Universal Studios Japan: Spy x Family Scavenger Hunt Review (Including Answers)

My family and I (Americans) went to USJ during the 1st week of April. We love Spy Family, but I only speak some Japanese and I cannot read Japanese. We went to USJ with a local Japanese friend who is fluent in English, but doesn’t know Spy Family. I wanted to give a review, hints, and finally spoilers at the end for the final answers in case anyone is pressed for time. (We were slightly pressed for time and could not find answers on Reddit, so I wanted to post this for others who might be in the same boat, or don’t speak any Japanese and want to see the Spy Family show)

**REVIEW:**

We don’t like scavenger hunts in general, but this was the best scavenger hunt we have ever done. It was actually very fun and it took multiple of us to put our heads together to solve the riddles and puzzles. We love Spy Family and enjoyed all of it, even though it was all in Japanese.

START – you need to pick up a pamphlet early in the day! When you pick up your pamphlet, it will determine what showtime you get. There are limited showtimes! After you successfully solve the scavenger hunt riddles, return to where you got the pamphlets and give them the secret word. You receive your ticket to enter the show later in the day. You will need one pamphlet per person in your party + one ticket per person after you solve the hunt. They hand out pamphlets next to the Spider-man ride.

THE HUNT – It’s basically 5 locations within USJ that you have to walk between. Each place is less than a 5 min walk and they’re all high traffic areas towards the middle of the park. (You don’t have to travel deep inside Harry Potter land to for any of the puzzles). At each location you use the clues from the pamphlet to solve the riddle to get the clue to go to the next location.

FINALE – After you get to the last step, you will figure out the secret word. You give the secret word to the staff who handed you the pamphlet. They will then give you tickets to enter into the show, which is another 5 minute walk away. Make sure you have enough time to get the tickets and then walk over to the show since the show is not in the same place as where you get the pamphlets!

THE SHOW – It was great and fun (even though we don’t speak Japanese)! Even though I’m marking as spoilers, I am just giving a light description of the show: >!It’s a live action show with Loid and Yor played by real people. At the end of the show, Loid and Yor pose for pictures on stage with a stationary Bond (no live action Anya). You can take your selfies here, but you can not approach the stage.!<

**TIPS AND HINTS:**

* Yes, this scavenger hunt is all in Japanese. If you do not speak Japanese, you will seriously struggle to where it is impossible. Google translate will barely help because the main limitation is being able to read kana. If you’re very determined, you MAY figure it out if you use Google Translate PLUS you can read out loud kana (katakana in particular). Some puzzles require piecing together some katakana to get answers to move on. Without our native Japanese friend, we would not have solved it.
* If you’re an English speaker and want to try and solve the puzzles, find a translator app or katakana table where you can read the sounds of each katakana. If you can sound it out loud, you may be able to figure out what the word is. For example “WA I FU” would be “waifu” or wife. “NA I SU” would be “naisu” or nice. Just using commonly phoneticized Japanese words as examples on how to read katakana.
* The scavenger hunt took roughly 30-60 minutes, with most of it walking time.
* You technically do not need to do the entire scavenger hunt to see the show. They will not know. You may only need to complete the last mission or even just know the final secret word. If you’re pressed for time or you do not speak Japanese, but wish to see the show, you can reveal the spoilers below.
* The last mission hints (we struggled the most on this one).>! If you’d like, you can immediately skip to the last step of the mission as soon as you get your pamphlet. Go stand between the restaurants Lombard’s Landing and The Dragon’s Pearl. Look towards the building corner that sits between those two restaurants. You will see some plain clothes staff dressed in a bright red cap. Go up to them and tell them the secret word!< >!”Bond”!< . >!They will give you a sticker for the final puzzle. Place the sticker on the page with the brick wall and use the sticker to complete the picture of the moon.!<
* Final tip to solve the last puzzle. >!The puzzle will require you to fold the maze page in half. (This folding step was not obvious to us.) Create a nice even vertical fold directly through the small diamond hole. You will need to combine this with the newspaper cypher to read katakana out loud across the two pages (maze page + newspaper) to get the final word. Note that the cypher needs to be placed in a way that the folded page + newspaper cypher combines to reveal the WISE symbol. It was seriously pretty cool when WISE appeared. !<
* Additional tip: >!look for an arrow on the page that points to which line to read horizontally across the two pages.!<
* FINAL ANSWER. Only reveal it if you give up or just want to skip the scavenger hunt entirely. >!What is Anya’s favorite food?!< >!ANSWER: Peanuts.!< >!You walk back to the people who gave you the pamphlet and tell them the secret answer and you will receive the admission ticket.!<

**MY FINAL THOUGHTS:**

It was a high quality scavenger hunt and fun if you speak/read Japanese. Because it takes awhile, it may be good to have someone wait in line for food or wait in line for a super long ride while the rest of the party does the scavenger hunt. Time is precious at the park, so if you really want to see the show and skip the scavenger hunt, reveal the answer in the spoilers and just return early to give the answer and get your show ticket.