Balloon Shapes By Cops » USJ

USJ and ET

Silentjim — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:03:52 +0000

We were shocked to discover that Universal Studios Japan were closing down the ET ride in May after 20 or so years!
Guess he was finally going home (ahem)

Well we had to check it out one more time – mainly for the bit near the end when he says your name (you have to tell it to an assistant at the beginning of the ride, who stores it in some barcodey card thing).

I wanted him to say “Terry Swails” – a character from A Bit of Fry and Laurie – although I’ve just found out he also does weather on the internet at TerrySwails.com.
Neat.

Anyway, back to USJ…so I said “Terry Swails” to the Japanese girl at the counter, but the poor girl had no idea what I was saying so we ended up with “Te—reee”.

Which was nice to hear EeeeeTeeee say.

The weather wasn’t too good so the park was fairly empty, just 15minutes queue time for Spiderman and the Hollywood Dream roller coaster (where you get to listen to The Beatles as you roller coaster along), but everyone was also saying goodbye to ET so that queue was about an hour.

No idea what they’re going to replace it with but hope it’s as much fun as the Munchkin Merry-Go-Round in the Land of Oz

The Munchkin Merry Go Round

Universal Studios Japan

Photographing and Fingerprinting

Silentjim — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:40:06 +0000

At the end of last year Japan set up a new immigration system where all foreigners (even those with permanent residency in Japan) get photographed and fingerprinted when entering Japanese airports. Similar to the American system.

Obviously most foreigners are a bit upset about this (me in particular as having a work visa, last time I came through immigration I could skip the “Alien” queue and go straight through with the Japanese people, it took about 2 minutes to get through as opposed to the hour long wait I had before – now I have to go back to the long queue).

This system is put in place to stop terrorists, undesirables and previously deported people coming back (I believe they’ve stopped about 30 since it’s been in place). (As an aside the only terrorist attacks in Japan so far have been by Japanese people).

I think only Japan and America have this system in place, although I was amused to hear Brazil’s reaction after America set this scheme up. They only fingerprint American’s coming into Brazil. hehe.

I was even more surprised when, recently we went to Universal Studios in Osaka, and now everyone is photographed (not just foreigners, thankfully) going in at the turnstiles. I guess this is to stop terrorists or other unwanted people too, although there was no explanation given for it.

I wonder how many other places are going to set up similar systems in the future. Going to the local library or supermarket might become a slower process.

It’s not as bad as England though, where I read that some pubs and clubs fingerprint people going on a night out!

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Christmas in Japan

Silentjim — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 07:05:25 +0000

Happy New Year everyone!

So, someone asked about Christmas in Japan, so here we go…

It is celebrated here, but really only in the Christmas decorations, santa and eating Christmas cake way. Not much religion involved (bit like Britain these days I guess).

They really seem to enjoy it and have fun, where else would you get pizza’s delivered by Santa! (It’s true, saw loads of them).

We went to Universal Studios Japan at the beginning of November and it was all Christmassy-fied.

Universal Studios Japan

Big Ol' Christmas Tree

Christmas Jaws

It’s kind of a couples holiday as opposed to a family one, as it is in England and maybe other western countries. Couples buy presents for each other, and spend the day together – or rather the evening, as it’s not a national holiday, so everyone goes to work as usual.

We were lucky this year, as on the 23rd it’s the Emperor’s birthday, which is a national holiday, but seeing as this was a Sunday this year, a lot of people got Christmas Eve off instead. Which was nice.

There are a couple of traditions to do with Christmas in Japan. One is the Christmas cake. On Christmas Eve, you have to queue up in a cake shop and buy a strawberry cream cake (they have other choices, but that seems to be the most popular).

My first Christmas in Japan we went to the Hankyu department store in Osaka to get the cake, and it was terrifying! Thousands of pushing and shoving cake-mad women – I was the only guy there, the other men knew to stay away. Never again! This year I went to a small shop in Ashiya, but even that was packed.

Christmas Cake

The other tradition, is, seeing as they don’t really eat turkey here (very hard to find, managed to get one this year though! ), roast chicken, or more precisely, Kentucky Fried Chicken! This seems to be the Christmas dinner.

One thing I was surprised about though, coming home from work on Christmas day, all the trees had been taken down. It kind of finishes early afternoon, and that’s it. Everything comes down, and New Years
decorations go up (that’s the big celebration here…more on that another day).

So that’s Christmas in Japan. Santa delivering pizzas, strawberry cream cakes and KFC. Nice.

Universal Studios Japan

Silentjim — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:06:34 +0000

Well we have a year pass, so it would be wrong to waste it. A couple of weeks ago we went to USJ, which is only about an hour or so from here by train. V. convenient.

They have a new rollercoaster, Hollywood Dream, where there are speakers in the seats and you can choose from 5 songs (Eminem, 2 Jpop, Bon Jovi and the Beatles). I went for “Get Back”, by the Beatles. Aki screamed her way through Bon Jovi.

Hollywood Dream USJ

It was great fun, and scarier to look at than ride on (the drop at the beginning is not as steep as you think).

Jurassic Park log flume has a bigger and steeper drop! And more water.
The best ride was probably Spiderman (still), with it’s 4D effects and crazy CGI. Although it also had the longest wait, at 90minutes. The other rides averaged at 30-40.

My other favourite ride was strangely, Peppermint Pattys Water Chute – you sit in a little 2 man dingy and race down a water slide.

Finished the day off in a really nice but a bit expensive izakaya.

Can you see the join?

Didn't buy them by the way

Some nice sushi