My hotel is in maybe the worst area of Osaka, but maybe in Japan that’s like the best area of Detroit. It is pretty close to the train tracks which means I can hear trains going by quite often.
Today I saw the Namba area of the city, including another Apple store (only two floors, not as impressive as the Tokyo one). And then continued on through Den-Den Town which is an electric town area like Akihabara in Tokyo, without all the tourists. One store had had retro video games. I played the Nintendo Virtual Boy (one of their failed products). I also saw old Japanese computer systems like the MSX on sale for $20-$30, the equivalents to a Commodore 64 for example.
The big thing for today was visiting Universal Studios Japan. I’ve never been to Universal Studios in the USA, so I figured this was my chance since it was 15 minutes away covered by my Rail Pass. I’ve also always wanted to go on the Back to the Future ride and I learned it was closed this year in the USA making here in Japan the last and only place to ride it. I wasn’t sure if going the whole day for $50 would be worth it since all the rides were in Japanese anyway, but then I noticed if you enter after 3PM you get a discount. So I came back later at 3PM and got in for $33.
Inside the park I first saw a Waterworld stunt show, which was great. Lots of explosions, water effects, and the highlight was an airplane launched over a wall directly at the audience landing in the water. Looked unbelievable. They had some Halloween theme shows going on in the park too, since it is October. Next was a Backdraft ride. It was really boring at first, since you had to stand and watch behind the scenes videos of the movie. But then the last room comes around with a factory on fire and you can see tons of fire effects, explosions, and barrels flying up in the air, so I think it turned out all right. Then I went to the Spider-man ride, which was pretty exciting. I stood in line for the Jurassic Park ride, but it was shut down while I was in line, so I decided to leave.
Then I went to the Back to the Future ride. They have a time machine Delorean outside (not the actual movie prop, but close). I was surprised this ride had one of the longest waits in the park, I think because it is sort of clumsy loading and unloading people into the ride, maybe that’s why it has been closed. It was pretty good since there was new things filmed using the actors for the ride. They have 8-person Deloreans that you get into, even fitted with digital speedometers and displays showing your current and last time. Went to the year 2015, and then the ice age, and then one of the dinosaur ages and back again.
Afterwards the Jurassic Park ride had no wait, so I went there. It is a water ride including an 85-foot drop, so pretty exciting. The park was about to close and they were closing attractions early, so I went on whatever I could. I went on Snoopy’s Great Race, which is a small roller coaster. And then the very last thing open was Sesame Street 4-D, of all things. The attractions closed at 7PM, so it was a short day and there was a lot I missed. I kind of wished I was there for a full day now. There was a Peter Pan’s Neverland show at 7PM with actors flying a hundred feet up in the air on cables which was kind of neat. Still, I wish I could have seen the Terminator ride, ET ride, Jaws, ride, a big roller coaster, and a few others. I didn’t bring my camera inside the park since I didn’t really want to deal with that on some of the crazy rides, so no inside the park photos.