Universal Studios Japan was not some place I expected to visit on a random Saturday in November.

The park currently has several attraction-filled sections, such as Hollywood, New York, Minion Park, Jurassic Park, Amity Village, Super Nintendo World, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Wonderland and a Waterworld show. 

Unlike the Disney Parks  located in Tokyo, Universal Studios Japan is located in Osaka. That means this theme park is just over an hour away from my college dorm. On Saturday, my friend Nathan and I spontaneously traveled to Universal City Station for a visit. 

I have previous experience visiting all four Disney parks in Orlando, Florida, so I was excited to go to a new theme park. 

During our trip, I noticed four elements of Universal Studios stood out to me in contrast to my time at Disney. 

The first thing was that the lines at Universal Studios Japan are incredibly long. Each ride had over an hour long wait time with the longest time being 130 minutes. I’ve heard of wait times being over 180 minutes, so I believe this is a common occurrence. 

These wait times, however, are exaggerated, which is the same at the Disney Parks. The shortest time I had to wait for a ride was 20 minutes. 

The next thing to note is how Americanized everything is. The park is filled with intellectual properties and films made in the United States, save for the Harry Potter franchise. 

This makes sense since Universal Studios is an American-based company, but I found it odd that although the signs were in English, the ride narration wasn’t. 

The park does have two attractions themed after anime, but both of those are located in the Hollywood and New York sections of the park. 

I found the Americanization to be most prominent in Amity Village, the location of Jaws The Ride. Amity Village is a small fictional tourist town in New York from the film “Jaws.” 

The queue is filled with photos of picturesque American families or tourists, and even the videos shown are dubbed from English to Japanese. The ride, however, is entirely in Japanese. 

Every park in Disney World Florida has a United States-themed section, so it’s not unheard of. It’s just kind of odd to see this kind of theme in a Japanese theme park. 

The third unique feature I saw was the large number of shows and kiddy rides throughout the park. 

I hadn’t heard much about the entertainment for younger visitors, but there were options for kids and families everywhere. 

Those aren’t things that appeal to me, but I’m glad that in the sea of huge and innovative attractions, the park designers made sure to include something for everyone. 

The fourth element of Universal Studios Japan that surprised me was how dynamic every ride was, that no ride was one thing alone. 

What I mean by that is that every ride was presented in a unique way and combined at least two special effects or pieces of technology to make it an original experience. 

For example, Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey takes visitors on a tour of Hogwarts and iconic scenes from the movies. 

The ride vehicle syncs and sways with the movement of the screen, so I really felt like I was flying on a broomstick. The vehicle also moves through physical environments with animatronics that got right in my face. 

I was able to experience being almost walloped by the Whomping Willow and spit on by a giant spider in the same attraction. 

Even the roller coasters have something extra added to them to make the experience special, like a virtual reality headset or a playlist to choose from on the ride. 

My time there felt extra exceptional even though I went into many of the rides without prior knowledge. I had a great time and wish I could go again but, ultimately I’m satisfied with the day I had.

Liz Curtin can be reached at [email protected].