Uiversal Studios

The last full day of Tokyo was slated as a day at Universal studios.

Naturally the day began with an iced coffee, which in Tokyo is like cold filtered coffee or espresso served with ice and tiny containers of gum sugar and coffee cream. We have developed quite a taste for them and will miss them on our return. We spied a Danish bakery the other day in the subway that we made a bee line for, and afterward, left to ask for help in the more confusing Osaka rail network. The rail lines are privately owned so making a multi-line journey can take a bit of thinking. There is, however, a very polite attendant at every junction. Very helpful and very Japanese.

Added to the list of something you don't see every day.

Universal had its own rail stop and we managed to arrive just on opening. It was great!
With the exception of a small hiccup with express pass ticketing at the start, the day was smooth and we timed it almost perfectly, getting to ride on every attraction we wanted, with enough time remaining to ride the less important attractions.

We started with Hollywood Dream which was the parks biggest roller coaster and quite a lot of fun; one of those dangly ones that require you to put all your backpacks, glasses, caps and pockets full of change in a locker before riding. A great scare followed by a really fast ride. Sharon shut her eyes for the duration but still felt every turn and freefall.

Here it is about to scare the living snot out of a bunch of fools.

Some of the rides were showing their age, particularly jaws which was updated from the boring ride Sharon and I had experienced at Universal in the USA all those years ago.

Two pleasant surprises were the Spider man Ride and the Terminator 3D ride. Even though we couldn't understand the woman introducing the Terminator ride, we could see she was asking people where they came from. The crowd of about 150 people sheepishly raised their hands with "Kyoto" or "Tokyo" answers and bragging rights seemed to be going to the visitors from furthest away. Sharon put up her hand (we were right up front) and the lady pointed to her; "Australia!" she squealed and said something grandly that caused the whole crowd to applaud. Pretty funny. Then she mentioned something about it being winter in Australia and we said yes. Laughs all around.

The Jurassic Park ending. A huge T-Rex screams at you and you drop a few stories into the river below. Worth it just to get wet!

A hot dog in the shade.

The mandatory "Back to the future" shot. That car was cool.

San Fransisco clam chowder.. A dish Sharon dreams about regularly. :)

Planning our next ride.

There was a rather good Waterworld show that had this plane (without wires) zoom into the arena. Sharon got the shot just as it landed.

Cooling off station in Jurassic Park world.

The other rides we did (for the record) were:
Backdraft
Back to the future
Jurrassic Park
Jaws
Space Fantasy - Which was an indoors roller coaster but the cars you sat in spun 360 degrees as well. Freaky.

We stayed till after the night parade. It was extremely humid by then and we tried to beat the crowds back to the train.

At the exit was the spinning globe logo.

We caught the train back home. It seemed much further away after such a tiring day. Then we packed for the plane flight early next morning.
Our hearts were heavy as we contemplated leaving. I know we have seen Japan through holiday goggles, but there is so much that is great about the people and the culture; so much we didn't fully understand before visiting (and before Kit's excellent instruction). We were really touched by the place and would most highly recommend it as a destination for anybody.

We wish we could write a note to all the people we met and who had showed us such kindness and patience and thank them most sincerely.