Pinoy Travel Guide: 8 Days Japan Itinerary: Day 3 – USJ (Wizarding World of Harry Potter)

The day we’ve been waiting for, our Universal Studios Japan Tour. But I must emphasize that our main purpose to visit USJ is just because of their attraction:The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

We woke up early to catch the opening of USJ around 9:00 AM and to buy a Universal Express Pass ticket since we didn’t bought it online.

HOW TO GO:

via train:

From Namba Station, ride train via Hanshin Namba Line ( towards Amagasaki) then stop at Nishikujo Station. Transfer to JR Sakurajime Line ( towards Sakurajime) then stop at Universal City Station. Walk few minutes towards Universal Studios Japan.

We are really early but…

What a line!

So we hurry up and went to buy ticket. Sadly, the Universal Express® Pass 7 is already sold out. 🙁

TIP #1:

If your going to USJ, I would recommend you to buy your tickets waaay ahead. Get the Universal Express® Pass 7 which is around ¥6600. You can enjoy 7 attractions including Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey– Must try! and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – The Ride 4K3D without experiencing long lines.

No turning back, we ended up buying regular tickets which cost us ¥7,200. More expensive and not an express pass.

regardless, we’re still excited to enter Hogwarts! 🙂

Hi Harry!

Tip#2:

I’m not sure if the crowd we saw in the entrance is the same everyday? but I’m sure that 99% of them will go first towards Wizarding World of Harry Potter. So if you’re like us who didn’t have an express pass, might as well gear up and run! -which we did haha 🙂

Tip#3:

Since WWHP is very in demand, crowd is limited to enter the attraction specially during peak days, you need to get a time entry ticket first.We are quite early so we got a 9:30 AM pass.

Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ticket Machine (#65). – (Click the map for a larger view.)

Where to go?

First ride: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey!

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a 4K3D ride that lets you experience a magical motion based ride with Harry Potter.

Hogwarts

need to fall in line first:

It took us 30 mins of waiting, quite earlier than expected.

inside the castle:

They are actually moving and talking but in japanese. So cool!

Headmaster’s Office

Sorting hat said I’ll be in Gryffindor 🙂

Didn’t take video of the ride because I want to enjoy it and it really was. Highly recommended!

There is another ride within the area, The Flight of the Hippogriff, but we didn’t try because it’s for kids. We went to Hogsmeade instead.

Black Lake

Hogsmeade

Can’t miss buying Butter beer! Kampai!

Yummy!

Then we had our lunch before continuing our tour so we went to Three broomsticks.

The foods inside are quite expensive but it didn’t matter, we’re hungry.

After eating, we went around to look for souvenirs.

Monster book

The souvenirs are expensive as well. I initially wanted a full set of a Gryffindor uniform but I can’t afford it haha. So I bought an Elder wand instead.

Elder Wand

We’ve spent half of our day just inside the WWHP forgetting that there are more attractions outside. 😛

We went outside and we decided to have 1 more ride more since it took us minutes to wait. So we head to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, another 4k3D ride in and one of the famous ride in USJ.

Here are some attractions in USJ:

Amity Village ( Jaws)