Visiting Universal Studios Japan for the First Time

Universal Studios Japan is one of the reasons for our visit to Japan and nothing could have prepared us for the pure magic of actually being there. It wasn’t just a theme park—it was a full-on escape into imagination. My inner child has never been happier!

Purchasing Tickets

We know Universal Studios Japan is extremely popular and tickets often sell out so I purchased tickets in advance from the USJ’s Official Web Ticket Store. We went with the 1.5 Day Studio Pass, which gave us two consecutive days of fun with entry from 3pm on the first day. This allowed us to spend the first day exploring the park and crossing off a couple of less popular rides.

Park tickets can also be purchased from Klook. It is important to note that tickets only become available for sale 60 days in advance, no matter which avenue you choose.

Getting To and From the Park

Universal Studios Japan or USJ is well connected by public transport, making getting to and from the park very convenient and inexpensive. We followed Google Maps’ directions on which trains to take, and once we arrived at Universal City Station, it was easy enough to follow the crowd through Universal Citywalk towards the park gate.

Fair warning though, the trains to USJ are packed like sardines in the mornings!

Express Pass

USJ offers Express Pass add-on’s that allows you to skip the wait lines at select attractions but it doesn’t come cheap and often sell out way in advance. They can be purchased through USJ’s Official Web Ticket Store and Klook but once they’re gone, they’re gone.

When I priced out the Express Pass, it was actually more expensive than our admission tickets so we opted to suffer through regular wait times and single rider lines.

Single Rider Lines

If you are willing to ride separately, many attractions have single rider lines where the advertised wait lines are much shorter. We made use of this option where we could since the kids are old and fearless enough to sit next to a stranger and 35 minutes beats 80 minutes. Evelyn ended up in the seat behind her dad once while Jordan and I ended up sitting side-by-side on another attraction.

Hollywood

Once you walk through the park gates, you will find yourself in Hollywood, which is the biggest area in USJ. Hollywood is also home to the most attractions, entertainment, restaurant and shops combined of any area and where you can catch the daily parades.

The shops are endless; you can pretty much purchase any USJ merchandise here in Hollywood without even stepping foot in the other themed areas.

Hollywood Dream, one of two roller coasters at USJ, is unique in that it is actually two rides built into one. On the standard version, the cars face forward in the direction of travel, and on the “Backdrop” version, the cars face backwards so you ride backwards for a more unpredictable thrill. The track itself is a single, continuous circuit, and the park operates the two rides on this shared track by alternating the forward- and backward-facing cars. Hollywood Dream was my favourite ride at USJ!

Universal Wonderland

Universal Wonderland is a hard right from Hollywood after entering the park. This area is home to Sesame Street, Snoopy, and Hello Kitty with considerably shorter queues. While this area is arguably targeted for younger children, it is open to all ages and worth a quick visit.

Super Nintendo World

Super Nintendo World is the newest addition to USJ. Due to its popularity, an area timed entry ticket or standby entry ticket is required. You can do that in advance on the USJ app, or on the day of your visit through the app or at a ticket kiosk in the park. We opted for the latter by entering the park early on the second day and securing a timed entry on the app. These timed tickets are limited in availability and surprise (or not!), high in demand, so the earlier you get to the park, the better your odds.

Super Nintendo World was most definitely the highlight of our visit! The whole experience was so immersive and surreal, I honestly felt like I stepped into the world of Mario.

Since it was our first time to USJ, we had to wait 20 minutes for a photo at the iconic entrance (and purchased ridiculously expensive headbands at the retail kiosk conveniently set up right next to the queue!). It is completely free–one of the park attendants will use your phone to capture the photo and record a short 7- to 10-second video of your entire party popping out of the green pipes.

The ride you don’t want to miss? Mario Kart: Kooper’s Challenge! Mario Kart is one of our favourite games to play as a family so naturally, we rode it not once but twice! It was absolutely incredible! The only other ride inside Super Nintendo World is Yoshi's Adventure, which was relaxing and offered panoramic views of the Mushroom Kingdom.

We couldn’t pass up eating at Kinopio’s Cafe (Kinnopio is what Toad is called in Japanese), the only restaurant in Super Nintendo World. A timed entry ticket is also required and reservations cannot be made in advance online. Immediately after entering Super Nintendo World, we headed straight to the restaurant entrance for our tickets, one for each person. We could not choose a time; the ticket was for the next available 15-minute window to return and begin queuing into the restaurant.

Important: You cannot eat at the cafe without a timed entry ticket. If the time is too early, then you just have to come back later for a different timeslot. New timeslots are available every 30 minutes on the hour and half-hour mark. Bear in mind, it takes roughly 30 minutes to get to the order counter and another 10-15 minutes to be served.

While the food was pricier and tasted standard at best, the presentation was perfect and the restaurant decor was super fun. There were a few plastic decorative pieces that you can bring home as souvenirs.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

This Wizarding area is a must for Harry Potter fans! It is a reproduction of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle on an overwhelming scale and with meticulous attention to detail.

While The Wizarding World has only two rides, there are quite a number of street shows, an abundance of retail shops, and two restaurants and a food cart. The interactive wands are probably one of the most popular sought after items in The Wizarding World. Imagine being able to cast real spells! The wands have a reflective, semi-translucent tip that uses infrared light to trigger magical effects at designated sensor-based locations only available inside this area.

We aren’t Harry Potter fans so we limited our time in The Wizarding World. One thing I will recommend is Butter Beer; it is delicious in any form–as a regular drink or frozen drink and especially as ice cream.

WaterWorld

Due to lack of time and interest, we chose to skip WaterWorld but according to the official USJ website and Google, Waterworld is a live, stunt-filled water and pyrotechnics show based on the 1995 film Waterworld. It features high-speed jet-ski chases, daring fire stunts, massive explosions, and a dramatic plane crash, performed in a large arena.

Amity Village

One word and one ride defines Amity Village and that would be Jaws. This area is designed to look like the fictional Amity Island fishing village from the movie Jaws, which limits the number of available attractions and shops.

We dined at Amity Landing Restaurant on our first day and the food was surprisingly really good. The menu was light with limited options, heavy on chicken, making it a great place for either lunch and dinner. The kids got a kick out of the Jaws-themed presentation.

Jurassic Park

The excitement and nostalgia I felt walking through the towering Jurassic Park gates! Like every aspect of USJ, the theming was on point and even better after dark.

To my dismay, the queues for the two attractions were never less than 80 minutes, sometimes reaching 120 minutes, on both days of our visit. That is because Jurassic Park is home to The Flying Dinosaur, the only true roller coaster ride at USJ. If the screaming laughs are any indication as Pteranodon flies above park visitors, this ride is a definite must for thrill seekers. I was more than a little bit disappointed when I agreed to skip both rides. It didn’t make sense to spend one-third of your day waiting in two lines.

San Francisco

The San Francisco area is a pretty solid replica of San Francisco down to the Fisherman’s Wharf sign, Ghirardelli Square, and boats docked in the harbour. Though charming, it was also a tad bizarre because there were no rides here, just four restaurants. We whisked through at a brisk pace. I did hear that you can find a fairly authentic overpriced American hot dog at one of those restaurants!

Minion Park

A small but super cute and playful area of USJ. Minion Park wasn’t overly crowded like everywhere else and it might have to do with it being tucked into the far back corners of the park and the timing of our visit, later in the evening. The queue for Freeze Ray Sliders was a manageable 20 minutes and we spent way too much time in the candy shop.

New York

New York is another oddity as the area boasts only one ride, the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. There is also one retail shop and several restaurants. Spider-Man had an average queuing time of 100 to 120 minutes, most likely as a result of USJ announcing its permanent closure in January 2024. The ride didn’t rank high on our list so missing out was not a hardship.

This area’s urban charm with the classic brownstone buildings, realistic storefronts, and vintage street lamps, does make a great backdrop for Instagram-worthy photos. It is probably going to be the closest I am going to get to feeling like I was on a movie set.

Halloween Horror Nights

USJ’s Halloween Horror Nights is one of the park’s most anticipated seasonal events and it is included with regular park admission. From 6:00 p.m. until close every day, the park transforms into a terrifying playground filled with zombies, undead creatures, immersive haunted houses, and spine-chilling shows.

The experience blew our expectations right out of the water! Promptly at 6:00 p.m., the streets were flooded with zombies, werewolves, aliens, broken dolls, creepy clowns, and let me tell you, the Japanese take Halloween and their haunting responsibilities very seriously! Poor Evelyn did not like horror night at all–she buried her head in dad’s neck while we retreated to Minion Park, one of two horror-free areas. She did manage to enjoy the Zombie de Dance, a less terrifying and fun dance party in Hollywood where zombies danced to pulsing music and dramatic lighting effects.

Conclusion

Universal Studios Japan is an outstanding theme park. The park has a large number of rides to accommodate all types of visitors and is extremely well themed. The staff were very friendly and the facilities were clean and well organized.

It was, however, extremely overcrowded. Unless you were willing to spend an outrageous amount of money, having to choose to queue in long lines or skip certain attractions felt wasteful and made the entire experience less enjoyable.

We still had a good time and would recommend USJ to our friends and family, at least once.