Universal Studios

Universal Studios- the real reason for our short stopover in Osaka! We would have all enjoyed a longer sleep in, but mindful of having to get our suitcases to reception by 10am for the luggage forwarding service.
This service is amazing, because it means we no longer need to bring all our suitcases around the maze like subway stations, up and down stairs/escalators. The front desk sorted out our paperwork and we paid a reasonable fee to have them forwarded to our hotel in Tokyo by tomorrow afternoon.
We left for Universal Studios soon after and arrived shortly after 11am. It was a big day for us, and noticeably much busier compared to our last visit in July 2023. One of the staff members mentioned this is generally their second busiest day of the year, estimating approx 55,000 visitors!! No wonder some of the lines were incredibly long, not only for the popular rides but also for restaurants and bathrooms.

We covered a lot of areas over the next 9 hours,; from Hello Kitty tea cup ride to the Harry Potter world, Hollywood Dream backdrop and Super Nintendo World for Mario cart racing. We all got an express pass but there really wasn’t much value for me since I am not a fan of roller coasters or anything that may give me motion sickness. Today is really for Joel and Jazzy, while I go souvenir shopping, hold bags and take photos 😅
Thankfully they made some use from my express pass and went into the Harry Potter and Hollywood Dream Back drop twice.

We left straight after the Mario Kart challenge, in time for a late 9pm dinner at Gyukatsu Motomura. This restaurant only offers one item but they do it so well- medium rare beef cutlets for us to broil them over the stone plate., dipped in wasabi and soy sauce. Very tasty! 😋
We enjoyed looking around the dazzling Winter illuminations on our walk back to the hotel. This is an annual festival that transforms Osaka’s main streets into a stunning display of colours. While we would have liked to look around longer, our legs and bodies were in need of a good rest! Over 23,000 steps today.Read more