My experience with Universal Studios (and Nintendo World)

A few days ago I went to Universal Studios Japan. I ordered my ticket in advance through kkday. I didn’t get the Express Tickets because they are waaaay too expensive, but I did get the special entry ticket so I could get into the park 15 minutes early. The main reason for wanting to go was Nintendo World

Set my alarm for 05:30 and was walking to the metro station at 06:00. I arrived at the entrance of the park around 06:45 and there already was a MASSIVE crowd at the entrance. Literally thousands of people. Luckily the special entry helped (even though that line was huge as well) and I got in the park around 07:30. They said the parks opens at 08:00 a.m. that day, but I read they open earlier than that.

Even though my line had early entry, people started running for Nintendo Land. So, I started running as well… Into the park, took a right, ran past the hanging shark and Jurassic Park into the entrance of Suoer Ninte do World! I was in!

Super Nintendo World is pretty small, but oh so cool! It really feels like you’re in Mushroom Kingdom haha! Everything moves and is decorated in style. I went for Mario Kart immediately and got on the ride within 5 minutes (single rider). The ride itself is awesome and reminded me of a mix between the Ratatouille ride and the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland.

After exciting I went to the Yoshi ride. Really made for kids, just slow cars over a rail going past cute Nintendo characters and worlds. Nice to do if there almost no line, but defintely not worth waiting over 30 minutes for.

I saw people walking around with bracelets, so I went to buy those. Got 3 of them (at 30 bucks each!) as souvenirs and tried one of them out. You can play games and hit the yellow blocks to collect coins. You can also find keys to open up another ride in the park, but I honestly couldnt be bothered by that time, because every one of the games already had a huge line for it. There’s one little game that looked cute, you have to roll this goomba of a “cliff”. Takes about 30 seconds, but looked fun. Almost 40 people in line at 08:30 a.m.

At 08:30 I got in line for Toad’s restaurant. The restaurant opened at 09:00 and there was already a huge line. Makes sense, as people got up really early as I did. The wait for the restaurant was around one hour and once I got in I oredered a Koopa burger, Tiramisu desert (in the shape of a question block) and a Star Lemon Soda. The food was good, definitelty better than the Kirby Cafe, but overpriced as expected. The restaurant is cool to see, nice decorations!

After breakfast/lunch I walked around Nintendo Land to take some videos and pictures and left the Nintendo area of the park. There was a huge line outside for timed entry, so I was really glad I bought the special entry!

Walked to the Jurassic Park area, and here’s where the hating began: all the rides had a line at least 2 hours long! And this was at 10 am in the morning! I’ve been to Universal in Orlando years ago so didn’t need to do all the rides again, but I wanted to do the Jurassic Park rollorcoaster and 1 or 2 other rides in the park. I did none of them, because all the rides I wanted to do had lines up to 190 minutes(!!). Hell nah that I’m waiting 3+ hours for a 2-minute ride.

They simply let waaaay to many people in the park, but Japanese are used to getting in line. Even at the hotdog and drink carts in the park you see huge lines of people. I swear there was a line around the block for a Spy x Family cupcake or churro, must’ve been at least 1 hr wait time. Those weren’t exceptions, literally ever restaurant/ride had long wait times.

I met up with a guy who I met the day before at the hostel. We walked around the park for the rest of the day without going into rides. We did go and see the Jujutsu Kaisen 4D movie and got Butter Beer near Hogwarts (30 minutes in line). Also got a beer at an “Irish Oub”. It was a beautiful day, so walking around the park looking at stuff, going in shops and just hanging out was fun enough. But if I hadn’t been to Universal in Orlando before and hadn’t gotten in Nintendo, I would’ve been severly pissed and disappointed.

All in all, if you ask me: is it worth it? I would say no. Unless you really want to go to Nintendo World or Wizarding World and don’t mind waiting in line for 2-3 hours (even for single riders), or don’t mind spending almost 200 bucks on entry tickets alone … Maybe if the Nintendo hype dies down or it’s low season and the park isn’t fully sold out… Yes, then I’d so definitely so it. But definitelt don’t go during sakura season 😉