Nov 16, 2016
Day 4/8
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
We saved the best for last – our fourth and last day to explore Osaka (before heading to Tokyo) was spent in Universal Studios Japan (USJ). For some, USJ is just another theme park. For me, it was the realization of a childhood dream, or at least a part of it. In July of 2014, USJ opened “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”, which houses the majestic Hogwarts castle fronted by the Black Lake, and the snow-covered little town of Hogsmeade. Since then, it has been a subconscious goal to get there – by Firebolt or Floo Powder or a Portkey or Apparition or what-have-yous, I had to get there.
But it appears I had to take a plane and train to get to Hogwarts. Heading to JR Universal City station!
Come 16th of November year 2016, I knew I was about to have one of the best days of my life. Aged 26 and not a successful Auror, I still looked forward to that day. I didn’t come unprepared – I have been waiting for my Hogwarts acceptance letter since age 11, so it deemed appropriate to dress accordingly. I donned my Hogwarts uniform, red-and-gold neck tie and a matching scarf, worthy of a true Gryffindor, and headed our way.
I almost forgot I had a mom and a sister with me, by the way, who are Muggles.
Welcome to USJ! I was so keen on getting inside WWOHP itself, I wasn’t able to take photos while walking.
USJ Studio Pass/ Express Pass
Prior to the trip, I did lots of reading and I found out that USJ is ALWAYS packed with visitors – tourists and citizens alike, regardless of the day. Sometimes when the crowd is overwhelming, they close the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and only allow those with timed entry tickets. During these unfortunate days, you can get timed entry tickets to WWOHP at no extra costs once you get inside the park, but you have to be really early and the issuance is not guaranteed.
We passed through the “Forbidden Forest”. So nice of them to literally pave the way 😛 So beside me is the flying Ford Anglia that came to the rescue when Ron and Harry were escaping spiders from the forest. You can hear the Hogwarts Hymn while walking. Oh, my Potterhead heart.
Nonetheless, there is another way to guarantee your entrance to WWOHP even on peak days, and that is to get an Express Pass. This is something you purchase on top of the Studio Pass, so obviously this option is more expensive. I figured I cannot risk NOT getting inside WWOHP, so I opted for this. There are many types of Express Passes, but the minimum I should get to ensure our entrance to WWOHP is the Express Pass 4. It is a skip-the-longer-queue-but-you-still-have-to-queue VIP pass for 4 rides, and the HP ride is one of them.
Last year (because a year has passed already at the time of writing this LOL), the Studio Pass + Express Pass 4 combo from Klook costs around Php 7k++/pax, but thanks to Google I managed to find a cheaper option: buying from the Japanese USJ website, which costed me Php5700/pax. Also thanks to a number of blogs that helped me get through the Japanese transaction successfully! The express pass is not available in the English website.
We were greeted by a busy Hogsmeade
Still expensive for Php5700, you’d say? Well I’d say, what a bargain – because of the Express Pass we spent like only 15 minutes in queue to get to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride (which we rode twice), without the pass the queue normally takes 2 hours. We spent around 20 minutes to get to the Spiderman ride (normally 2 hours) and in the Space Fantasy ride, we literally just walked our way directly to the ride itself, which normally takes an hour in queue. We didn’t mind paying a few extra pesos to spare us the time and effort of falling in line, which we could have spent elsewhere while enjoying the park.
Hello Captain! Welcome to Hogsmeade Station!
Honeydukes, home of the finest sweets including Chocolate Frogs
In front of the Three Broomsticks (our go-to pub) is where we can buy Butterbeer!
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!
Mama easily recognized the castle from “Harry Pattern”. True fan fo’ sure – my mom, who just looks like a brunette Mrs. Weasley 😀 And on my right is Dobby.
Shout out to my sister who watched HP movies 1-8 prior to our Japan trip! Although she calls the Hogwarts Express train operator Hagrid..
Straight outta JK Rowling’s head. What started out as some scribbles on a tissue paper… has become THIS. Oh the grandeur of what have materialized.
Channeling my inner Hermione
So we spent like 32 years in front of the castle just adoring it and taking loads of pictures. We decided to use our Express Pass for the first time to experience Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey 4D ride. And so we went inside the castle!
The House Points! With Gryffindor in the lead (red), Slytherin (green), Hufflepuff (brown) and Ravenclaw (blue).
As expected, the paintings are moving and talking to each other.
The Pensieve inside the Headmaster’s (Dumbledore’s) office!
Do you see Ron, Hermione and Harry? I didn’t know they can talk in Japanese! And oops sorry for the flash photography, although it’s not really prohibited. This, by the way, is the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. We also passed by the Gryffindor Common Room – although we didn’t have a picture of it because we had to drop all our belongings inside a locker prior to the ride.
The hype is real! The ride was amazeballs! We played Quidditch and obviously we were on our broomsticks! Woohoo!! It lasted for a good 5 minutes.. that is so worth the queue!
After the ride, this was the way exit, at the back of Hogwarts.
A truly magical Christmas time
After the ride, we skimmed the Hogsmeade shops:
Everyone’s favorite Honeydukes
Chocolate Frogs with collectible cards of the great wizards and witches inside! What card did you get? I got Rowena Ravenclaw!
Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans
Fudge Flies
Exploding Bonbons
The restrooms are called Public Conveniences LOL
You probably guessed that you can hear Moaning Myrtle here. You are right! I solemnly swear that I’m NOT up to no good (for instance, making Polyjuice Potion) 😀
The Three Broomsticks Pub, home of the Butterbeer
Zonko’s Joke Shop is Fred and George’s inspiration for their Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Here you can spend your galleons for stuff like Extendable Ears, which you can use for more effective eavesdropping (only present in the book – not physically available for Muggles, if ever you’re interested :P)
Here you can get a copy of Gilderoy Lockhart’s narcissistic books, if you care about him, ‘coz I don’t
Them woodworks. Can you see the owls? This was in the Owl Post – a.k.a. magical world’s courier/messenger service. They like it better than, you know, FedEx or emails or text messages. Don’t ask me why.
The Owl Post
We went inside Ollivander’s and witnessed a show, recreating the scene where the wand chooses Harry. Here, the wand chose that lucky boy so he gets to take home a free wand.
I love Harry Potter but I’m not gonna spend 4900 yen for a pretty stick
Dervish and Banges, where we can buy an assortment of magical instruments and Quidditch supplies
Like Omnioculars
Broomsticks
Bludgers and Snitches
Sneakoscopes
Robes for all Houses
Even the Monster Book of Monsters!
When in a theme park it’s easy to forget that you’re hungry, except my mom. So we had lunch in Three Broomsticks – Fish n’ Chips, and Pork Ribs Platter.
This is just a dummy of their Christmas Feast which looks really inviting.
Finally I got to taste Butterbeer..
This is cold Butterbeer with a souvenir mug. As expected it was sweet and buttery
A magic show. Look at how everyone sat down so everyone can see. I love this country.
I just regret the fact that we didn’t bother queuing for The Flight of the Hippogriff ride so we didn’t see Hagrid’s hut at the back.
When in Japan – wearing a costume is perfectly normal especially inside a theme park! Just look at that Spiderman behind me
No filter!
It’s easy to forget that there are other areas in USJ that need exploring. As a Harry Potter fan, my USJ area logic would be: Harry Potter, and others. 😀 Darn, the place is HUGE. Since we paid a hefty sum to get inside this theme park, we left WWoHP and quickly explored around and watched the Christmas show. Then, we returned here at night.
I’m never gonna leave Hogsmeade without my stash of Honeydukes goodies
Another round of Butterbeer, this time hot – to battle the 7deg C evening.
The Hogwarts castle looks even more astonishing at night
I left WWoHP with a heavy heart. And a heavy bag of Honeydukes goodies.
I also bought a Time Turner from Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods
I will write another blog post for the other things we did inside USJ outside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! 🙂
Virtually Talkative 