Osaka | Universal Studios - StyleChe | A Fashion and Lifestyle Blog from Macau

[Photos by Leon Lee & yours truly]

What a way to celebrate my quarter-life birthday right? Maybe I am having a quarter-life crisis. Universal Studios Japan, and especially Harry Potter World, were right on top of my must-visit places in Osaka. I didn't care that it would be crowded, or cliche, I needed to go there badly. So much so that Leon and I got our tickets online by booking it on the Japanese website, having to translate then type in our name and details in katakana Japanese (since you couldn't book tickets online for any other language), and we got express passes. We never get express, because we don't really get into every ride at a theme park, only a few choice ones.

Thankfully we did though, because the lines were just crazy. Without express, it would have taken us 260 minutes to enter Hogwarts, no kidding. Being in Harry Potter world ignited the 12-year old in me when all I ever wanted was my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Hermione is my spirit sister. Seeing the Hogwarts Express, checking the real-life magic sweets at Honey Dukes, walking around Hogwarts and drinking butterbeer all gave me a sense of nostalgia and wont for the good ol' days of obsessing over everything HP. I had to send my fellow HP nerds updates. Hahhahaa. Just like high school again.

USJ is all you can think of, and more. The Japanese really go all out with their themes and costumes. Oh, and for some reason it was halloween at the park. So people came dressed as angels, demons, sexy cats, you name it, USJ's got it. I also realised how they don't stop from getting their freak on. See those little scary zombie girls above? Well, there I was minding my own business when there was a loud explosion. Like, an actual explosion, which startled everyone around. Leon went to look, and then asked me to go too. Then there they were, and they actually started chasing people around. In another corner, a man was seemingly being eaten by zombies, screaming. Oh and there was a zombie with a freakin' chainsaw, walking around like the zombiepocalypse was suddenly starting in USJ. Turns out it was all part of a surprise zombie walk, where the zombies would dance to the tune "Thriller" then start chasing people again. No one had any idea. I was terrified of course, I am terrified of zombies. So I was running around dodging zombies too. I guess you could say it was a big surprise for what is supposed to be a children's park. But it's part of their charm. And we got our revenge with the role-play zombie killing live-game. So freakin' cool!

Anyways, whew, this is one long post. But I hope you get a sense of the wonder and awe I felt when I was there. And if you ever find yourself planning to go to USJ, you can contact me and I'll walk you through the online ticketing process =) Anyways, see you soon! - Che