Universal Studios Japan was a definite to-go for us, as it was the only place apart from Florida which boasted The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Well, fast forward four months later and we now know that Universal Studios Hollywood is also part of the wizarding action, but back in December 2015 it wasn’t. And anyway Japan is much closer to us than the United States is. Thanks to early-risers Ai and Ru, they managed to kick me out of bed so that we could utilise the most daylight in this land of dreams, stage lights, and magic.
We bought our tickets at the counter and proceeded to queue up in front of the gates, along with the rest of the early risers.Photo source: Ai.MFW the gates to Universal Studios Japan open for the day and people start running towards The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Kanchiong spiders, the lot of them!Thanks to our being the first batch into the park, we managed to breeze right into Hogsmeade. We didn’t realise just how lucky we were until we left the wizarding compounds hours later and saw that people had to take queue tickets just to enter. Waking up early was worth it.Ru can’t stand rollercoasters, so she left Ai and I at the queue for it and wandered off to explore Hogsmeade. She caught the live owl showing! Lucky~Photo source: Ai.Got ourselves some Butterbeer. We chose the warm option as it was quite chilly. Apparently it tastes better chilled, so we’ll have to try it again next time. Warm Butterbeer was interesting though – the mix of bitter and sweet was pretty easy to down.Cheers!Ru’s shoes chose that moment to die on her, so she left to buy herself some $80 Snoopy sneakers – it was the only place which sold shoes. She was also kind enough to take Ai’s and my empty Butterbeer cups to wash while we headed back into Hogsmeade for some shopping.We eventually met up again for foodings in the main park. Minion Omurice for lunch!Minion cupcake at Pink Cafe! I don’t even like the creatures that much, but they were pretty irresistible.Somehow we managed to convince Ru to join us at The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man 4K3D ride.Mini model of the ride in the dome.Actual size.Souvenir-shopping.Dessert.I love domed murals.Outfit of the day wearing Uniqlo jeans, Zara coat, Dresslink beanie, Spurr shoes, unknown bag. Photo assist: Ai and Ru.