I had an early start the next morning for my day trip to USJ. Since Osaka was a bit further away, I took an early Hikari train, getting me to Shin-Osaka Station at 8:15am. I then transferred twice before finally arriving at Universal City Station in time for opening at 9:00am. 

I bought my admission tickets way in advance back in September. In addition to paying for general admission, I needed to buy a Universal Express Pass with an Area Timed Entry Ticket to get inside Super Nintendo World. Since my timed entry wasn’t until 11:20am, I spent some time in the morning wandering around the park. I stopped to line up for Hollywood Dream – The Ride, which was my first time being back on a rollercoaster since Disneyland a couple years back. The line up was super orderly and they even gave me a pair of elastics to wrap around my shoes in case they go flying during the ride. I wasn’t even sure what those were for initially, but the staff ended up putting the elastics on for me when I was seated, so that was nice. 

After leaving Hollywood, I went over to Amity Village to use one of my express passes for the Jaws ride. I even lined up to take a photo at the front. (I’m pretty sure I have the exact same shot from when we visited Universal Studios in Florida during middle school.) 

Later on I walked through Jurassic Park, then finally Minion Park, where I used my second express pass for the Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem ride. I think by now I realize I hate rides with large projection screens, cause I have a tendency to get nauseous with all the movement. Thankfully the ride was short enough that it didn’t do any harm.

Finally by 11:00am I started making my way towards Super Nintendo World. As all the entries were already sold out that day, there were a lot of staff at the entrance making sure everyone had valid tickets. Once I got in, I was immediately astounded by how real the park looked. It literally felt like I was stepping inside the game brought to life. I took a few obligatory photos in front, then I made my way down to check it out.

Initially I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to buy a Power-Up Band, cause it was an extra expense I didn’t want to pay for. However I figured since I was there, I might as well get the full experience and try my hand at punching blocks to score points. It was a lot of fun being able to pair up with the app, but I didn’t end up collecting that many points or finishing so many challenges. =P

My first ride inside Super Nintendo World was Yoshi’s Adventure. With the express pass I bypassed most of the waiting, which was nearing two hours, and got on fairly quickly. The ride itself was short but super cute. There wasn’t much happening on the ride as you were mainly just taking in all the scenery, but it was fun nonetheless. 

After the ride I decided to try my luck at Kinopio’s Café. Since it was nearing lunch time, the line waiting to get in was out the door. I forget how long I waited, but it was probably around 45 minutes before I was able to place my order and another 10 minutes to get the food delivered to my table. 

I figured since I probably won’t get the chance to eat there again, I ordered as much as I thought I could possibly eat. I started with their mushroom soup, then the chef’s special gratin hamburg, and finally an order of their block tiramisu. When the server brought everything to my table, they offered to take a photo for you while you do a fist pump and shout out ‘okie dokie’. (I obliged with the fist pump but decided to stay silent while the photo snapped lol.)

Everything minus the mushroom soup tasted great, but I definitely ordered too much food. Since it took me so long just to get inside the restaurant, I made myself finish as much as I could, then headed out to go on my next ride. I opted to not pay extra for additional express passes, which meant I had to wait in line for Mario Kart. However, I figured that was easier since they had single entry lines I could take advantage of, which actually did save me some time. Mario Kart was a lot of fun. So much fun that I ended up lining up to go on twice!

I still had one express pass to use for Spiderman, but I wasn’t too keen on going on it, so I ended up staying in Super Nintendo World for the remainder of the day to play all the Power-Up Band Key Challenges. The line ups took forever, but I finally managed to collect 3 keys to face off with Bowser Jr. in the Shadow Showdown. I also got a snack at Yoshi’s Snack Island and tried their calzone with yakisoba and cheese and bought their Fire Flower drink bottle. Everything was totally on brand and I really enjoyed my time in the park.

It was starting to get dark by the time I left Super Nintendo World. Most of the other attractions had long lineups, so I decided to browse through the gift shops before heading back to Nagoya. I ended up taking an earlier train and sat in the unreserved seats, getting to Nagoya before 9pm. Since I hadn’t had dinner yet, I walked over to my favourite Misen for a bowl of their Taiwan ramen. It was a great end to the day!