Golden Week v2: Super Universal World

Our day at the Osaka Expo may have been a long one, but that wasn’t going to stop me from finally going to Universal Studios Japan, and hopefully, Super Nintendo World. It was a rainy grey morning, but would that help, or hurt our chances of getting into Super Nintendo World? Either way, we were going. 

Going to Super Nintendo World, a small themed area inside Universal Studios has long been on my list of things I really wanted to see here in Japan. While this area debuted in Universal Studios Hollywood just this year, I still felt like going while in Japan would be a one of a kind experience. 

Now, I’ve heard mixed things on just how easy that was to accomplish. I’d seen various posts saying you should get there an hour or two before the park even opens, so that you can get a timed entry ticket to get into the Super Nintendo World section of the theme park. These timed entry tickets are limited, and depending on the volume of people in the park, you may not get to go. 

After our day at the Expo, and knowing the weather wouldn’t be ideal, neither Henry nor I were exactly raring to get up extra early and stand out in the rain. By the time we actually got to the park, it was about 10, and I was doing my best to temper my expectations, just in case things didn’t go our way. 

It was coming down pretty hard, so we stopped in at a convenience store and grabbed some cheap plastic ponchos to keep us somewhat dry. With those on, we made our way through the security. The line wasn’t more than about 15 minutes, which was nice. The weather may have dissuaded some park goers, and while it wasn’t a holiday, it was Friday, and part of Golden Week. 

As soon as we got through security, I pulled off to the side, pulled out the app, and navigated to the timed entry section. Holding my breath, I tapped on the icon, and saw two different time slots available. I let out an audible squeal as I checked with Henry, only half listening for his response as I picked the earliest entry available. 

As soon as I saw a QR code showing our reservation I took a screenshot. Over the next few hours I would tap over to this section of the app, double, triple quadruple checking that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. I could hardly believe our luck, and to me, it more than made up for getting none of our reservations for the Expo pavilions. 

With a few hours to kill before our entry, I was all smiles. I opened the park map on the app, and started guiding Henry around the park, not that I really knew where I was going. If I saw an attraction that seemed to have a short wait time, that was our next destination. Our first stop was Amity Village, and the Jaws attraction. 

I’ve been to Universal Studios in LA at least twice, and knew there was something Jaws related, but I didn’t remember it having its own ride. After about a 15 minute wait, we were seated onto a tour boat, and our tour guide began to speak over a microphone. They spoke mostly in Japanese, so I felt a little bad for Henry, and I only caught bits and pieces, but most of this attraction was visual anyways. 

As the boat began slowly sailing around a little village, we began to see the Jaws animatronic shark stalking our boat. Our tour guide pulled out a little prop gun and fired at it. We had a dramatic encounter hiding from the shark in a warehouse, before finally the shark electrocuted itself by biting into some electric wires. It was a fun little story, and by the end I realized it was an expansion on the Jaws cameo during the LA studio tour, which of course, they don’t have in Japan. 

Once we finished, we headed into the Jurassic Park section of the park, hopped in line for the Jurassic Park ride. Now this I knew had an LA equivalent, so I was curious what the differences might be between the two. I’d also noticed by now that Universal Studios Japan had more specific theming between the different areas, which I appreciated. The LA location felt like an extended movie set, which had its own charms, but here each area felt a bit more evocative. 

After about 20 minutes, we were ushered into a large raft, and had a bar placed across our row securing us in place. We floated down the track, seeing various animatronic dinosaurs, with the roar of a dreaded T-rex in the distance. We then entered a warehouse, which felt like a departure from the LA ride. The ride began to escalate, and once we finally caught a glimpse of the T-rex, we plunged down the final drop. We were already wet, but thankfully we didn’t get any wetter. 

I’d consider this to be a fairly low intensity ride, but once we finished, Henry let me know that was about his limit. Everyone has different levels of tolerance for roller coasters, and without lots of exposure over the years, my limit would probably be about the same. Though over the years, I’d come to crave just a little bit more thrill. 

We had time for about one more ride, so I found the ride with the next lowest wait time, and we headed over. This ride was brand new to me, it was called Hollywood Dream, the ride. This section of the park was aptly the Hollywood section of the park, evoking various Americana, like a classic 50’s drive-in dinner. 

As we reached the line up, Henry let me know I’d be going solo for this ride. I felt a bit bad making him wait, but going by myself let me use the solo rider queue, which would be a lot faster. The solo queue was pretty empty, and within minutes I found myself near the top of the track. I’d given Henry my bag, but they wanted all loose objects placed in a box, so I took my phone from my pockets and placed it in a plastic box. 

I took the box with me, and before long, was directed to a row on a coaster with 3 other riders. We walked through the coaster, placing our respective boxes on a shelf with our row number, before taking our seats. The quirk for this rollercoaster was that you get to choose music to play during the ride, a fact I slowly gleaned while staring at buttons labeled with various music tracks. I picked the only one I knew, which happened to be “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift. 

After they double checked the individual lap bars, we began climbing up to our first drop. As we crested over the top of the drop, the song kicked in, playing at full blast from my seat speakers. The ride was pretty fun, reaching a top speed of 90km/h (56mph), and was over in a flash. It scratched that coaster itch, and I had a small rush of adrenaline as I met up with Henry. 

It was getting close to our timed entry into Super Nintendo World, but we were both getting pretty hungry, Henry also needed a restroom break. We found one back in the Jurassic Park section, and I had a quick smoke while I waited. Once we were back together, it was almost time to enter the park, and so we decided to push through. 

I thought the lineup would be longer, and I worried we would get turned away for being 5 minutes early, but as they scanned our code, and welcomed us in with a Mario style “Let’s Go!” fist pump. We would do this several more times, and I was certain it would get old, and yet, it never did. 

As we approached the large pipe which served as an entrance, I saw a cart with the power bands. These accessories worked in tandem with aspects of the park, and while it was another expense, another $50 or so, I didn’t even blink twice before buying one. I offered to get one for Henry, but he turned me down. I got a princess Peach band, my favorite color, and proudly put it on. 

Once we went through the pipe, it felt like I stepped into a dream. I never imagined the park would look just as cool in person as it did on social media. This was probably the most game-like experience I’ve had in real life, and I relished every second. There were blocks scattered around you could hit with your power up band to collect coins, and mini games that you could line up for. 

The first mini-game I played was with two other adults, and we had to touch colored blocks within a certain time limit in order to get a key. I cleared my side faster than both of them could, and felt a small twinge of pride. We got the key easily, which was a relief since the group before us failed. They wanted you to win of course, but there were plenty of small kids that made it a bit difficult to adjust for. 

After that, I figured out the goal of this area was to collect 3 keys in order to have a final showdown with Bowser Jr. It was a fun structure to explore the park, and in the app you could see all the badges you could collect and things to look for. I promised Henry one more game before we went looking for lunch. 

Next I played a quick mini-game, collecting a power up before touching the screen and demolishing some poor goombas. From here, they funneled us into another group game with a key on the line. I was playing with 3 young kids, so while I wanted to make sure we won, I wanted to make it fun for them. We had to collect pieces of a medal, then arrange the pieces to complete the shape. I tried to guide them without taking over, and hopefully I struck a good balance. 

We finished our goal and collected our prize, though the youngest still broke into tears and had to be rescued by his parents. I hoped it was nothing I did, and sheepishly left the attraction. We explored for a bit more, before finding ourselves in the Donkey Kong section. It had a bit of a different vibe, and the crowd was a bit thinner. It was finally time to get some food in us. 

There was a hot dog stand nearby, so we grabbed a hot dog and a drink, and found a small seat to perch on while we ate. Once we finished, we explored the smaller Donkey Kong area, finding a few secrets before going back to the main area. I wanted some kind of memorabilia, but a lot of the Mario merch seemed pretty goofy. As we wandered through one store, I found the perfect baseball style Luigi hat, and knew I had to grab it. 

With my new hat equipped, we did one quick mini game to grab our final key, before heading to Bowser Jr.’s dungeon for the final showdown. This game allowed up to a group of twelve players, though I think we only had 9. To my delight, Henry got to join in for this game too! We had to throw fireballs, jump, and duck to defeat various enemies, and eventually Bowser Jr. himself! 

Triumphant, we reclaimed the Golden Mushroom, and with that, it felt like our adventures in Super Nintendo Land had reached its end. The lineup for the rides in this area were quite long, almost two hours, and almost no ride would be worth that. I could tell Henry was a little tired after our long day at the Expo, and I was quite satisfied, so we started winding down our time. 

We left Nintendo Land, and did a somewhat obligatory lap around the Wizarding World, before leaving the park. By the time we got back to our hotel room, we both crashed. I think I took a 2 hour nap before waking up to venture out in the evening. We made our way to Dotonbori, probably the most iconic district of Osaka, and went to an okonomiyaki place for dinner. 

Somehow, we ended up going out for drinks that night, but we didn’t stay out too late. Despite only being at Universal Studios half as long as we were at the Expo, the compound exhaustion was rough. Tomorrow would be a big day too as we try to tackle Kyoto, but I knew this was an ambitious vacation from the start. 

I’ve talked a lot about how good this trip was, but perhaps from the length of this article, you might be able to guess that for me, Nintendo World takes the cake. It was such a delightful experience, and really felt magical. Even if you can now see this in LA, I have a feeling that going in Japan is still a singular experience, and will likely be one of my favorite moments in Japan when I look back at my time here.