and backward facing version of this attraction. The rollercoaster itself is very comfortable while also supplying a couple of good airtime moments. I personally enjoyed the forwards version of this attraction far more than the backwards version. This is mainly due to the fact that the backwards version of the coaster, like many other coasters I have ridden backwards, made me feel slightly nauseous. Overall, this is a good rollercoaster which offers good views of the park and the city of Osaka and a few good thrilling moments. I definitely preferred this coaster to Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit as it was a far more comfortable ride while still delivering its fair share of thrills.
The other attraction in this land, Space Fantasy, was closed for refurbishment during my visit. This attraction is an indoor, spinning, space themed rollercoaster. Despite the disappointment of this ride being closed during my visit, it does give me a good excuse to go back and visit this park in the next couple of years.
Further past Hollywood Dream The Ride is the Universal Monsters Rock and Roll show. This show is hosted by Beetlejuice and famous monsters such as Frankenstein and Dracula sing and dance to a variety of songs. Although this show seemed popular with the Japanese guests in the audience I personally don’t feel that this show translates well with the American sense of humour. The show is certainly not very similar, or as good in my opinion, as the old Beetlejuice show from Universal Studios Florida.
Towards the front of the Hollywood area is a cinema style building which houses both Shrek’s 4D Adventure and Sesame Street 4D Movie Magic. Shrek was not open during my visit. This didn’t really matter to me as apart from this show being in Japanese it is the same as Shrek 4D in Florida. Seasame Street 4D movie magic was also not open. This cinema style attraction takes you on a journey with your favourite Sesame Street characters through clouds and below the sea.
New York
The position and layout of this area of the park is pretty much identical to the New York section of Universal Studios Florida. However, the rides in this area of the park are not the same as those found in the Florida.
In the place of Jimmy Fallon Race through New York is Terminator 2 3D. This, apart from being in Japanese, is the exact same 3D cinema attraction as the now gone Terminator attraction once at both Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood. Having been on this attraction multiple times in Florida, the fact that this version of the ride was in Japanese didn’t really matter to me that much. In fact, it was great to get the chance to experience this attraction again as it was definitely one of my favourite attractions ever built in the Florida parks.
The other major attraction in this area of the park is the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. This attraction again is identical to the version of the ride found at Islands of Adventure apart from all the dialogue being in Japanese. This attraction in Japan is located in the exact same place and building as The Revenge of the Mummy coaster in Florida. Seeing the Spider-Man ride sign on the front of the building rather than the Mummy ride sign was kind of disorienting. This feeling was also increased when I spotted that the Finnegan’s restaurant from Florida is also located in the same place in Universal Studios Japan. However, this section of the park, unlike in Florida, does not have the Blues Brothers show or Transformers: The Ride.
Minion Park
Minion Park is the newest area of Universal Studios Japan. Minion Park is by far the most impressive Despicable Me themed area out of any of the Universal parks I have visited. Within Minion Park there is a large shop selling all kinds of Despicable Me merchandise, an area to meet the minions and a couple of stalls and restaurants selling a variety of foods themed to Despicable Me.
At the end of Minion Park is the largest attraction in this land, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. This attraction follows the same story as the ride in both Hollywood and Florida. However, the ride vehicles on this attraction are different in comparison to its American counterparts. The ride vehicles on the Japanese version of the attraction are the same as those found on The Simpsons Ride in both Hollywood and Orlando. This is due to the fact that this ride in Japan, like the Simpsons ride in Florida and Hollywood, was a replacement for the classic Back to the Future attraction. Due to this difference, I feel that this version of the Despicable Me attraction offers the most immersive and enjoyable experience.
The ride also has a very funny pre-ride safety video which is a very similar style to the video shown on The Simpsons ride featuring Itchy and Scratchy. A second attraction has also been opened in Minion Park this summer. This attraction, Minnion Freeze Ray Sliders, is a small spinning flat ride located just in front of Minion Mayhem.
San Francisco
The San Francisco area of the park also has a very similar look compared to its counterpart in Florida. There are a few small differences such as the Chinese restaurant located in the Japanese version of this land. The one major difference in this land is the Backdraft attraction. This attraction is located in the same area as where the new Fast and Furious attraction is located in Florida.
Backdraft is a classic Universal special effect style attraction similar to classics such as Twister and Disaster. The attraction shows you behind the scenes into how huge fire scenes are filmed for the movies. I really enjoyed Backdraft as, despite never experiencing this attraction before, it reminded me of a version of Universal Studios that I now feel has been lost in the Florida parks.
Jurassic Park
The Jurassic Park section of the park is similar in some ways to the Jurassic Park area in Islands of Adventure. However, many of the similarities between these two Jurassic Park themed areas are hard to initially recognise due to the domineering, large Flying Dinosaur rollercoaster located in this area of the Japanese park.
The Flying Dinosaur is a large, lie down rollercoaster which swoops over and around the whole Jurassic Park area of the park. This ride is definitely one of the most popular attractions in the park. One thing I particularly liked about this attraction is the well themed ride carriages which have a large teradactall model at the front of the carriage. The other major attraction in this area of the park is Jurassic Park River Adventure. Although this ride was very similar to both versions of the attraction found in the US, it did have a brighter colour scheme and a few additional effects during the lift hill section of the ride which , I feel, gave this attraction a slight edge over other versions.
WaterWorld
The next section of the park is the WaterWorld themed area. This area is the home of the popular WaterWorld show which is also found in Universal Studios Hollywood. This show is still recognised as one of the best live action shows performed at any theme park in the world.
Amity Village
Amity Village was definitely the area of the park I was most looking forward to visit. This is mainly due to the fact that I love the film Jaws and have great memories of,the now extinct , Amity Village in Universal Studios Florida from when I was younger. The major draw of this land was, of course, the classic Jaws boat ride. Getting the chance to ride this classic attraction was absolutely fantastic and, after all these years, the ride did not disappoint. In fact, it just made the fact that this ride doesn’t exist in Florida anymore even more painful.
Even after all these years, I still feel that this attraction is one of the greatest theme park rides ever designed. The ride combines great story and suspense with a combination of practical effects that still impress in today’s technologically advanced world. As well as the ride, there is also a large counter service restaurant in Amity Village. It’s from this restaurant where you can purchase the popular Jaws cake. The cake did indeed taste as good as it looks and is a must try for any fans of the film. This cake definitely fits in with the new trend of making food for today’s social media/ instagram mad world.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
The Harry Potter area of this park is based on the Village of Hogsmeade and is extremely similar to the Harry Potter World in Universal Studios Hollywood. It has the same rides, shops and dining locations as the Harry Potter area in Universal Studios Hollywood. The Forbidden Journey attraction that has been built for these Harry Potter areas is one of the best dark ride style attractions ever made in my opinion and would most definitely be a stand out attraction in any theme park in the world.
The only significantly unique thing about this version of Hogsmeade at Universal Studios Japan is the fact that a small version of the black lake was built in front of the castle. The addition of this lake certainly gives you the opportunity to take some stunning photos of the Hogwarts castle with it being reflected in the lake. I certainly feel that the lake is a nice addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Like in America, this area off the park is extremely popular. Due to this, a timed return system into the last is often used on busy days at Universal Studios Japan. Therefore to avoid any disappointment, I recommend that you visit this area of the park early on so that, if this system is being used, you do not miss out on picking up a return time ticket.
Universal Wonderland
Universal Wonderland is the parks large kids area which features characters such as Hello Kitty, Elmo and Snoopy. Seeing Peanuts and Sesame Streets characters in a Universal park was kind of strange as I am more used to seeing these characters at Cedar Fair parks and Sea World parks respectively. This was a large and nicely themed kids area with a variety of small, child friendly flat rides. This area is by far the best area for young children I have ever seen in any Universal Studios Park.
Overall opinion of Universal Studios Japan
Universal Studios Japan is an outstanding theme park. The park has a large number of rides and is extremely well themed. I personally felt that this park had the most diverse selection of attractions in comparison to the other Universal parks I have visited.
In a strange way, despite this being my first visit to this park, it felt more like Universal Studios than the current offerings of Universal available in the States. I think this was because this park has not got rid of its classic attractions or those that use practical effects such as Jaws and Backdraft. This is a vast difference in comparison to the US parks where, as we all unfortunately know, have been getting rid of these type of attractions. The ability to still go on attractions such as Jaws and Terminator definitely makes visiting this park a kind of nostalgic experience for anyone who grew up visiting the Universal Studios Florida of 5 or 10 years ago.
On the other hand, Universal Studios Japan also has a good selection of unique attraction that have never been built anywhere else. Several of these attractions such as the Flying Dinosaur, in my opinion, would be very successful if they were one day replicated in Florida or Hollywood. Having only visited this park once its hard for me to rank this park against the parks in America which I have visited many times. Even with my lack of visits to this park, I can definitely say that there are several things about this park that I prefer, as stated in this review, in comparison to those in Florida and Hollywood.
Please check out our on ride video from Jaws at Universal Studios Japan.