Are We Finally Going? (A Pre-trip/Trip Report)

[TwingleMum]

We arrive in 10 days so I am really enjoying your report. Can I ask "We headed out to Shibuya in the late afternoon. Saw scary mural in the subway station " what is the scary mural?????

 

[soniam]

Fifth/Last Day in Tokyo

Went to the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Yoyogi Park. It's very beautiful but definitely different from Senso-ji. We really liked the garden though. This was what we thought the Imperial Palace garden would be. It has beautiful water features, flowers, and nature.

Next was Kiddyland in Harajuku. First, we had to get a donut, since it was National Donut Day in the US. We went to some place we found nearby called I'm a Donut?. There was a line partly down the sidewalk. Husband got the special fresh pumpkin batter donut. I got the fig and cream filling. Son got chocolate. They were so good and so light and fluffy. They reminded me of Krispy Kreme as opposed to most US donuts. They weren't gigantic either, which was nice.

Kiddyland was so cool. It's a toy store. They had every favorite Japanese character you can think of, Snoopy, Ghibli, Sanrio, Disney, Pokemon, anime. We bought some Snoopy stuff, other plush, and Ghibli pins. Our son bought a Snoopy tie.

We were all getting hungry but weren't sure what to eat. My husband found a TGI Fridays just around the corner. I normally would not want to do this, but our son needed something real. Plus, they had cocktails and salads for us. We also got potato skins. It took ahwile for them to take our order, but the food came incredibly fast. The food was pretty good; they had sour cream for the potato skins. I don't know where they got sour cream. I got a blackberry Long Island Ice Tea. It wasn't sickly sweet like in the US.

We then headed to Shinjuku for some shopping at Flagship Disney Store, Kinokuniya, Daiso, and Donki. I bought more cool bags and a couple of cool shirts at Disney. We just looked at the first floor of Kinokuniya, which is a famous Japanese bookstore. We hadn't been to Daiso yet in Japan; not sure how that had happened. We got some snacks and leisure/picnic mats. We bought more Kit Kats and Pocky at Donki. I hadn't bought the apple ones at the Mega Donki and regretted it. The Shinjuku Donki had the sakura & kinako, strawberry & adzuki bean, hojicha, and manju flavors.

On the way back to the hotel, I bought some matcha and chocolate warabimochis from near Senso-ji temple. It's raw mochi covered in matcha or chocoloate shavings; it's more like a covered jelly blob. My husband and son went to get him a pocket wifi, since AT&T still hasn't unlocked his phone or even updated the status/contacted us since we put in the request a week ago. Ugh! I see a long hold time with customer service when we get back to fix the issue.

More laundry fun and packing for Osaka.

Here are some pics. First is a cool subway warning poster. Next is a cool building in Harajuku. Last is a Donald 90th birthday banner outside the Flagship Disney Store in Shinjuku.

 

[soniam]

We arrive in 10 days so I am really enjoying your report. Can I ask "We headed out to Shibuya in the late afternoon. Saw scary mural in the subway station " what is the scary mural?????

It's called "Myth of Tomorrow". It's a mural in the subway station. It was done in the 60s. It's very apocalyptic and post WWII feeling. Kind of frightening, but very understandable considering where the Japanese mindset was at the time.

 

[soniam]

First Day in Osaka

We headed out to Osaka mid-day on the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station. Since we had our luggage, we got a taxi. Got some food from 7-11 in the station: egg salad sandwich, ham & cheese rolls, croissant, pastries, bottled green tea, coke, and sake. We had to go pretty far to find the 7-11. Getting around the station with our luggage wasn't great. I wouldn't do it with children. We got an elevator to get to the 7-11 but had to use the escalator to get to the platform. We are 3 adults, each with a checked size suitcase, carryon/backpack, and a smaller bag. There were some elevators, not many. Sometimes they had long waits. There were escalators, but they are narrow and steep. Also, the walkways have these rough areas that I think are for the sight impaired. They grab your suitcase wheels. Also, there’s usually a surface height difference or gap between the platform and train, so you have to lift your bag. I would ship the luggage with kids or fly into one city and out of the other. Other than the luggage, the trip wasn't bad and fairly easy. I bought the tickets online from JR-West before we left the US and picked them up at the Tokyo Station. The other strange thing was that we had to feed the Shinkansen supplement ticket and the base fare into the ticket gate at the same time. When exiting the shinkansen portion, the machine took that ticket.

We stayed at the Park Front Hotel right in front of Universal Japan with a Superior Floor Park View Triple that I booked on booking.com. I only did it with them, because their site was very clear about how many beds we would get and became available before the hotel's site. Checkin was easy, and the room had a great view and was spacious. We ate lunch at Hard Rock in City Walk. We scoped out some potential future eating places and bought a lot of garbage and breakfast stuff from Lawson. I have been hating this hat I wear when I am having a bad hair day or my hair is just ugh. The hat is really too big for my small head. They had this cool hat store, and I finally found a cool replacement hat. Japanese woman have some of the coolest, nicest hats, so I was happy to have found one here. I almost bought one that looked very Yoko Ono, but it looked big on me.

These are the views outside our room. The last is some super yummy honey butter mascarpone potato chips.

 

[Disneyhanna]

Sounds like a great couple of days! I never made it to the Shinjuku Disney Store, just Shibuya, I actually didn't make it to Shinjuku at all which means something to do next time! I tried some warabimochi a couple times as well, interesting stuff. All the luggage does sound like a challenge, the heat/humidity doesn't help at all does it! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Universal, I didn't have time this trip but would definitely consider it for a future trip.

 

[TwingleMum]

I've been thinking of not taking our checked luggage on Shinkansen to Kyoto and just using a luggage service to forward it to our next Tokyo hotel since we will only be in Kyoto for 2 days. Your ordeal schlepping your luggage convinced me it's a good idea.

 

[Nakkira]

Then we made our last stop, Mega Donki. That place is a crazy zoo but was worth it for the Kit Kat variety. I was disappointed in the snack selection though. We finally got everything and walked out with a gigantic heavy bag of sweets. Our son bought some cheese bread. It was raining at this point, so we stood outside in the rain and ate it on the sidewalk. We luckily had umbrellas. He was still hungry. We were worried anything he would eat would be closed by the time we got back to the hotel, so he got another. We stopped at the 7 Eleven near the hotel to get water, snacks, and of course, the first egg salad sandwich of the trip. I love egg salad and was surprised to hear about it in Japan. I think I might have another tomorrow or maybe try the onigiri.

The Japanese convenient store egg salad sandwiches are a mist have. Also been longing for the strawberry cream ones.

 

[Nakkira]

We headed back to the hotel but went to the grocery store in the basement of Asakusa Station. They have a bunch of individual stalls selling food. We got some pastries and an ice cream melon bread. We mostly needed water though but ended up buying snacks and candy too.

I have never had the melon bread with ice cream! How was it?

 

[soniam]

I have never had the melon bread with ice cream! How was it?

It was good. Also had the strawberry version.

 

[soniam]

The Japanese convenient store egg salad sandwiches are a mist have. Also been longing for the strawberry cream ones.

I never saw the strawberry, only grape. I haven't seen the fruit sandwiches much at all though. Maybe they are gone by the time I get there.

 

[soniam]

Second Day in Osaka

We decided to do Himeji another day, since it was raining. I looked at the USJ line at 7:45am for an 8am park opening. This was a Sunday. They were already letting some people in, and they were testing Hollywood Dream. We ended up doing stuff in Osaka. We went to Osaka Castle. Universal isn't very convenient to the rest of Osaka, but we would spend most of our time at the park. It usually took us about 20-30 minutes to get to most in things in Osaka. The castle is in a pretty park. We lucked out. The castle is really a museum, so most of it was inside. It's an interesting museum and definitely more interesting than the Tokyo National Museum. It was also a lot more crowded. The castle isn't orignal at all and was last rebuilt in the 30s. It has been rebuilt several times. If you have been watching Shogun on Fox, then you will be familiar with a lot of its story. The outside is very pretty, but it's mainly a museum with hardly anything of a castle inside.

We decided to go to Den Den Electric Town next. We stopped at a crepe place, Cosco, in a mall near the station on the way. Our son got butter crepes. I got tuna and cheese. Hubby got avocado and ham. We got bubble tea and chocolate bubble milk. Pretty good. It was sprinkling some once we got there. Den Den is kind of like Akihabara, but more spread out. Our son started walking into a store with "adult" toys, but soon realized what was happening and turned around. It was pretty funny. We went to a vintage camera shop, a used game shop, and a toy store. Our son bought a Nintendo DS game. The toy store had a whole floor of model trains. It was so cool. My husband and his father are into model trains. They had a bunch of Japanese stuff I had never seen and some American and European. Shinsekia was nearby. It's a cool older area. It was kind of dead though, since it was a Sunday afternoon. This is where the Tsutenkaku Tower. We didn't go up but just looked. There was another Mega Donki on the way to the station. It was only one floor, but it really had a lot of variety. We bought more snacks, Kit Kats, and sake. We vowed to stay away from Donki, or we will never have enough room to get stuff home

For dinner, we ate at the fried buffet in USH City Walk, Kushiya Monogatari, 4th floor. We had seen it on the way back from Hard Rock Cafe the previous night. You get to batter and deep fry the veggies and meats at your table in a vat of hot oil This would never be allowed in the US. They had several sauces for dipping. They had a chocolate and matcha fountain and a ton of desserts, particularly matcha ones. There was rice, soup, salads, and noodles too. Tons of sodas. Unlimited alcohol beverage option. They had beer and sours, ie chuhai. We had way too much to drink and eat. It was really good.

We went to the big Lawson near the train station in City Walk. It's really big and gets very crowded. Good selection of the usual konbini foods. They have a large Universal Store in City Walk. Bought a few things, including the Hedwig ears below for a friend. More than a few after having so many chuhais as the fried buffet

 

[nono]

First Day in Osaka
We ate lunch at Hard Rock in City Walk. We scoped out some potential future eating places and bought a lot of garbage and breakfast stuff from Lawson. I have been hating this hat I wear when I am having a bad hair day or my hair is just ugh. The hat is really too big for my small head. They had this cool hat store, and I finally found a cool replacement hat. Japanese woman have some of the coolest, nicest hats, so I was happy to have found one here. I almost bought one that looked very Yoko Ono, but it looked big on me.

Ok -- spill the beans. Do you know the name of the hat store? And, how was that Hard Rock? Thanks!

 

[soniam]

Ok -- spill the beans. Do you know the name of the hat store? And, how was that Hard Rock? Thanks!

The hat store was Flava Hat at Rainforest on the 4th floor. Hard Rock was good, as good as Orlando. We ate there again, so it wasn’t terrible. They had salads, which aren’t really abundant in Japan.

 

[Disneyhanna]

I got those hedwig ears! Sounds like another fantastic day!

 

[Flossbolna]

It sounds like you will bring your Osaka rain with you to Disneyland! The forecast for Tuesday sounds not good!! Let’s hope it’s going to change.

 

[soniam]

It sounds like you will bring your Osaka rain with you to Disneyland! The forecast for Tuesday sounds not good!! Let’s hope it’s going to change.

At least it won’t be hot. I don’t mind the rain.

 

[soniam]

Third Day in Osaka/First Day at USJ

This was our first day at Universal Studios Japan. I took the following pictures of the crowd before the park opened. This was Monday, June 10. Park hours were 8am-9pm. At 5:30am, there were 2-4 people, then maybe 30 at 6am. The pics were taken at 6:30am, 6:43am, 6:51am, and 7:01am. People spread out a little more early on, so it looks worse than it is. We didn't leave the room until about 7am. Since we had the Express Pass 7, which included timed entry into Super Nintendo World, we weren't too worried about needing to get there very early. People started moving about 7:30 and really started tightening up on space. They do cursory hand bag check right before you scan your ticket. I included a pic of the prohibited items. They allowed our filled water bottles in, once they knew it was water. Some people had to leave behind plastic and metal bottles of coffee/tea. I hid my emergency granola bar in my shorts, and we didn't have any other food. This process was slow, and we didn't get in until just after 8am.

I had scanned our tickets into the app the day before. Once we entered, I started looking for an additional free timed entry to SNW in the app. We wanted to go at night. The only times available that early were very soon, since it gives you the first available hour or two to pick from. I had to keep checking, and finally got a 6-7pm somewhere between 9:20 and 10am.

We headed to Hollywood Dream Backdrop first, since it was not on our EP and gets long lines. This is the backwards version of Hollywood Dream, but it's on the same exact track. It goes in the same direction but facing backwards. You access it on a separate loading platform. They insist that you empty everything out of your pockets. I had to remove a kleenex You are not allowed to take anything with you on the ride. They give you a notification card explaining this. All small items have to go into your bag or in a provided bin. You place your stuff in a cubby that is on the exit side of the track. You walk through the ride vehicle to put your stuff away. A gate closes over your stuff as the vehicle pulls away. They asked if my eyeglasses would be ok and didn't make me remove them. I once had to remove them on Pony Express at Knott's Berry Farms. I almost tripped trying to get back onto the pony without my glasses. They wand your front and back body before boarding. It's like Rip Ride Rocket at Universal Orlando, but slower and tamer. It only has 5 audio tracks to pick from. The ones on Backdrop are different from Hollywood Dream. It was fun but a little bumpy. I thought I was going to lose my eyeglasses. For reference, I do not ride Rip Ride Rocket.

We wanted to get a reservation for Park Side Grille. I had tried to do it online 30 days out using the Priority Seating process, but 1pm was the latest available. I wanted a later one to get the dinner menu, so that our son could get a steak. They were supposed to have reservations available at the restaurant starting at 9am. They just had a sign out front with a QR. This was about 9:15am. I don't know if it was available before that. Once I scanned it, I had to download an app called Line. It was pretty easy, and I made a reservation for 3pm.

Next we headed to Flying Dinosaur. This was on our EP7. My husband and son rode. It looked like too much for me. They agreed it was. You are facing the ground for most of the ride, like you are flying. Your feet are actually higher than your head during some parts of the track. This is also a locker ride with a an actual metal detector. The lockers are part of the queue but not double sided like Velocicoaster. I got water from a vending machine while the waited. Most of the vending machines take IC cards or Suica through Apple Pay. This one didn't, so I used a credit card. It would have taken cash, but I only had a 10,000 Yen bill, which was too big. Some Japanese were thrown off by this too.

Our son was getting hungry. This was about 10am. He's an incredibly picky eater. We decided to see if he liked the pizza at Louie's. The pepperoni pizza had sausage, so he wouldn't even try it. We also got rice croquettes. My husband and I ate the pizza and croquettes, which were pretty much arrancini. It was pretty good, especially the croquettes. Our son went to get caramel popcorn while we ate. The popcorn was ok. It tasted a little stale and definitely wasn't as sugary or coated as caramel popcorn in the US, which isn't a bad thing.

After eating, we went to wait for Waterworld. We have seen this in Hollywood, and it's really good. I was surprised at how wet they would get the crowd. I had heard that Japanese don't like to get wet, but they were throwing buckets on them just like in Hollywood. The show is in Japanese, but easily understood. It was very good and had great stunt people.

At some point around here, we got the Jaws cream soda swiss roll, and our son got a chocolate churro. The swiss roll was good, not too sweet, but not super flavorful.

We did Hollywood Dream, the forward version, with our Express Pass. We knew the routine for bags now. Unfortunately, the line was in a lot of sun and there was a huge slow down trying to scan passes off of phones. The employee was in the sun, and the scanners are not great. I had printed ours. Do yourself a favor, and just print it out. It's much easier. I have a thing to attach to my glasses to keep them on, and I had it with me. I didn't think I would need it going forward. I wished I had it after riding. The forward direction has different tracks, including one for Detective track that was in Japanese and very loud. Some of the other tracks were incredibly loud as well.

I had specifically chosen a midday SNW entry. Ours was for 12:40. The line to get in wasn't too long, but for some reason, no one in our line understood how it was supposed to work. It was horribly slow and frustrating. I was worried we wouldn't make our window, because we were going after the 30 minutes for Mario had started. We did make it but only by minutes. We have done this in Hollywood and already had powerup bands. We scanned them into the app earlier. You can use the bands from either park, but the apps and data are separate. It was fun. I still suck at it though. We didn't get a reservation for Kinopio Cafe, since we had one for 3pm elsewhere. We headed straight for Yoshi. This does not exist in Hollywood. It's really cute, but it's partially in the sun and you have to remove hats. If you have to skip one, skip this one. We had it on the pass, so we did it. Our son was getting hungry again, so we got a mango and a melon lassi from Yoshi's Snack Stand. This also doesn't exist in Hollywood. They were really good. I like the melon one best, but I love melon. We collected some coins and stamps by hitting blocks and revealing pictures. We did some shopping at the 1 Up store, which is the bigger one, and doesn't exist in Hollywood, and the Mario exit gift shop, which is bigger than in Hollywood. I can't remember what we bought at this point. Eventually, we got pressed medallions/pennies, a bag charm, a Toad plush bag charm from Mario Kart, another mechanical pencil, and a Yoshi plush bag charm and Yoshi washcloths for a friend.

We headed to our Park Side Grille reservation for 3pm. They had a spot for you to sit inside while you waited to be seated. They do this at Carthay Circle at Disneyland in California. The menu was really confusing. Apparently, I guess, from 3-3:30pm, they only had soup, salad, or a dessert set available. This was not apparent from the website or anything outside the restaurant. The hostess tried to explain, but we didn't understand at first. Our server was successful at explaining it. Since we wanted entrees, she was very apologetic and said we could wait until 3:30pm to order them. We didn't really want much else, so we waited. They were profusely apologetic, but it wasn't a big deal, and the restaurant wasn't very busy. We got drinks. My husband got a happy hour old fashioned that was 2 for 1. You never see for that in the US anymore, at least not since the 80s. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) campaigned heavily to stop places from doing it to prevent drunk driving deaths. Once we could order, we got pork, steak, and salmon entrees, and the seafood fritter appetizer. My husband decided to get the soup (corn potage) and salad with his pork. It was all really good and not terribly heavy. We decided to skip dessert and get stuff elsewhere.

I stopped to take pictures of the Jaws merch at the cart across from the restaurant for a friend who wanted stuff. They closed the Jaws giftshop recently to expand the restaurant seating. The Jaws ride was down for maintenance, so I never got to ride it

Our Forbidden Journey pass was 5:10-5:40pm. We decided we had to time to hit Minions with our pass before going to the Wizarding World. The land is super cute. The ride is a little strange compared to Orlando. It used to be Back to the Future, so it feels like the Simpson's in Orlando but with Minions. You even have the small waiting room with the safety spiel before you get into the ride vehicle. It's not 3D either. The EP took forever here again. The attendant was helping someone else, and the other employee was manning the regular line. Everytime you use your Express Pass, they want to look at the rides and times for everyone and want to know how many people. Then they send you to the person who actually scans the EP, and they do the same check all over again. I'm like, just scan it. If it's not valid, it shouldn't work, right? Finally, the other employee came over to help, since the EP line was backing up.

We got to Forbidden Journey and headed to the lockers. It's just as messed up as in the US, but slightly less so since it's Japan The lockers are in the original location still and the larger size. They use a wristband with a physical key. They give you a laminated card explaining the lockers, which you hand in once you have stored your stuff. It's annoying though, because you have to hold onto it while trying to store your stuff. The ride is exactly like Orlando and even has the blury images. Hollywood is still the sharpest. All of the dialog is in Japanese and spoken by Japanese speakers. It's really strange to hear the characters but not the usual voices. Not a British accent in earshot. Then we did Hippogriff, which is still a small kiddie coaster. It used cubbies; no onboard storage. The lap bars were weird and didn't seem to latch well. They ended up having a lot of play in them. I bought the Japan exclusive interactive wands for some friends.

Last was our free timed entry into SNW at night. This entry was much smoother. It wasn't completely dark yet, but the lights were very cool. We had planned to buy water once inside, but the cart had already closed. My husband found some at the popcorn stand and stood in the long line. My son did a key game, while I bought a melon soda. We hadn't done the games earlier, because it was so busy and we were short on time. It was less crowded now, but not dead. My husband bought the mushroom cream popcorn too. It was pretty good. We did 2 games and realized that we had enough tokens to do the Bowser boss game. It was getting late, and waits were still a little long, so we headed to the exit. It was already after 8pm. I took some more pics of Jaws merch at the main store before we headed to the Lawson for snacks and breakfast. It was a zoo of course. Then back to the hotel, wasted time, and then bed.

 

[soniam]

Fourth Day in Osaka/Second Day at USJ

Second day was a Tuesday, June 11. Park hours were 9-8, so an hour later start and an hour earlier end. We decided to hit the line again an hour before official park opening, since we had the Express Pass 7 again. Even with the official opening an hour later, people only showed up in the same amounts about a half hour later. Park seemed to open between 8:15-8:30. Our son had a package of french toast from Lawson in his bag that he didn't eat while waiting to get in. They told him to throw it out once he entered the park. He did. It felt wasteful, but at least, he's honest and tries to follow the rules Security was still about as slow. Got another free timed entry into SNW once we entered for 5-6pm, since the park was closing an hour earlier.

We did Backdrop again, and I remembered to use my eyeglass holders. We did Detective Conan 4-D Live Show: Jewel under the Starry Sky. This is the replacement for Terminator 2-3D. It was cute, a bit long though. It's all in Japanese as well. It combines seat motion, live action, and screen animation. It can get fairly long waits; it's at 70 minutes right now on Sunday, June 16, at 4:36pm. It took a while to start, since it was the first show of the day. I don't think it started until 9:30am.
We did our reserved time for Mario in SNW about 10am. I tried to get a reservation for Kinopia Cafe afterward. It was pretty disorganized trying to figure out what you needed to do. You had to wait in line to scan a QR code, which took you to the reservation site. Then you had to download the Line app, which I had from the day before. This was about 10:20am, and the only times available were 1:45 and 2pm. Nothing after that even listed, and everything before was unavailable. We decided not to, since it was hours away. We didn't want to spend the whole day in the area. You can't return after leave unless you have another timed entry. Restaurant reservations don't count. We did Yoshi again.

Since I had another SNW entry for the evening, we decided to leave and see the Universal Monsters Live: Rock and Roll Show. I think they used to have this in Orlando, but I had never seen it. It was hosted by Beetlejuice. Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf, and Dracula come out in their traditional looks then come back onstage in modern clothing and looks. Frankenstein even had a guitar. The performers, except Beetlejuice, were American and spoke and sang in English. They performed rock n roll songs and performances together. It was pretty frickin hilarious and really strange. Definitely worth it and felt like a blast from the past.

We decided to eat lunch at the Jaws cafe, Amity Landing. It was very crowded, so they requested that we find a table and leave our stuff and come back to the front to order This would never work in the US; you can't leave your stuff and trust people. I actually saw this all over Japan. A parent and child would leave their things at a table in a restaurant or even a bench to go to the bathroom or do something else. No one even thought twice about their stuff being stolen. My husband ordered the shark bites, which came with french fries and tarter sauce in a cute Jaws themed holder. I got the fried shrimp sandwich. We ordered 2 cream soda swiss roll cakes; our son was going to join us with a churro and eat one. I forgot to mention that I was wearing my Jaws shirt from Universal Orlando. All day long, especially in the Jaws area, team members kept mentioning my shirt and smiling or giving me the thumbs up. I didn't see any shirts like it in Japan. The shark bites were ok. They were basically fish nuggets, but the fish was fairly fishy, as opposed to what is traditionally used for fish sticks or fish and chips. The fried shrimp sandwich had an interesting sauce that was a cross between ketchup, jarred chunky salsa like Pace, and maybe a red bell pepper caponata One side had tarter sauce. It was pretty good. We also got an iced tea. Pretty good iced tea in Japan. It's not too strong, like in the northern United States, just the right amount of tea and water/ice and not overboiled/bitter. Son didn't like the Jaws cake, so we ate both.

Next was Flying Dinosaur, Hollywood Dream, and Minions again.

We needed a snack. Son grabbed Baskin Robbins from the Amity area. Husband got a chocolate churro. I went over to the Mario Cafe on the main drag and got a Luigi green apple Italian soda. We met back at the Jaws merch cart next to the ice cream place and finished our snacks. I bought some Jaws merch for my friend.

We still hadn't been in the kiddie area which has Snoopy, Hello Kitty, and Sesame Street. I was also looking for a gift for a friend that is expecting and found the cutest Snoopy plush with a Universal Japan badge on its foot. The area is cute but lacks shade.

We had time to kill before our Forbidden Journey time around 4:30, so my son and I did the wand interactions. We brought our wands from home. They are mostly different, either different spells or slightly different actions. FJ was good as usual. I saw the metal souvenir butterbeer mug and needed one. While my son and I finished the last wand interaction, my husband stood in line to get one with frozen butterbeer. It was good but sweet as always. I also bought a Slytherin washcloth for a friend. Washcloths are a big souvenir item. Many public restrooms don't have paper towels or hand dryers. If they have hand dryers, they are usually worthless. So, Japanese often have washcloths to dry their hands. We decided to skip Hippogriff.

We headed into SNW for the last time for our free timed entry. As we headed over, I took a picture of the large bridge that's right next to Flying Dinosaur. Our son was tired at this point and decided to go back to the hotel. He also wanted something to eat. We got another lassi and the turtle shell soba cheese calzone. Super good. We did 3 key games but lost one. It really needed at least 3 people, but there were only 2 of us. For some reason, we still got 3 tokens. I think when the land is busy, they give a free one if you play at least 2 games to get people out of the area faster. We went and did the Bowser game again. Bought a Yoshi plush bag charm for a friend and got some pressed pennies.

I had to get some more things for friends from the main store. I wanted to get this Wizarding World leather look case filled with treats for a friend. These type of souvenirs are hugely popular in Japan and available everywhere and themed to everything. They have cute designs, come in nice packaging, and contain cookies, candies, little cakes, or chocolates. They are called omiyage in Japanese. We couldn't find it in the store, and the store was super crowded that night. I ended up getting it at the Universal store in City Walk on our way to the 7-11 for pancakes and Lawson for other stuff.

 

[Nakkira]

I never saw the strawberry, only grape. I haven't seen the fruit sandwiches much at all though. Maybe they are gone by the time I get there.

Oh that is tragedy

 

[soniam]

Sorry for the delay. We got really busy on the trip, and I have honestly felt kind of lazy since we got back. I am blaming jet lag I will be updating again soon.