Our last day in Japan was mostly spent in a theme park. Universal Studios was really fun–I hadn’t been to a theme park in years and it was great to see Harry Potter World (for me, mostly), although Super Nintendo World was a close second. There’s not a lot substantial to say about them; if you’ve been to an amusement park there’s a lot of queuing, wandering, and general marveling. Here’s Super Mario Land. The entrance in particular is amazing–it’s just like you’re in the video game (but with a thousand tourists). Garett absolutely refused to do the power up foot along with the arm–I was trying to take the photo really fast before he changed his mind about the arm, so I missed his hand.

In one of the rides–Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge–you got to wear head gear and glasses so you could pretend you’re in the game and shoot at Bowser or whoever. They even kept track of the coins you acquired.

Harry Potter! Our favorite ride was hands down the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.” I’m in front of the Mirror of Erised, then we’re in front of Hagrid’s hut, and of course we’ve got the Hogwarts castle, too.

We also saw a really cool show based on the movie “Water World.” At one point a man catches fire and at another point, the water is actually on fire. A plane flies through a wall and lands in the water. It was crazy. I have no idea of the plot (because it was in Japanese), but I think it was pretty secondary to the general mayhem. This was the set. It was awesome.

We also visited Osaka Castle and the grounds pretty quickly in the morning/early afternoon–we didn’t have much time to do anything in Osaka between the Expo (another post) and Universal Studios. Like every good castle, Osaka Castle had a moat. The beautiful, cloud-like tree is a camphor tree. In the last photo I am emphasizing the size of the block of stone–they actually moved something that big to be part of the wall somehow.

We’re off to South Korea now! Thanks for reading!