Saturday, March 21, 2015

Day 02: Train stuff!

So, today I really had nothing planned, and I wanted to explore. However, I was pretty tired from biking so much yesterday so I opted for public transit. In a moment of spontaneity I decided to go to Universal City near Osaka and check out Universal Studios Japan.

It turned out to be a lot more difficult than I'd anticipated. Most service people know how to say "Hello" and "Thank you" and how much your change is, and that's basically it. Additionally, most signs have no English on them, and often if there is English it's nearly unintelligible. 

However, after staring at various signs for a very long time I worked out how to buy subway and train tickets. You approach an ATM looking machine and actually put your money in first, then it asks you the price of your ticket, and then it prints it and gives you change. You figure out the price of your ticket by looking at a map and seeing the number next to your stop. The further you go the more expensive it is. All in all I had to take one subway and three trains to get to Universal Studios. At one point I did stop at a tourist help center in Osaka Station to ask about a delay for the Osaka Main Loop, but the lady there kept trying to tell me when the last train ran because I said the train had stopped and she must have thought I was asking "when does the train stop." Also, the trains run on such a tight schedule that the flashing red sign that had "DELAY" pasted all over it was for a two minute delay.

Anyway, I got there. But it took me so long that I only had about two hours to enjoy the park before I had to return if I still wanted to use the subway and thus avoid the buses. Side note: as English unfriendly as the trains are, the buses are worse. All the displays and signs are in kanji (chinese characters), most of the subway/train signs at least have romaji (Japanese words spelled out in the English alphabet) or kana (Japanese syllabary). Back on track (har har), Universal Studios was cool; cooler than I remember Orlando being when I was 14. And there's all kinds of Japan specific stuff like a Resident Evil zombie shooting attraction, a Monster Hunter monster hunting attraction, and all kinds of Attack on Titan stuff. Unfortunately, the lines for the rides were absolutely insane. I guess Easter is a very busy time and Saturdays are always ridiculous. So, I basically got something to eat and left.

It wasn't a total loss though, because I got some neat pictures, learned the transit system and got a season pass! It was just over twice as much to get the season pass over a single ticket, and I will have plenty of time to visit the park several times over the next four and a half months. Hopefully, I can drag some of my visiting friends over there as well. Anyway, here's pictures:



The entrance


I thought this was hilarious. This ugly dude eating the family is from an anime called Attack on Titan that's graphically gory, but they're all smiles.


These were probably fifty feet tall. Attack on Titan characters


This lady was at the entrance to the park. That monkey was absurdly well behaved.

I guess I was a little too caught up with the sights to take too many pictures. Well, there's always next time for that.



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