Universal Studios Japan

Today I got the opportunity to go to Universal Studios Japan(USJ) with my friend Serina!!! I was greatly looking forward to today because this was one of the things I wanted to do very badly when I came to Japan. USJ did not let me down! We arrived just as it opened and for a short time we were treated to fairly short lines. We rode some rides, watched some shows, and explored gift shops!







One of the shows I most enjoyed was the "Wicked" production. It was a greatly shortened and condensed version of the play that was acted using English AND Japanese (in case you are wondering how that works, they switched between the languages in seemingly random places).


For lunch we ate Caramel Popcorn and later (around 3:30) we stopped for some real food. Pizza. I have never paid so much for pizza before but I also have never tasted anything so good! It was italian style (rather than the usual greasy American stuff) with a splash of Japanese taste (in the form of tomato braised octopus on one of the pizzas). Looking at the menu I laughed as I spotted something really unusual. A pizza whose ingredients are "shrimp and potatoes". Kinda interesting, I was tempted to try it but I was afraid it wouldn't be worth $20.



The only unfortunate (or was it fortunate?) thing about today was the rain. It rained all day. It wasn't too heavy but it was enough to soak my pant legs halfway to the knee and enough to make carrying an umbrella an obnoxious but necessary task.
The appearance of said rain also was the reason we didn't go on some of the rides I had been looking forward to. Jurassic Park was shut down and we didn't want to get even more wet by trying Jaws.
However, the rain did help us in one way. It made all the lines much shorter! the average wait time for these rides was 30 minutes rather than the usual 1 or 2 hours. So I haven't figured out whether the rain was a blessing or a curse but it doesn't matter too much since today was fabulous anyway.