A Day at Universal Studios Japan

I've always thought of myself as a Disneyland girl, is that weird? Princesses are definitely my thing. When I was living in Paris, I couldn't even count how many times I set foot into Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park. I had excitedly looked forward to visiting both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, and both were so much fun!

But, hey, I cannot be in Japan with an extra weekend to spare and not go to Osaka to check out Universal Studios Japan, can I? I gots to!

I am so glad I went because the studio was AMAZING. It's vast and gorgeous; like Disneyland, there is no way you could finish checking out every crook and nook in just one day. I'll take what I can get, though! I had the greatest time even though it was the bleakest day imaginable; it was cloudy when we arrived and by the time we finished our first ride (Back To The Future!), raindrops were pelting my face and clothes. But I soldiered on!

Because of the rain, I didn't manage to take as photos as I would've liked—even the photos in my camera have this grey hue from all the clouds. But I'm happy that I have enough photos to look at when I'm missing USJ!

Pink Panther making his round

Hello Kitty awwwwwww but I have to say, I have regrets not taking a picture with this cutie pie

But I got one with THIS cutie pie—Cookie Monster!

Well, this Hello Kitty would do, and I swear my head isn't magically floating here

They sure love their Minions here!

The DeLorean!

Haaayyyyyyy *wiggles fingers in the air* hi Ernie look at you holding my hand and all

Shah and Elmo!

One thing I notice about Universal Studios Japan is the fact that all these characters are walking around and freely mingling with visitors. Disneyland holds a "first come, first served" principle when it comes to meeting your favourite characters, where you're asked to form a line to take a photo or to get their autograph (you could buy an 'autograph' book for this purpose, should be fun!).

In USJ, though, you just sort of slip next to the character when you get the chance i.e. when no one else is as quick/brave/no-shame as you are, tap the character's shoulder (seriously, everyone was doing this) and ask for a photo (or a selfie, which looked way more fun to be honest). This proved to be a bit of a problem for me as I'm pretty shy and kept letting people take photos ahead of me, so I needed words of encouragement from Shah.

I had only about two to three hours around these areas as I spent most of the day in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (post coming up soon I hope!) which meant I didn't get to cover that much ground, so I would definitely love to be back to USJ some day!

There is a Universal Studios in Singapore, just right next to Malaysia ,which I've never been to. That might be a travesty to some as it is really, really close to home, I know, I know, so...maybe soon?