Wandering Fel

Hmm, should I get a wand instead? After all, I will not be able to go to Hogwarts without a wand in hand, right?

A long line was spotted in front of Dogweed and Deathcap, a shop in Hogsmeade which sells exotic plants and flowers. Deathcaps are known to be poisonous mushroom though. I wonder if the store sells a poisonous enoki or shitake instead. LOL. That would be a pity though because both Japanese mushrooms taste so yummy inside soup. 

Ladies, here are the perfect place for you to take a break. How about having a tea time at Madam Puddifoot's Tea and Cakes?

If you are talking about the must-have-snack at Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I would vouch for the infamous Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Hehe a fun jelly bean to eat with a group of friends. 

That has been a great fun, even though we missed out riding all the attractions in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter due to the long queue. I'd probably save my money to go to the one in Orlando instead. XD

'til then, bye bye Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. 

But don't let the atmosphere up there fool you, the crowd is going as strong as ever and they seem to be pretty determined walking toward a certain goal...oh wow, that hat is just...so Japanese. Hahaha.

All of them seem to be walking toward the legendary ferocious shark which has inspired the classic Hollywood movie, Jaws. You can take picture while acting like you are gonna get swallowed up in the giant mount of Jaws. 

When we arrived near to the ride, this is the condition of the queue. Oh my gawd. Thankfully Jaws is a boat ride and one boat can cater to quite a lot of people, I guess. 

With that guess in mind, we decided to just brave the crowd and join the queue. 

Thankfully, the queue moved up pretty fast (definitely faster than the queue for any rides at Wizarding World of Harry Potter, really). One guide will be stationed for each boat. The setting of Jaws ride is all of us are tourists who visit the peaceful Amity Harbour. The guide is really fun to look at as she is so expressive even though whatever she says is scripted. Hahaha.

Your boat will have some kind of "technical difficulty" here after being struck by something under the water. And before you know it, the fun part will happen and I will not spoil it to you. You just have to ride it. 

After the ride, as usual, you will need to follow the exit path which leads to souvenir store. That's a cute Jaws packaging really. I mean, who ever think Jaws can be made into a cute packaging? Hahaha. 

After that mad dash to secure timed ticket to enter Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we were ready to explore the other areas of Universal Studios Japan. First, welcome to New York! Universal Studios does bring New York closer to the other part of the world. I have not had the chance to travel to New York yet and hence, I have totally no idea how authentic USJ's recreation of New York. But still, it is quite a fun feat to wander in "New York". 

Subway's entrance which...leads nowhere. XD

New York area in Universal Studios Japan is the perfect area to take a lot of pictures. Not many people are flocking to this area in the morning as they are busy queuing for the rides and attractions. I was able to take picture easily without being photobombed by so many people. 

The mandatory big yellow taxi shot. 

Oldies record emporium. By the way, if you go to a store called Wonder Pix, you will have the opportunity to transform into an actor/ actress and come away with a fantastic photo like a scene from the movie. We had no chance to try this as we were rushing for time, but, if you have spare time, do give it a try. Sounds interesting, really. 

And here we are, at the main reason of why there were no other people photobombing my photo earlier. Everyone was rushing to the Amazing Spiderman ride. Don't let the queue overwhelm you with fear though. 

If you don't mind splitting with your buddy for a while, you can go for the single-rider queue. You can still queue together with your buddy. It's just when it's time to board the car, you will be seated together with three other riders. I ended up sitting with three school boys while my buddy sat with three school girls. It was quite a funny experience. Once the ride ended, you will be led to the souvenir store where the cute Spidey merchandises are sold. ^^

If you are a One Piece lover, there is one official store of One Piece here to. However, I think the biggest One Piece themed store is currently located at Tokyo Tower, where the One Piece Theme Park is located. 

After walking through those buildings, we finally saw the entrance to Universal Studios Japan. The theme park is very crowded as we visited the park during one of its peak season. It is highly recommended to purchase your tickets beforehand. If you reside in Singapore, you can pre-purchase your ticket at JTB outlet in Ngee Ann City. 

Before entering the theme park, it is a must to take picture with the Universal Studios Globe. Hahaha. I did that in Singapore too (many times actually). As you can see, I am so ready to enrol into Hogwarts. 

One day ticket to Universal Studios Japan costs 7,400 Japanese Yen (with tax). That is equivalent to USD 66. I guess theme park is not a cheap attraction, really. Universal Studios Singapore has roughly the same price for its admission ticket. The website mentions that Universal Express Pass is available for purchase only at the theme park itself. However, we did not know how early we must come in order to secure this passes and as we expected, there were no more passes for sale when we arrived. For your information, we arrived at 9AM, you see. 

Oh well, without Express Passes, life must goes on and so is our adventure in Universal Studios Japan. Our adventure starts from Hollywood area. We have not visited the real Hollywood yet so I guess this one will do for now. Hahaha.

If you love to take pictures with the characters, you will face some stiff competition in Japan. I find that there are two fiercest competitors for photo-taking session with characters. One group is the Japanese schoolgirls while the other is the Japanese children. Surprisingly, there is hardly any proper queue for photo taking as everybody's busy asking Snoopy for his attention (and pictures). Crazy stuff. 

I should probably invest my time in queuing for the ride instead of fighting for Snoopy's attention. But, I guess everyone has different priority in theme park. Hehe. 

And yeah, the Japanese school girls do wear their uniform when they go visit theme park. Can't blame them though. Their uniform is cute. <3