Tokyo DisneySea and Universal Japan

We just returned from our first trek over to Asia, visiting Japan and visiting the "tourist trio" city combo of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Originally, we had planned to visit more parks (Fuji Q, Nagashima Spa Land, Tokyo Dome, etc...) but over time when planning, we wanted this trip to be less park based and to simply enjoy Japan and those cities we were visiting. There was no shortage of things to do and really happy with our choice.

The first of the two parks we did was DisneySea... I'm honestly not the biggest fan of the Disney properties in general, but Disneysea looked a bit more interesting to me and it was somewhat of a must-do if we ever was in the area.

The park itself is easy to get to via public transportation, requiring us from our hotel outside of the Ginza area to take two subway lines and transfer to the monorail to get to the park. Not the most convenient, but efficient and easy and I believe it took around 45 minutes give or take.

The entrance plaza and hotel area looks fantastic, it looks grand. Upon entry in the park, when you walk out of the entry area and see the large volcano across the lake, it just looks epic. The park is of course, spotless and pristine.

The entire day, we only rode a single attraction... Sinbad... Which was really cute. It was the only ride we rode simply because it was the only thing we passed with a half decent wait (10-15 minutes) with everything else in the park was no shorter than 2 hours that we saw (2-3 hours was typical). It also didn't help that Journey to the Center of the Earth and Indiana Jones were both down for maintenance/overhaul. But honestly, no real big deal... We really just wanted to explore the park and enjoy various food/drink around the place.

On a side note, was happy to learn we were able to enter the new area (Fantasy Springs), as I am super out of the loop and last I read it was all reservation based or requiring to stay on-site to enter the area. Both day and night, the area looks beautiful. Without Fantasy Springs, I feel like the park would seem a bit small overall, this really adds some good real estate to the park.

Food wise, we mostly stuck with the quick service stuff... Picked up a Sausage on a stick/bone, Gyoza bun, mochi, a pastrami sandwich and some bacon wrapped rice item. Prices were great, the usual trend outside of the US, and quality was good. Of course, a few beers along the way too.

Once the sun went down we made another lap around the park and just enjoyed the ambiance. Overall, the park really reminded us of Phantasialand and Islands of Adventure in terms of look/theming, loaded up with the typical Disney attractions. It was wild to see the huge queues for popcorn all over, which had to be anywhere from 20-45 minute waits easy. The Japanese really get into the popcorn here!... Also, the gift shops. Queues outside of most shops to even get in to look around. Queues also stretched out of ride areas down the midway, but all really well organized and orderly. I know there are fastpass available or whatever they call it now and people arrive early to get reservations and all that, but I didn't care enough to even try.

Overall, the park was beautiful and had a really nice vibe. It was fun to explore the property and I enjoyed how it felt a little less Disney than the other properties and the crowd itself was far more tolerable. It certainly felt more "adult" which I appreciated. If anything, a signature thrill attraction wouldn't hurt in a future addition. Next time we find ourselves in Tokyo I wouldn't need to go back honestly... It was nice to see/experience once though, for sure. I think if you are a big Disney fan, obviously, it would be a must-do.

Days later after taking the Shinkansen to Osaka for the second half of our trip, we found ourselves at Universal Japan. We bought this ticket months ago when tickets immediately went on sale, along with a 4-ride express pass which often sell out immediately and chose the express pass that includes Flying Dinosaur, Timed Entry to Nintendo with ride access to Koopa's Challenge and Mine Cart Madness and a choice of either JAWS or Jurassic Park.

Access to the park was easy and the train station literally drops you off in Citywalk which looks familiar to all the others. Approaching the entry gate, you are greeted with the Universal globe and seeing Hollywood Dream sprawl across the entryway.

Upon entry in the park, we headed right for Hollywood Dream to get it out of the way (60 minute wait), but I was greeted by the ride host who took me behind a wall to the test seat in which I pulled the lapbar down and was basically told I was "no go"... Even though, the color indicator on the lapbar was showing probably 1" of room. I never once have had an issue riding any B&M, nor am I ever close. I was confused by this to say the least, but from what I could understand they required like 2-3" of the B&M lapbar indicator in order to ride... So needless to say, did not ride this one. Bummer, but oh well.

After that, we headed over to JAWS... It was always one of our favorite rides in Orlando before Potter yeeted it out and it was incredible to be able to experience this ride again. The ride itself looked so good (the sharks and such all freshly painted) and well maintained. Every effect was on/working and we just absolutely loved it... Line wise, never saw the queue over about 40 minutes, with the single rider line taking that down to 5 minutes or so. Ended up riding this three times, twice of those at night, which is the best time to experience it... Our final ride gave us a special gift, but more on that later.

After our first JAWS ride we headed over to Flying Dinosaur... I was a bit nervous now that I would get profiled and not be able to ride this, but thankfully it was non-issue here. The wait was 2 hours but thanks to our express entry, waited about 5 minutes once you get through the locker area and metal detectors.

We boarded row 6 and from the moment we left the lift, what insanity is this thing? This thing is in a league of it's own, being one of the most crazy rides we have ever ridden. Very intense, amazing elements, pops of airtime (much like FLY, airtime on a flying coaster is a unique and appreciated sensation) and very good pacing... I expected to like this ride, but we LOVED it. Wow, what a ride. I was sad that the line maintained 2-3 hours all day, so I totally expected that to be our only ride on it, sadly.

At some point on the app I was able to secure entry to the Nintendo area earlier than our express time later on the evening, so we then headed there and entered our first Nintendo World... What a cool area, it's so lively and fun! The theming is stunning, Universal knocked this out of the park. At this time, we just explored around, grabbed snacks and walked through the gift shops before heading to the Harry Potter area to get all confused on where in the world we were at and grab a beer.

We grabbed more food, walked through some shops and headed to the Minion area. We rode Minion Blast which we had no idea what it was, only to find a standing shooting ride that moves you around on conveyor belts. Was pretty cool!

Took another ride on JAWS at this point before heading back to Nintendo for our express entry and rides on Koopa's Challenge and Mine Cart Madness. At this point, its dark out and the area at this point just looked even more stunning. Absolutely love this land.

We used our express to get on Koopa's Challenge, which has you put on a headset and you aim at targets with your eyes/head and fire with the little steering wheel. This was a fun ride, but I would much prefer just all physical sets and projected screens or something over the 3D glass and hat setup and all that. It was solid, but not something I had to do again.

Mine Cart Madness though was a blast... Really enjoyed this one and wish it was a little longer or had some more "dark ride" moments or something, but a very cool concept. Much preferred this over Koopa's Challenge.

At this time we were going to head out to grab some food (Shake Shack in Citywalk... After a week of a lot of Japanese food we were ready for a burger!), we wanted one last ride on JAWS. We did single rider (standby was only like 15 minutes) and I was planned to go on the boat in front of what the other half was going to be assigned, but due to some rider count issue, they had me loop back and we go to ride together on the next boat.

This is important because at the end of the ride, it broke down. We got 'stuck' near the unload platform for an entire 10 minutes (ha) in which supervisors and crew were running around to get us off/unloaded. We ended up getting one-time express passes for the inconvenience, which was a blessing as we were now able to ride Flying Dinosaur one last time on the way out. YES! So glad I didn't get on the boat before, otherwise only one of us would have gotten the express pass.

We headed right over to Dinosaur, assigned row 5 and go our final night ride... And it was even more insane than the first time. This is up there with Ride to Happiness, X2 and other more extreme rides (maybe not AS crazy as those, but for a flying coaster the pacing and elements are just top-tier). B&M and Universal hit a home run on this thing... Jealous that we don't have this ride in the states... I wouldn't mind if Universal further expanded USO to include this ride next to Velocicoaster...! haha

That finished our visit to USJ which was fantastic. Compared to DisneySea, the ride lines were a bit shorter, but most of all the single rider lines were a huge help. Food was comparable quality I thought, maybe USJ as a bit ahead for the items we tried. We had a great time at both, but Universal is obviously much more our speed and would be a "go back" park for us, while Disney we could do without. But obviously both top tier parks, just our preference.

In addition on this trip, we ended up doing 4 different "Teamlab" experiences (Planets and Borderless in Tokyo, the Botanical Garden in Osaka and Biovortex in Kyoto), which I highly recommend... Out of them all, if you could just do Borderless in Tokyo, that is the of the bunch for sure... Some stuff repeats between the various sites, but, they also offer unique rooms/experiences in each. Anyway, well worth at least visiting one if you can! Some pictures below, which don't really do it justice, as they also hit up other senses with wonderful ambient music, smells in each room, etc... Its therapeutic.

Japan as a whole was incredible. It's a beautiful country with very friendly people and the culture is just so quirky and fun. It exceeded our expectations and look forward to getting back and exploring of the country outside of the big 3 cities.

I'm planning a trip to Japan, plus possibly Hong Kong (but probably not Shanghai) with my daughter to celebrate her doctorate. What were your impressions of Kyoto and Osaka? We would probably not bother with Universal this trip; this would be more to explore those cities. We are definitely going to spend time in Tokyo.

Tokyo was our favorite of the three, with Osaka shortly behind, followed by Kyoto (even though it is still amazing). There is so much to do in either Tokyo or Osaka, you can't go wrong spending a few days in each. Kyoto we only did a day trip as it only takes some ~30 minutes by train to get there from Osaka, so it's very easy to get to.

In Osaka, if you are into hikes and such, take the train up to Minoh Falls which was incredible. A solid 45-minute hike up to the waterfall with stunning scenery, one of the highlights of the trip.

Both Tokyo and Osaka have endless food options, shopping and all the quirky Japanese stuff. Usually it's pretty easy for me to pick a city we liked more for whatever reasons, but they almost feel equal. I'd gladly spend more time in either city... Both wonderful.