About the Park

USJ opened in March of 2001. Located in the Osaka Bay Area, the park spans 39 hectares. If you’ve ever been to another Universal Studios before, you’ll feel right at home at USJ. The only other Universal Studios I’ve been to was the one in Orlando, Florida, but much of USJ was eerily similar (just in Japanese instead of English, sometimes resulting in mass hilarity).

Like other Universal Studios parks, USJ features tons of rides and attractions ranging from kid friendly rides to thrilling coasters. These attractions are all based on popular movies such as Spiderman, Back to the Future, Terminator, and Jurassic Park. USJ will also be getting a Harry Potter attraction come 2014.

There are plenty of mascots wandering around the park as well. From what I remember, I didn’t see Hello Kitty when I was at the one in Orlando, but you’ll see her everywhere at USJ. USJ is also much bigger on Sesame Street characters for some reason.

My Visit to USJ

I’ve written a bit before about my adventures in Japan, but going to USJ was definitely one of the more surreal experiences. Like I touched on a little before, it was really weird at times experiencing the exact same Universal Studios experiences I had in America, only in Japan. For example, rides like Jaws, Spiderman, and Terminator are so incredibly similar to the ones in Orlando, I would almost forget that I was outside my home country. And then they’d start speaking in Japanese.

I’d also be inclined to say that you’d get more out of the USJ experience if you’ve already been to a Universal Studios in your home country. It was just so entertaining for me to see things I’d already seen before but in a new language. I don’t know if everyone will think this sort of experience is as cool as I did, but I think it was awesome.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap4micAe1zM']

USJ also had a few things that the one in America didn’t. There was an indoor spinning roller coaster called Space Fantasy, and then there was a musical roller coaster called Hollywood Dream that let you choose which song you wanted playing out of your headrest speakers as you flew down the track. From what I remember, the choices were two Japanese songs, Eminem, or The Beatles.

Getting to USJ

Getting to USJ is pretty easy and you can get there one of three ways. You can get there by train on the JR Yumesaki/Sakurajima Line and then it’s just a five minute walk from Universal City Station. All the trains in this area are USJ themed. It’s pretty cool.

You can also get to the park by bus or ferry. USJ is connected with Kansai and Itami Airport, but some overnight buses from other cities in Japan make stops at USJ. There’s also a ferry service by the name of Captain Line that connects USJ with the Osaka Aquarium.

I don’t know if I’d recommend one service over the other, but when we went we took the train and it was super easy. You can always count on the Japanese train system and USJ is no exception.

Expenses and Hours and Such

USJ doesn’t have any closing days and is typically open from 10:00-17:00 during the slow season and 9:00-21:00 during the busy season. A one day pass is about $60 or so for an adult and around $40 for kids.

We went to USJ in the spring and the weather was gorgeous. Just like with any amusement park, it makes more sense to go during the nicer months as the park probably isn’t that much fun when the weather is really chilly.

The only lame part about USJ was that it didn’t have an Islands of Adventure like the Universal Studios in Orlando does. Islands of Adventure has a lot more thrill rides and coasters and stuff than the normal Universal. While USJ did have those two coasters I mentioned above, they definitely weren’t the caliber you’d expect from a traditional thrill ride.

All in all, USJ is pretty great and is a really cool experience especially if you’ve already been to another Universal before. But if you’ve already been to a Universal before and you didn’t like it, chances are USJ won’t treat you any better. I just hope it never turns into one of Japan’s creepy forgotten amusement parks. USJ’s too good for that.

So tell me, have you ever been to USJ or any other Universal Studios parks before? How did you like it? Do you think you’d enjoy going to USJ? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Sites Referenced:
Japan-Guide
USJ Wikipedia

But not every Japanese garden is super traditional and old-school. Case in point, Hitachi Seaside Park.

Hitachi Seaside Park, or 国営ひたち海浜公園 in Japanese, is a government park in the city of Hitachinaka in Ibaraki prefecture.

The park features bright tulips, stunningly blue nemophila, carefully cultivated shrubs. The seemingly endless skies and brilliant colors gives Hitachi Seaside Park an unreal look; some people say that the wispy orange and pink shrubs look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, others say that the picturesque flowers seem like they were painted, not planted.

The pictures of this incredible park say more than I can. Check it out:

Header image by shin–k

The location of the slide is circled in pink

The park that this roller slide is in is quite big. There’s a lot to do here. There’s some sports fields, there’s a “Park Golf” course, which is basically something in between mini-golf and regular golf. Also there’s a water-thing, free parking, and then a play area, which includes the giant roller slide.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SszOmZOS8b8'] Is that Tiger Woods I see in the background?

But really, I think, it’s the roller-slide that would get me here. Remember “Discover Zone” from when we I was a kid?

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsVsh65FH8']

They had a roller-slide too, and I thought that was the best. I’d search and search for it, but it was super hard for me to find (my sense of direction wasn’t good then either). If only Discovery Zone’s roller slide was like this one, though… things are always more fun when you have a chance to fall out of them from highish places.

Oh, and to answer the question in the title – this probably isn’t the greatest roller slide in the world, but I imagine it’s still a ton of fun. I would like to become a child again and go here. Aw, what am I saying. I’d ride it over and over as an adult, too – pushing the kids in line out of the way just because I’m bigger and stronger than they are. So buff.

If you want to visit this place, it’s located in Nakai-Machi in Kanagawa Prefecture. Click on the image below to get the location in Google Maps.

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With a name like “The Site Of Reversible Destiny” you know that it has to be good… or at the very least, weird. For the third episode of TofuguTV (you should watch the video above, before continuing on), my buddy Hiroyuki takes me to Yoro Park, an “experience park” opened in 1995. The theme of the park is to “encountering the unexpected,” and I gotta say, they did a pretty good job. Pretty much everything about it was a pleasant / mildly hazardous surprise.

Let’s Make Things A Little Dangerous

So, I know this whole park was designed by artists (Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins), which is going to make it all awesome and artistic, but as I walked through the Site Of Reversible Destiny, all I could think was… “did someone just want to make a dangerous park for children to play in?”

At the entrance and office, they offer you a helmet. That ought to say something about this place right there. But beyond that, it’s full of steep hills, high places, pitch dark rooms, creepy clown music, and pretty deep holes with trees in them (and guard rails only part way around).

Not shown: The seven children stuck at the bottom of the hole.

But, I imagine the danger was all part of the experience. What fun is an experience park if you don’t get to experience experiences? Half the fun is climbing up things and feeling your way through pitch black rooms. The danger was fun, but that’s only part of the picture. There’s the art side as well.

The best way to describe things, I think, would be to go through a place at a time. I didn’t take pictures of all the locations, but I’ll write here about the ones I did do. For a list of all the locations, you can check them out on the Yoro Park website.

Insect Mountain Range

The Insect Mountain Range is a tall pile of rocks that sit right in front of you as you come out of the entrance building. According to the Yoro Park website, it was “carefully constructed in accordance with Arakawa’s detailed direction.” He wanted to show us that humans don’t have to be subjugated to the natural world. We can, in fact, create “alternative nature” instead.

Oh, and why is this location called the “Insect Mountain Range”? Apparently it’s because of the way people clamber up the rocks like insects in search of water (pictured above).

The best part of the Insect Mountain Range, however, is that you get a nice view of everything else. I didn’t take a picture of it (you can see it in the video, though), but it’s fairly high up, at least when it comes to a pile of rocks. Right in front of it was the Critical Resemblance House, which we’ll look at next.

Critical Resemblance House

The Critical Resemblance House is part house, part maze. The roof is made up of Gifu Prefecture (that’s the prefecture Yoro Park is in) and scattered about are pieces of household furniture. You can see it in the video, but there are things like desks, ovens, refridgerators, toilets, beds, and so on just jutting out of walls and sticking out of the ceiling. It was definitely pretty weird, and fun to work our way through.

Exactitude Ridge

The Exactitude Ridge consists of multiple parts, actually. There’s a bridge-like thing sticking out of the ground that just stops and goes nowhere (see, you’re not alone Sarah!), but then there’s also a small structure that is a reproduction of part of the Critical Resemblance House.

If you make your way inside (you have to crawl), there are holes in the wall (some require a ladder) that give different perspectives of the surrounding landscape. It’s funny how a shape can change your view on things.

Although this seems like a small thing, I think these little holes were probably one of my favorite parts. I really like things that make you look at things in a different way than you’re used to. It’s refreshing to get a different perspective on life (and/or the surrounding landscape, at the very least).

The Great Golf Course Wall Of China

Dominating approximately half of the park was this giant wall that looked like the Great Wall Of China and a golf course had a baby. After leaving the Exactitude Ridge, you’re given the opportunity to scale the wall, all the way to the end.

The wind was strong that day, and the sides didn’t feel all that high… but I guess if they were it wouldn’t be much of an experience (you wouldn’t be able to see too well, and you wouldn’t get as much excitement out of it).

Hiroyuki posing on the wall. Little does he know, winter is coming.

The walkway comfortably fits one person, and uncomfortably fits two (for the couple times we had to squeeze past other people… of course the only time we ran into someone else was on the wall… twice).

You’re able to walk all the way to the end of the wall, where there’s an area to look around and see your surroundings. We could even see Nagoya Station (or, the two big towers, at least), though it was quite far away.

From the wall, though, you can really see the inner area of the park. Inside the park is actually a bunch of hidden Japans… inside Japans… inside Japan. This is the kind of thing dreams inside dreams are made of.

Geographical Ghost

The Geographical Ghost, apparently, has a counterpart known as the “Cleaving Hall” which is apparently even more pitch black. I thought this one was dark, but it seems the other is darker.

Anyways, to get in here you go through a bright yellow entrance that leads into the ground. Soon it becomes dark, and you have to feel your way around dead ends and through skinny passage ways. Eventually, you get to the end: A skylight of Japan. Definitely pretty cool and better in person.

Sadly, though, I didn’t see the “Cleaving Hall.” That sounds like it would have been a lot of fun too.

Destiny House

The Destiny House, I’d say, is less like a house than any of the other places claiming to be a house. It’s on top of a giant map of Japan (in the middle, apparently). It’s supposed to represent ruins of an ancient building. Under the glass (you can kind of see it in the picture) is furniture… once again in a totally useless place. If there’s one recurring theme that Yoro Park keeps bringing up, it’s definitely “useless furniture placement.”

Kinesthetic Pass

The Kinesthetic Pass (see the poorly placed furniture in the middle, farther back?) resides in the area of the big map that represents Kyuushuu (the most Southwest of the four main islands of Japan). Although the furniture in this area is more useable (mostly because they’re not halfway through a wall or ceiling), everything is on a big incline meaning it’s terribly difficult to stand up once you’ve sit down. Everything definitely feels a bit “off” when you’re here because of all the angles. It’s quite fun.

The Other Parts That Will Reverse Your Destiny

Like I mentioned before, there are other interesting things in Yoro Park just waiting to be discovered and experienced. It’s one of those places where if you come here two or even three times, you’ll still find something new and interesting.

There are also plenty of places in the video (top of the page) that show up that don’t show up in this article. There are also places that don’t show up in either (like the “Cleaving Hall,” “The Gate Of Non-Dying,” and the “Trajectory Membrane Gate.” All of them obviously have awesome names, so if you’re the type of person that judges an experience by its name, you should definitely go to Yoro Park someday.

Getting To Yoro Park

The name of Yoro Park in Japanese is 養老天命反転地 (ようろうてんめいはんてんち) … quite a mouthful, but useful if you’re looking for directions on how to get there. Most likely (I’m assuming) you’ll be coming from Nagoya-Eki. From here it’ll probably take you about an hour and a half (by train) plus maybe a little bit more if you take your time walking. You’ll want to stop at Yoro-eki. There’s gourds everywhere, you can’t miss it.

Gourds must seriously be a thing here, though. There’s even a welcome sign written in Gourds… Someone ought to make a Gourd Font.

Anyways, thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed this episode. I’m putting more time in my routine to work on these, so hopefully much less of a wait for the next one. See you next time!

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