Photo TR: Zach's October with TPR in Japan!

I am such a picky eater. It would take me a while to adjust to the food offerings in Japan. Loving the report so far

I am such a picky eater. It would take me a while to adjust to the food offerings in Japan. Loving the report so far

 

I used to be a SUPER picky eater and I still did great in Japan with all of their snack foods, rice, and american offerings. Now that I'm slightly less picky I have even more fun eating over there! Don't let that aspect freak you out at all, you'll be fine!

Tokyo Baseball was in playoff mode, but there was no baseball today. Ask Jew/Joey about his experience going to a game! He'll tell you about all of the wrong decisions I've made!

 

Playoff Japanese baseball where beer is delivered to your seat via keg backpacks > Fuji Q.

Tokyo Baseball was in playoff mode, but there was no baseball today. Ask Jew/Joey about his experience going to a game! He'll tell you about all of the wrong decisions I've made!

 

Playoff Japanese baseball where beer is delivered to your seat via keg backpacks > Fuji Q.

 

So reliable I knew you'd come through!

Well look at all of this extra free time I have! Let's dive back into this trip report.

 

Friday, October 11th, 2019 - Full day at USJ!

 

Our day was already pre scheduled a bit since Elissa set us up with the express passes, which have different times set to ride rides or go through haunted houses. The first express pass wasn't until about noon so we all agreed to start the day with Flying Dino to get in as many rides as possible before the crowds followed.

 

General thoughts:

*I had so many great interactions with the employees in each department!

The op at Jaws who was making fun of me for drinking my 'small beer' slow

Multiple times having a quick chit chat about where I'm from/welcoming me to Osaka

*Food overall was pretty great! Highballs, beers, all awesome.

*Flying Dino was almost a little too uncomfortable for me with the high intensity positive G's, but I get migraines and positive G's are not my most favorite thing. That being said it's still in my top 10. The pace of the inversions, interaction with the land below, and airtime!!! all make it world class.

*I enjoyed BackDrop Hollyood Dream more than others, and we did get lucky with a row towards the back.

*Space Fantasy Black Hole was one I enjoyed more than others as well! I honestly thought the lifts were like launches since you could just barely see the lights of the sensors and other cars spinning by. Would love to try regular Space Fantasy.

 

HHN:

Chucky - It was a hospital theme, where you encountered some Chucky + human hybrids, chaos insues. This wasn't like other 'story' haunted houses. This was more typical American style haunted house with the timed scares. I thought it was really well done, scary, and the finale was very well done! A lot of incredible custom costumes for this one.

 

Alien/Area 51 - This took over one of the staged shows, where you started by being coralled by the military, they shoot a bunch of aliens, they give you a map and codes to crack, then throw you out into a legit maze where aliens chase you around!!! That's outside, then you find the alien's ship, and go into it and try to prevent them from destroying Earth. This was a long one, took about 30-40 minutes! Lots of interaction with the actors. It wasn't very scary in my opinion, but very unique.

 

Biohazard/Resident Evil - Two routes, but they were very similar. Just go to TPR's instagram to see Robb's brilliant footage of this attraction. You help fight the bosses. It's totally interactive. USJ pretty much found a way to put you into the video game with Claire and Leon. It was fucking incredible.

 

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18040213609202710/?hl=en

TPR Insta! Go!

 

 

Our stay at the Universal Port Hotel was so great, can't recommend enough.

Universal Port Hotel

1-111 Sakurajima,

Konohana Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 554-0031, Japan

Phone: +81 6-6463-5000

 

http://www.hoteluniversalport.jp/en/

When staying at the Port Hotel you get access the one of the best spreads for breakfast. Seriously what a treat!

One full typhoon free day at USJ + HHN!

Nailed it!

We've been patiently waiting for this moment....

Her beauty...

Her grace...

She'll fucking bite your face (off) haha

...and then double barrel roll you, flip you upside down, give you some flying airtime. Wow what a ride!

Taking advantage of our express passes and walking right onto Harry Potter!

It's Halloween and of course USJ is beautifully decorated for the occasion!

The regular version of Hollywood Dream was up next! I really enjoyed the backwards version, and like 99% of Japanese parks, you'll have to get lucky if you want a front or back row ride.

That being said, some of the hills felt a lot steeper than they look. It's definitely tame compared to the other B&M hypers, but it just has something to it that made me really enjoy it.

We come out of Hollywood Dream right into this hilarious trick or treat candy party! Bert loved the Halloween Hello Kitty!

The kids all line up, there's a countdown, and Hello Kitty explodes the candy!

See, now it's ready to be raided by all of the kids! Of course, in the most polite and organized way haha.

Yes, they will wand you, yes they will ask you over and over again if you have anything in your pockets. I pretty much started to twerk and turn all my pockets inside out to prove I honestly didn't have anyyyyything on my person haha.

Similar to RRR in Orlando, you can pick your song! Ratata is the way to go!

Apparently this is where Mummy is located if you're looking at the map vs Orlando.

It's a great ride! You all know that.

Ohmygyad, they're actually cute.

I honestly don't know if this is a guest or a HHN actor. That's the level of costume/cosplay fans dress up as to the park. So awesome!

More cute Halloween fun!

I've only been to Japan once, on this trip, but Halloween at these parks really made them extra special.

Japan + Melon flavor = <33333

Heading back over for our first HHN maze, walking through the JP area of the park.

This element isn't overrated, it's absolutely one of the best elements created.

Noted!

Panicking!

Riding it back to back in the morning was really pushing my limits. This coaster is fucking intense and might make your head feel like it's going to explode...in a good way!

Their TRex was working too!

The only butterbeer item that I thought was meh.

Having a beer and enjoying this spectacular view.

It's pretty great, but they need to cover up the ride's building somehow... back here you could see Nintendo land coming to life, too!

Time for the Resident Evil BIOHAZRD mazes! 2 Routes - Robb did an incredible job capturing quality shots, go check out the TPR instagram!

Big fan of all the mazes we did - even with the language barrier we could follow what was happening. It was very immersive and like being right in the game. The level of detail and the custom monster costumes were STELLAR!

A quick black hole spin! Even in the darkness, the final show room was still active. I really enjoyed it even in this HHN mode.

I hope everyone is healthy and virus free!!!!!!

Another spin on Jaws and shout out to Higashino for the expert aim!

Jaws is hard to get photos of, here's what I got from the exit platform.

Taking another ride on Forbidden Journey and taking a look at the fun Halloween decorations.

Ayyy we just graduated

I don't think this guy is as bad as the media is making him out to be

Time for another beer!

Until next time, USJ Hogsmead. It was very interesting experiencing this without Diagon Alley, it feels a little incomplete. I'm sure they will continue adding ...right?

Sun starts to give way to the moon and the park really comes to life.

So pretty! Apparently the weather is excellent before and after the typhoon.

Walking around, sipping a beer, taking in the sunset and having a little photo shoot with Robb. How romantic, right?!

I'd say these next set of photos happened over a few minutes.

Gracious.

Of all the beautiful sights I've seen around the world, this one is up there.

Wow.

Yep, never gets old.

Alright time to meet up for our Backdrop ride, crush some more mazes, and take in the HHN atmosphere!

Your bigness is uh...beautiful, ma'm.

The level of detail on some of these characters around the park were just epic.

Cyberpunk Frankenstein? That's awesome

They would get real close and let you see how excellent the costuming is.

Hollywood Dream looking good at night!

Biohazard's maze went down, so they gave us an express pass for ANYTHING! Guess where we went..

After we got off Dino, Biohazard had re-opened so I got to go through both sides! I didn't think they were very different, they both ended the same way and featured badass monsters.

The park had different monster zones

We checked off everything, had a full park day and were ready for some 551!

I really loved this park. It's going to be even more fun with the addition of Nintendo! It's just missing another great coaster, in my opinion. Hollywood Dream is fun, Dino is a top coaster, but you're not going to be able to get tons of rides on them due to the popularity. Something like Blue Fire would really round out the park, IMO.

The interaction with the park below is very well played.

All Universal parks should have this combo.

Edited March 27, 2020 by PKI Jizzman

Great report! Those sunset shots are beautiful.

 

I was assigned the middle to front on all my rides on Hollywood Dream, which was disappointing since I almost always prefer B&M hypers in the back. But maybe I'll get lucky with the row assignment lottery next time.

 

It's shocking to me that Space Fantasy keeps some of the effects on like that final room even when they have the VR going.

you got some EXCELLENT pictures, Zach!

 

in particular the sunset ones, although my favorite are the ones you got of Hollywood Dream coming out of the building.

what a unique perspective, and such a fantastic picture.

 

so many nice memories coming back today, thanks

Thanks guys!

.......It's shocking to me that Space Fantasy keeps some of the effects on like that final room even when they have the VR going.

 

The "Inside*A*Disco*Ball" Room will live on forever, no matter what happens

with everything else in that great attraction. ***IMhO***