[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey explorers. Welcome to episode 338 of the TDR now podcast. We are the first English speaking podcast focusing on the Asian theme parks like Tokyo Disneyland or today Universal Studio Japan. You can find us on our
[email protected] and all over social media under the same name. I'm one of your hosts, Chris, and I'm the one that you see on camera all the time on YouTube, usually stuffing my face and joining as always, is the wonderful Patricia.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Hey guys.
I'm the one enjoying Hanabi. Yay. For a very short time because the weather was really, really changeable.
You can find me @dreamsweetslove, on Instagram and threads and I'm part of the Discover Urayasu team. So if you want to learn about what's happening in the city, you can check us out there. And yeah, I mean this season feels like like the rainy season, almost like a really, really early version of it, doesn't it?
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been just raining a lot and.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: And like that soft rain. Right? Like the very light.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very kind of annoying.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: That's. It feels like Tsuyu.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's. You see in June.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
What's happening?
[00:01:22] Speaker A: I don't know. Well, now it's. It's nice. The weather's nice. It doesn't look like it's supposed to rain.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Hopefully not. Yeah. I have to go into the city tomorrow.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: As I open up my phone and there's Instagram's open and starts playing music. I went to go check the weather. You know, it looks like it's good weather until next until Wednesday. It might rain a little bit, but not too much. Yeah, I'm okay with that.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: I'm fine with that too. Yeah.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Oh, it's supposed to be a high 26 on Saturday.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. It is. Yeah.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, speaking of the city of Urayasu, we have a lot of visitors right now. This has nothing to do with Universal. We'll talk about Universal. But this is very topical right now as we're recording this. But yeah, Star Wars Celebration's happening this weekend. So there's a lot of people here.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And even like this area, like Shinra Yasu, the new part of the city, we get tourists, but it's noticeably much more than usual. Like in the Ace, there's people opening there. Atre is like a little shopping center connected to the station. People are opening their suitcases in the middle of it and shopping and stuff is really interesting because we've never really had even Though we have a bunch of hotels here. We haven't had, like, that atmosphere, so I thought it was kind of.
I'm like, whoa, it's changed a lot this year.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: I feel like there's definitely people.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Like, the Mahama area is just a lot of. A lot of tourists.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. My Humma, definitely.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just. It's. It's just very interesting. Right. Especially coming off, like, obviously during the pandemic, no one was visiting. So very different.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: And then I've never seen it like this before. Like, even in the spring, where we do generally get more tourists, like, it's. It's kind of wild.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, even, like, prior to the pandemic, like, leading up to 2019, like, I've never seen this many visitors before.
Like, overseas visitors. It's. It's quite the stark contrast. It's very. It's. It's interesting to see.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Go shopping, tourists.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: It's kind of funny. Like, I'll be walking through Xpiari and I'll see families, and a lot of families are so confused by Xpiari, which rightfully so. That place is a meme. It's a weird maze. Things are just.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: And the way the floors are labeled as well, can be confusing, I think.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, you don't realize when you walk from my Hama Station, you're on the second floor, you're not on the first floor.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: So, like, that's the first set of, like, the first confusion. Like, wait a minute, which floor am I on? The first floor. What are you talking about?
Yeah, it's just very interesting. But XPR is kind of done up for Star Wars Celebration.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: There's banners and everything. And they did. Or they are right now doing two showings of every Star wars, like, film from the mainline series.
So episode one through episode nine, and I think they're doing three a day.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: So I think. I think today was episodes 4, 5, 6, and then tomorrow should be 7, 8, 9.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Which is cool. I thought about going, but just busy and stuff.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: My son tried to get tickets, and he said they were, like. Sold out.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that too.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: You know, it was.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: I think I went and checked just for Curiosity's sake. Episodes 4, 5, 6 were pretty much sold out, except for seats right up, right at the front.
And then episodes 1, 2, 3, they were kind of 75, 80% full.
And then episode 7, 8, 9, there were so many seats open.
There was a ton of availability for 7, 8, 9.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Easier to watch. Yeah.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Like, those are relatively Newer, anyway. And, like. Yeah, a lot of people would have seen them in theaters as well.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: It's a little more novel to see the older ones because, like. Okay.
From 20 years ago, and then four, five, six are from a very long time ago.
I was just. I'm just curious, like, what version, I guess, of 456 they would have played.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Or I would imagine, like, the one that they. They changed already, right?
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah. It wouldn't be like, the original original.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: No, it would be cool. They showed the original original, though.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: People go nuts for that, huh?
[00:06:08] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: But, yeah, that's, like, the big thing that's happening right now. There's a. There's a lot of people over here for. For Star Wars Celebration, which is cool. I'm going to be going to it, so I guess we can talk about it.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: I want to hear about it because I wonder, like, what's happening, you know what it is? Because I don't know, because I keep hearing that the Star Wars Celebration is happening, and I really don't know exactly what it is, so I'm kind of really curious about it.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: It's a big convention. I've never been to one before. I've never been to a Star Wars Celebration, but I guess it's the first time it's back in Japan in 17 years.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Which is kind of cool.
Tokyo Disney's not doing too much for Star Wars. They never really do.
But we got the new Star Tour ride footage or whatever that. That's been in the other Disney parks for a while now. Like, it includes Ahsoka, But Tokyo Disneyland just got the little droids. Like, the little walking droids.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: No way.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, we have them. So I think they're here in Disneyland in California.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: That's so cool.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: I don't know about Disney World or the other Disney parks, but I'm pretty sure, like, it's here and probably California.
That's cute. Like, I saw. I saw a video of them online. Like, oh, my goodness, that's so cute. They're, like, walking around. The cast members are talking to them and telling them to, like, sit up, sit down and stuff like that. I'm like, oh, my goodness, that is so cool.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: I want to go see it.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Well, also, too, I guess, like, Tomorrowland's kind of in a state of transformation.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: So, yeah. Probably didn't want to put a lot of money into that, but yeah. Anyway, we will talk about that in another episode after I. After I end up going. So I will report back yay on everything.
But today we are talking about Universal Studios Japan. And before we start talking about it though, I want to tell everyone, well, as of today we finally were able to get the Universal Studio Japan guidebook launched. But we didn't launch one, we launched two guidebooks. So that's what took so long. We did two, we did two guidebooks. So we have our regular like big comprehensive guidebook that we publish every year and then we have a new illustrated food guide that focuses on snacks at Universal Studios Japan's other snacks that you can typically find any time of the year. We made sure to include stuff that is typically available like not just like, not seasonal stuff because that stuff changes way too quick. So we focused on stuff like if you go in December you're going to find it. If you go in June it should be there still.
And we included stuff like if it's, if it's potentially plant based or doesn't have, have any meat and stuff like that. So it's a, it's a, it's a good curated list and it has a lot of cute little illustrations and stuff in it. So if you want go pick it up. I'll put link in the show notes or just go to txspor.com books it's on there. Same with our Tooki Disney Resort guides, the two of them that we have.
You can, you can get both the Universal guides for. We have them on Special for 26.99. If you want to get both books, both digital PDFs and also if you've been waiting for us to release all our books for the year, you can buy all four of them for a special price up on the website. So you can go and check that out if you've been waiting. Because I know a lot of people were waiting to get like all the, buy all the books all at once.
So make sure you go and check that out. Yeah.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Yay.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: It was a lot of work. Let's just put it that it's all these books are not easy to put together and it's a ton of work.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: I can imagine.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm happy that they're done and I'm happy that people can use them now to plan their trips and everything. I know some of you are coming and yeah, it's just taking a, just taking a breather from it all. But yeah, let's talk about Universal Studies Japan and spring. All the spring events that started. There's a lot going on at Universal for Easter, like Easter, Spring I guess, which is so cool.
What I love about universities Japan is It's never just like, because, you know, at Disney it's. It's kind of like one, like, cohesive event. It kind of covers the whole park.
But the way Universal does it, of course, is it's a lot of different stuff.
Small, like a stuff that's kind of all Easter themed in some way, shape or form or something. But it's like a different ip.
So if you don't care for one type of character, there should be like other ones that do other things throughout the park. And I think that's. I think that's kind of like a fun thing that the park does.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that you can really go based on your interest and kind of focus on that and then have fun around that. But you don't have to do everything if it doesn't appeal to you, which is really cool.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah. It makes it a little bit easier to visit 100%. And some of the events that we're talking about aren't specifically spring themed or Easter themed or anything. They just happen to start in the spring and, and are lasting for a little. A little while.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: My favorite is the Wicked celebration event they're doing right now that just started in March.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: That sounds wonderful.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: It's a tiny little event that's fine. But it's running all year. It goes until the end of the year, like December 31st.
And I thought it was just going to be something like short. Short and sweet. Because they did a Wicked thing in Universal Studio Singapore and that wasn't around for very long. I think it was around for two months or three months at most.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah. But I feel like Wicked is so popular here that it makes sense that they would do it for longer.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot longer than a couple of months.
I guess the biggest draw is you get to meet Glinda and Elphaba.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Which is fantastic. Like. Like, for me, like, that's the reason to go, is to meet them, which I think is so cool. I. I did get to meet them when we did the Media day and I thought it was just so good. It was so fun. I really, really enjoyed it.
You get to get your picture taken with them and interact with them and stuff. It's. It's really cool. I really do like that they have a little bit of merchandise. Not too much.
I ended up buying a keychain that says Wicked, but they have like T shirts, some bags, like, I think there's a tote bag and some keychains and stuff like that. So, like, there's not. There's not too much in terms of merchandise.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah. The churro looks cute, though.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: The churro was so good. Like, and you know me, I don't typically like churros.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: I do know. Yeah.
But it looks really like candy. Like.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's a peanut butter churro.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: That's wild.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: I love peanut butter.
Like, I'm a peanut butter fan and so good. I just. I really liked it. Like, it wasn't the best thing I've ever had in my entire life. Like, I'm not gonna oversell it.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: But it was definitely up there amongst, like, churros that I really enjoyed and I would actually have it again.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I'm on, like, the webpage and next to it is the Doraemon churro. And it's ridiculous.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: I don't remember what it looks like. What's the Doraemon one look like?
[00:14:13] Speaker B: It's like blue and it's got, like, the Doraemon's bell.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: And then, like, on the front, it has, like, a picture of the dorayaki and like a little picture frame. Because he's like a painter. I guess that's what the new movie is about. That he's like, in artist mode or something.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Our yearly Doraemon video or movie that comes out.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Okay, now back to Wicked.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The trail is really nice. I really. I really like it.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: It looks really yummy and really colorful.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: And they have the costumes from the film. So nice.
They. They had the wizard of Oz costume and Madam. Madame. Madame. What's her name? Maribel.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Morrible.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Morrible. No, I was like, maribel, that's not it. Yeah, Morrible. They had those costumes when we were there. They didn't have the other ones yet. But my understanding was they're like, the costumes are going to be there at some point.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: But from what I know, I think the costumes are actually at the Toho Cinemas here in Tokyo.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Oh, I think they might have just left.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: They might have just.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was until the 14th.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the movie came out in March. Yeah, that. That would track. That would make sense. So they're probably making their way over there now.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: So that's cool. I like that.
And yeah, that's pretty much it that they did with. With Wicked. There's. It's nothing. It's not as extravagant as the one, The. The Wicked event that they had at University of Singapore because, like, you know, Universal Singapore, they had like, the wizard of Oz head that talked and everything. They had that and they had citizens of Oz walking around the area. They don't have any of that in Universal Studios Japan, unfortunately.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: It would have been cool if they.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Did, but they don't.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I wonder if it's because there's so much going on right now that they wanted to give focus to it, but they also have to focus on the other things. Maybe Singapore has, like, with their schedule, they can focus on a bigger event because there's less things happening.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And also kind of thinking, like, if they were going to ship that the wizard of Oz head over, where would it go? Because it was set up in Singapore, because Universal Singapore has, like, there's a large chunk of it that's, like their New York areas covered, and there's, like, space. Like, they have dedicated space for, like, a stage and stuff. Whereas University of Japan, there's a covered area, but there's no place for a stage. Right. It's all used for shops and, like, through fair. So I don't know where they would have put it if they wanted to do it here.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have to be, like, maybe inside of a building or something.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: You know, like, that would just. Yeah. Like you said, it would draw too much focus away from the other stuff.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Because there's so many other things happening. Yeah, so many other things.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Like, there's a lot of stuff going on at USJ right now. Like, there's just so much.
Yeah, wicked. Great. Do it. It's. It's running until the end of the year, so you got. If you're visiting this year, it's there.
And I think the. The greeting with Glinda and Alphabar worth it. 100%.
Minions. Minions is always around. Minions. Cute.
Minions are Minions. I guess at this point.
I think they're cute. Where do you stand with Minions? Do you like them? Do you not like them?
Are they different?
[00:17:58] Speaker B: I think. I think they're cute, but I don't think I've actually watched the movies.
I've kind of, like, the attraction is cute and the characters are cute. I don't know who they are. I know one is called Bob and I. You know, But I don't know that much about them actually, other than they're kind of cute. And I know that there's, like, the. The guy. I don't know if he was a villain, but he's. I don't know if he's, like, in charge of the Minions.
And I think Gru. And there's a daughter or some girl. I don't know, maybe they're not related and like, I don't actually. Don't story. And I know they like bananas. That's all I know.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Well, if you're ever bored one day, just throw on Despicable Me. They're actually pretty enjoyable. Like, they're not the best films in the world, but they're enjoyable.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: They look.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: They're enjoyable. Yeah, yeah. The. So the minion, like in the Minions area, they have the Minions greetings. And they're all dressed up in like Easter outfits. So like, one of them is dressed up as like an Easter basket. So he has like a. Like the. The basket handle goes over his head and he looks like he's like, he's in the basket, it looks like. And like one's dressed up as an Easter bunny and things like that. It's. It's cute. Like, it's really cute.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Egg shaped, right? That they would be an Easter basket.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: It's true.
They have. So there's a. There's a spring like or Easter show that they're doing. It's kind of near the Curious George attraction that's I guess, across from space fantasy. So they have this little Easter show, and it's kind of a mashup of like all the characters. So the Minions show up. Peanuts characters show up.
Hello Kitty and dear Daniel show up.
Who else shows up?
Hello Kitty. I already said hello Kitty. Wait, who did I say? Hello Kitty. Dear Daniel.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: He said Daniel.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Minions, Peanuts. I'm missing Sesame Street. Sesame Street. Yes, the Sesame street character showed up as well.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Oh, cute.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a cute little show. It's like Easter baskets, pastel colors and all that stuff. So if you're into like all those characters and want to see them all together like that, it's a fun thing to watch, I think.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Is it really crowded now because of the Expo?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: I haven't been since it started. But my guess is yes.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Right. I was thinking. Oh, I wonder because like, you're like talking about spring and I'm like, spring Expo.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Ah, well, actually, USJ is offering people if you have a ticket for the Expo.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: You get a special. There's a special ticket for usj.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah, here it is.
Oh, they. Okay, so you can buy the one day studio pass plus your expo ticket together for 18, 600 yen.
And then if you have, I guess if you bought. If you bought your ticket already, your Expo tickets somewhere. Wait, Expo. Contact Japan one day. What is this?
Sorry, I'm just reading this up now. I should have looked this up earlier.
Oh, what is it? So you can buy. You can buy your Expo ticket right on the USJ website. That is weird.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Wow, that's really cool.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: Okay, that's interesting.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: It's really useful.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Okay, so, yeah, you can. But you can buy a combo. Like, you can buy your studio pass and your admission ticket for the Expo right through the USJ website. That's cool.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it must be crowded. I feel.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: I mean, just. I feel like every, like, hot tourist spot in Japan is just crowded right now, like, over here at Disney because Star Wars Celebration over in Kansai because.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Of the Expo, you know? That's right. Because. That's right. Star Wars Celebration and the Expo are happening at the same time. I wonder if that's why it feels like way, way more people than usual.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I'm seeing. Yeah, as we already mentioned before, like, I'm seeing so many people in the, like, the. My Hama area. Like, obviously, like the Tokyo Disney area, just in Star wars outfits and stuff.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: No way. That's so funny. So they're like.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: I shouldn't say, like. I shouldn't say outfits. Like, not, like. Not costumes or anything, but, like. Like, everyone's wearing Star Wars T shirts. And.
And yeah, I've ran into some people that recognize me, and they were, like, giving out, like, little stickers and stuff like that said Star Wars Celebration, which I thought was so cute. I think it's so cool. I love that stuff.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: I love that, like, fandom community, you.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Know, it's always fun.
Back to usj.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: And then also over at the Wonderland area, like, they do with every, like, seasonal event.
You can meet the Peanuts characters. They come out, they do a little song and dance, and then you can take your pictures with them. And they have their Easter outfits, which are so cute, by the way. They're so adorable.
Snoopy and Charlie Brown. And Lucy. Lucy, the blue dress.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah, Or Sally or Lucy. One of them.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: I should know this. Wait, Peanuts. Lucy.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: Lucy has black screaming at me, right?
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Yeah. No, yeah, it's Lucy. Lucy. Yeah. Lucy Van.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: I just wanted to make sure I got the names right. And then also, if you go further into Universal Wonderland, near the Sesame street area, Sesame street characters come out, like Elmo and Cookie Monster and Abby and what's the. What's the orange monster?
So Abby. Abby's the pink one.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: There's an orange one. What is her name?
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Oh, no, that might be one of the newer ones. I. Yeah, I'm very old.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Zoe.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: So I don't know. Zoe.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah, she's. She first appeared in Sesame street in season 25, whenever season 25 was, was.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: The food for the Easter looks really, like, fresh and colorful and delightful. Like, the cakes look really pretty.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Oh, I love, like, over from the Bellagerie, I think.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: So, Like, I'm looking at, like, the hello Kitty one. And there's like, these also cake slices, which, I mean, they look like basic cakes, but they're really colorful and cute. And then there's like. It's kind of cute because it's like a pudding a la mode, like, which here is like pudding with fruits and inside of the, like a minion donut or something. It looks, like, really ridiculous. So there's like a lot of cute sweets and stuff. Carrot cake and, you know, get to.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Try a lot of that stuff. Just because there was just.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: There's so much.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: You know, there's just so much. Well, like, when we did the media event, it was like, okay, we're doing Jurassic park, which we'll talk about, because there's Jurassic park started its own event. Okay, now we're doing Wicked. Okay, now we're doing Easter. And it's like everything has its own food. So it's like, oh, my goodness, I can only do so much food, man.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: It would take, like, days. Like, even if you're just taking, like, a bite or two, it would take, like, days to go through all this. These different menu items.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: It becomes too much, you know?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it would be impossible.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: But of course, like, not everyone, because.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Like, you can really choose what you want, you know, not have to worry so much about it.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Not everyone's going to be doing what I'm doing. Like, I'm doing it for, you know, the podcast and.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Yeah, of course, for, like, work.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's work. Yeah. But listeners back home are not going to be doing this. You're not going to be trying 20 items in one day. You know, you're going to have a couple.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: And by the way, I'm not complaining at all.
I love what I do.
What else is there?
So. Oh. Oh, my. Okay. Okay. We need to talk about the Kurumi Rock Show.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Okay. What is that? There's so much on the website. It's like.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: I know. There's just so much madness.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: I keep going back to Daraya Bone because it looks really cute.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: There's a Kudomi. So it seems like, because, you know, in the New York area, they. It was always kind of rotating through, like, Sesame street shows. Like, it was Burton, Ernie, and, like, there was a hip hop show at one point. I think there was a reggae show at one point.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: But they stopped doing that with the Sesame street characters. Now it's Kuromi. And seems like every season Kuromi has a different stage show. And this for spring, it's a rock show. So it's rock music.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Let me tell you, that show is unhinged. It is. I have never seen a character Kuromi. And her friend, my Melody is also there too. But Kuromi is like the star of the show. She does three costume changes on stage during the performance. And I'm just sitting there thinking, like, what? Who came up with this? Like, this is unhinged.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: I love it. I feel like all the Disney show people went to Universal Studios because this is like the things that they used to do at Disney.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: That's wonderful.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: That's exactly what I thought. I'm like, oh, yeah. This is stuff that they would have done at Tokyo Disney like years ago.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: That's so nice though.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Unfortunately. Yeah. The show is called Kuromi Live.
Kuromify. Kuromify. I'm trying to say it in Japanese and English at the same time because it's a weird word. Kuromi Live.
Kuromi fai. The World Tour. Crystal clear. I don't know what. I don't know what that word means, but what that title is weird. But anyway, Kuromi is rocking out, does three costume changes. My Melody's there, She's helping out. There's live performers. One of the performers, he's a rocker. He's doing live singing and he's doing it in basically these high heeled boots.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: These heels. I. I kid you not. Probably like six or seven inches. Like they are big.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Like just huge. I love it. I freaking love it.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: It's so good.
I would watch that over the Easter show. In my opinion, like, the Easter show is cute.
That's very much for families, right? That's very much a family show. Which. Nothing wrong with that.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: It's like more like kid centered, which is fine and it's cute. Or if like you're really into those characters, you know.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah. But yeah, the Kuromi one is a lot more entertaining.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Sounds amazing. Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Yes. And also. Yeah, so there's that. What else is there for Easter? Oh, there's so much. Oh, they, they redid the pop power of pop. What's called that? Power of rock.
So it's all like, like, I guess like a lot of this, like, is rock theme, like rock music theme. So the power power of Rock is like a little stage show with live singers and they just sing like rock songs. Like covers of their. Of rock. Famous rock songs.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's cute.
Really cute. I really like it.
Also, the start of Cool Japan started as well.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I see that.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Detective Conan again.
Peril at the Masquerade. I didn't get to do Peril at the Masquerade, unfortunately, man.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: My son told me what it was finally. It was a movie.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: And I was like, oh, this is the one. And they kept showing the commercials for it. I'm like the one that takes place in like a hotel, I think.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's what it is.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: But like what. When did it come out? Like it was a while ago, right?
[00:30:27] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know too much about it.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I was like, oh, that's what it is. Okay. That's really cool.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So like that, that, that. That's a separate ticketed thing. Like it. It's not included with your ticket. You have to pay extra. And it's only going to be in Japanese.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: So to probably fully enjoy it, you're going to have to understand Japanese.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: Can we talk about Doraemon?
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Of course. Draimon's all.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: What is this like 4D art adventure?
[00:31:01] Speaker A: It's like a walkthrough thing.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: The menu.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: I'm sorry, what am I talking. It's not a walkthrough thing. It's in the 40 theater. I don't know what I'm talking about. It's at the 40 Theater. You know, where the Shrek and Sesame Street 40 shows typically are. Or it's usually something like anime related.
It's. It's a. It's Drymon.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Okay, cool.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: They're. So they're doing that instead of putting Drymon in the VR coaster. Because they usually put Drymon in the VR coaster, but they're not doing that.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Families there.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: Yeah, my family doesn't start until June though. That's the thing.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Which is confusing. That's like later.
I know. There's just so much going on. But yeah, Drymon's on now until August 17th.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: The do menu is so cute.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Cute.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: I'm like dying. I'm like, oh my gosh.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So I guess I. Yeah. The Daimon theme this year is like paint. Painting.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Yeah, like paint.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: But it looks like wizards though.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: Like painting and magic. Doraemon does it all. I love it.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: The menu is really cute though.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: It is so cute. Oh my God. This like little parfait with light oh.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: There'S a new popcorn bucket, too.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: The little palette with, like, the cake with, like, it looks like it has paint smudges on it.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't try those either. I have to try it next time there.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: So much.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Okay, what about Jurassic Park? What is going on with that? Because I know that's. That has a lot going on. Right.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: So I'll be honest. When they announced this event, I kind of thought, okay, cool. Like, I just kind of thought, although they'll have some food items and like, hey, Jurassic park is the ride is back open. Cool. I kind of thought that's all they're really gonna do. So I wasn't really excited for it. But once I got there and I saw, like, I read about what they're all doing, and I thought, holy, man. They're doing all this in just Jurassic park, the Jurassic park area for this. And I, I, I was quite impressed for how much they're doing.
So, of course, Jurassic park, the ride is reopened. It was down for a very long refurbishment, like, over a year, to my knowledge. They didn't change anything. Like, nothing major was changed, so I'm not sure what they did. They. It probably just needed some maintenance because.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: That ride, deep cleaning and stuff, right? Yeah, for sure.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Ride's been there. Like, it opened with the park. Right. In 2001. So it's been there for a while. So it's probably due for some updates. Like, I don't know, maybe, like, maybe they had to update, you know, the technology, you know, the back end kind of stuff. Like, who knows? I don't know. I'm just guessing.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: I feel like there's so many moving pieces, so I can see how it would take a while.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
So this event is on until August 31st. Oh, the, the, the Easter stuff that we talked about, that's going on till about, like, end of June.
Yeah. But this drastic journey, Jurassic World Journey is going on till August 31. We got some time.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: It makes sense because it's like, to promote the movie, Right?
[00:34:18] Speaker A: Is Jurassic World Journey a movie?
[00:34:20] Speaker B: No. There's a movie coming out in the summer. Is there?
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Jurassic World Rebirth.
Okay, that would make sense too. So they added more dinosaurs that you can meet. So before they would have, like, the, I think the Triceratops and like, maybe one other dinosaur would kind of come out and, like, do a lap. Yeah, they have more dinosaurs. Like, like, the really big dinosaurs will come out and you can actually pet them this time.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: They will stop and you can pet them. And it's really cool. I really love that. And then they also have the raptor alert, which is. Same idea, except you don't get to pet them because you don't want to pet a raptor.
They bring out all the different raptors, so not just like the classic one from the original film, but like the ones from like the newer films as well. Like, you know, the blue one and the. The red one with the spiky things in its head, things like that.
So they like wander around, which I think is really cool. It just adds a lot to the atmosphere.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: My. My favorite, though. My absolute favorite. If you're going to do one thing in Jurassic park, meet the baby dinosaurs. You could meet three baby dinos and you can pet them. And it is the cutest thing. Oh, like, I wasn't really excited for it. I was like, oh. I kind of thought they would just like wheel them out because they've done it before where they would just bring one baby dinosaur out and you just kind of got to see it and that was it. And then they would just like talk about it. Right. And like, look, it's baby dino egg. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's it. But no, they bring up three baby dinosaurs and you can pet all three of them. Oh, which is so cute. One of them is like in a little incubator kind of thing, you can pet them. And the other two are. One is like a baby raptor.
Another one is. I can't remember what the other one was, but those. The other two are being held by trainers or handlers. I don't know what you want to call them. Dinosaur scientists?
Paleontologists.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Oh, no. Because, like, they always study the dead dinosaurs. Right.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: So, yeah. So I. I don't know what. But you can pet them and. Yeah, it is the cutest thing. I really love that. I thought it was adorable. I thought it was so good.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: It sounds so fun.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: They also have a.
What do you. I don't know what you call it. They call it Jurassic World Mission Walk. And it's like you go to the team members, you ask them for it and they give. It's like a.
A puzzle game, I guess. Like you just go around looking for stuff in Jurassic park and then if you've completed, I think you get a sticker or something. It's. It's free to do. It's so fun.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: The only thing is, it's only in Japanese. Unfortunately, it's not in English.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Makes sense, though. Yeah.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: So just keep that in mind.
Is it free Wait, I can't remember.
No, no, it looks like it is. Yeah.
I was told it was only in Japanese, so you can read it, you know.
And then they revamped the food for the one. Well, because there's two Jurassic World restaurants. The Discovery Restaurant, I think it's called. I always get them confused.
I think it's the Discovery Restaurant. The one that they always change over to one piece in the summer. Yeah, they revamped it. They got rid of all the rice bowls, and now they changed them into burgers, which I was a little like, I like the rice bowls.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like rice bowls are more versatile.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: But I was like, I was skeptical at first, but these burgers are actually really freaking good.
Like, probably some of the better, like, theme park burgers I've had. They're. They're much better than Mel's. Mel's burgers are kind of, like, massive. Yeah, they're pretty big.
The T. Rex burger is basically a blooming onion between two buns and a bunch of meat on it.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I see that the most. It's roast beef.
It's roast beefy. We didn't get to eat it.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: Yeah, we didn't. We didn't get to eat it because for the media day, they didn't give media the burger because I guess, like, they only make so many a day. So they're keeping them for the guests, which is perfectly fine, I guess, which they should do.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: But I did ask. I asked someone. I can't remember who I asked, but someone did buy it, and they said it, like, they had to. It was for. It was basically for two people. It was too big.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: Yeah. There's no way one person can eat this.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: It's way too big. Yeah.
Then there's the Raptor burger with the spicy pepper pepper bacon, which was really good.
And then there's a, like a breaded chicken.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: 3,500 yen. Oh, my God.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah, they're not cheap.
[00:39:37] Speaker B: Like, for that, you could pay a little bit more and have a course menu, but I guess it's, like, not as instant.
Okay. I was about to say that's a lot.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The. The chicken burger meal was actually pretty good too.
It has, like, avocado salsa on it.
And then they had some desserts.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: The fine dinosaur dessert is crazy.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: It wasn't great.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: No.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: I was kind of like, some more for the pictures. It's expensive too.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: But the lychee. The salty lemon lychee drink. Phenomenal. I loved it. I. It's really good. Like, I want to Go back and have that drink.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: Like you can't get, you can't go wrong with lychee though.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Salt and salty. Lemon and lychee. Like. Yeah, like a nice touch because. No, lychee is very like delicious. Wild. Like it's, it's mild and refreshing and lemon gives it like a nice zest, you know.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: I can see that. Yeah, they would go well together. It's a good summer drink.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: What they did for it is you can get like the, the, the, the. The regular small size that you would have with like a meal or you get a one liter, basically. A one liter.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: I think it was, it looks massive.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: You get a gigantic version of it, which I love. I love that Universal does that with their, a lot of their drinks. You can get like a mega size, basically a U.S. large. Right.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: Which is really nice.
Love it. I freaking love it.
I, I didn't get to try the fries with the black pepper and cheese sauce. That sounds really good.
I'm a sucker for anything. Like french fries with a bunch of stuff on it. Love it. I guess, you know, as a Canadian, you know, loving poutine, it's pretty easy to make me happy when it comes to that kind of stuff.
So I guess like talking about like segueing into course menus, so I didn't realize this. So I don't know if you remember the two restaurants, sit down restaurants right across from Universal. Monster Show.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: So there was like the, like the grill place that Parks and Grill and then like the Italian food place, a cereal or whatever it's called.
So I guess Azurio is closed. That restaurant's gone now. They just made Parkside Grill bigger.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: So it's just one restaurant now. And they revamped their menu and I got to try the course dinner. The course dinner is 6,000 yen.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's about what they usually would charge.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: So 6,000 yen. And it was, it was like the course menu was very seafood heavy.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: Okay, good.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Yeah, but it was, it was delicious. Like I'm not a seafood person typically. Like I'm not. That's not my first choice. But I got to try it and it was really well good. Like, well good. Well done. Like it was delicious. It was such a nice course dinner. And it was mostly like the, like the, the appetizers and stuff for seafood. And then I got to choose like a steak.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: It was, it was good. It was. And it wasn't like heavy. It wasn't like, you know, of course menu was a lot of Food, but this didn't feel heavy to me. And it came with a cheesecake at the end, like a New York cheesecake. And it was absolutely delicious.
And I also got to sample a steak. Like one other steak. Like, it wasn't wagyu. I can't remember the cut of steak, but it was a huge steak and it was a 6,000 yen steak.
So if you want steak, go to the grill, the grill, the Parkside Grill, and get yourself a massive steak for 6,000 yen. That's like, that's pretty reasonable for a steak of that size, in my opinion. And it was pretty good.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: Or get the course menu. And they also pair it with a Japanese wine, which was really lovely. I. I tried the red and then.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: The New Zealand lamb shop looks really good there.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: I didn't get to try that, but yeah, that does look good. I do like lamb.
And then they did. They also revamped their alcohol menu so they have like a bunch of like, alcohol like cocktails. Like, one's like a strawberry cocktail, one's a kiwi cocktail, one's a lemon cocktail.
But it's. It's not stuff that's just poured out of a can. You know, it's like they put fruit in it and everything was quite nice.
And it's really easy to get into Parkside Grill. Like, you don't have to make advanced reservations.
You can just kind of go up and just ask like, hey, is there anything open today? And they'll tell you it's. It's pretty easy to get into.
So if you want to get like out of the. Out of the hustle and bustle and have like a nicer meal, that's definitely a place to go.
[00:44:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: And they also have to go cocktails. So if you don't want to sit down there, they have a little bar and you can get these cocktails. One is like a gin based and one was a vodka based. I believe it was like a, like a strawberry, strawberry liqueur kind of cocktail.
They were real, like, they were really good. And you can get them to go, which is, I think is funny though. They'll put them in like a special glass for you to go, which I thought was really cool.
There's just a lot going on at.
[00:45:34] Speaker B: Universal, I feel like. I feel like we're missing stuff because I know what else is happening. There's like the Conan stuff, right?
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Conan. Conan's there for, I guess for cool Japan. Like Spy family starts on July 1st and goes until January. And that's Spy Family. The Ride. So they're doing the VR overlay for that. And then the first time, the Apothecary Diaries is coming.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:46:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Part of Cool Japan starts in July.
[00:46:09] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: They haven't said what they're doing yet.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: I wonder. That could be really cool.
[00:46:15] Speaker A: Actually, I started watching because I was curious. I've actually, Honestly, I've never heard of the show until USJ announced, like, oh, it's coming to.
I looked, I'm like, I don't know what this is.
I felt kind of old because I usually, I'm kind of like, I have an idea of what things are.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: There's so much stuff that comes out, you know, I have no idea.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: And I guess I, I, I started watching it and it took a couple episodes for me to kind of start getting into it because I was like, oh, okay. I don't really get it.
Have you watched it or. Nobody does.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: I keep being recommended it. I heard it's really good. But I don't watch a lot of TV shows, so I, I don't have time. But I. It looks really pretty. It looks really pretty and it looks really interesting.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: Essentially, it's like, set in, like, a fictional era in China.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Like, way in the. I'm not sure what time period, but whatever. It's all fictional. Like, none of this is, like, based off of real people or anything.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: There's like magic and stuff. Right?
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Like the antagonist, I guess, or like the main character. Her name is Mao. Mao.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: And she is like a.
I don't know, a peasant girl, I guess. And she's just really good with, like, medicine. Medicine. You know, I. This is another weird thing. I've. I've rarely have ever heard the word apothecary.
Am I saying that right? Apotheory.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: I think you're saying it right.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, that's not a common word. Like, it's not or it's not.
[00:47:53] Speaker B: It's like, usually you'll see it like, in like, I don't know, like, like fantasy. I feel like in fantasy games or novels or something, you know, like, so, like.
[00:48:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't really understand what that meant, but, like, okay, it has stuff to do with, like, medicine, poison, that kind of stuff. In, in Japanese, it's literally, Literally just called kusuriya.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: That's what the.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: And for those that don't know, kusuri means medicine, and ya is something you add to the end to mean, like, they're a professional in that sense.
[00:48:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: Like, kusuriya or mangaya is another example. Mangaya. Is like someone who creates manga professionally in a sense. So that's kind of, It's. I, I, I understood the Japanese easier than the English in that sense.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: I feel like apothecary sounds so cool, though.
[00:48:44] Speaker A: It does.
[00:48:44] Speaker B: Like, I'd rather work at an apostle apostecary than like a drugstore. You know what I mean?
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Essentially, she starts working for, like, lack of a better term, kings or queens, I guess.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Like the royal people.
[00:49:05] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, the royal family or whatever.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: There's, like murder and intrigue and stuff, right?
[00:49:10] Speaker A: Yeah, she's like, she's a poison tester and she's, like, basically solving mysteries every episode. Yeah. Why is this woman sick? You know? And she kind of figures it out, like, oh, and this is what they need to. She needs to eat this to help, like, detoxify her body. And this person has a rash and they need to do this. Or they got that rash because they were doing this. And it's not because of something supernatural that you guys are thinking that it is. It's not. It's just you did something stupid, you know? She's like, very much a.
I don't know how to put it. Someone who's just like, no, I guess you're being stupid. No, it's this kind of thing. And then, like, the, the main guy, it's kind of a weirdo, I think, kind of a creep. He's trying to hit on her, and.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: I'm like, oh, I don't like that.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: Don't do that. But, yeah, anyway, the show, it's, it's fun. I'm going to, I'll keep watching it. It's an easy watch. It's one of those where I just kind of, like, have it on the background or something.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: Yeah. You know what? Like, I keep, the kids keep recommending is Blue Lock.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Blue Lock.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: And I'm surprised that hasn't come to Universal Studios because, like, it seems like that is kind of, like, really, like, up there in popularity. It's like a, like, okay, so this is what I understand of it. I haven't seen it either.
It's prison soccer, if that makes sense.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: All right, cool.
[00:50:38] Speaker B: Like, yelling at the podcast, like, that's not right. Or. But that's the, that's what the idea that I get from the description that they give me.
[00:50:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: It's very popular and the movie came out and they had every, all the kids had seen the movie. So I'm like, oh. They're like, you should see this movie. I'm like, I don't know the show, though.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Okay, sure. Why not?
So, yeah, I guess we'll see what Apothecary Diaries does. Or when it comes to Universal, we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, they said they're going to release more information in May. And then we have, once again, the return of One Piece premiere summer. That happens every single summer. It's been happening for the last decade, so no surprise. One Piece.
Pardon me. The Water World or the show? The One Piece premiere show. Yeah, in the Water World show. I got to watch it last year for the first time and they change it every year. Like it's a different show every single year.
It is worth seeing even if you aren't a One Piece fan. It's just. It's so unique. It's such a unique thing. And I think it's really worth seeing and it's fun. And of course, if you're a One Piece family.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Oh, then you have to go, right?
[00:52:01] Speaker A: You have to go. It is so good. And getting tickets, kind of a pain in the butt if you. To get them online because it's tip. It's only in Japanese. Maybe they'll change it this year because of increase in tourism. Who knows?
[00:52:14] Speaker B: But yeah, they should make it easier to get.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: You can still, like, you can buy day of tickets, typically, if you check first thing in the morning, like once you get into the park. If you like, once they open that ticket booth, you can check because they. Oh, there's almost always day of tickets available. It's just. How quickly do those go?
[00:52:33] Speaker B: Yeah, kind of thing.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: And then Sanji's pirate restaurant's also coming back, which is in the Lambards dining. I did do that last year too. That is great. That sells out almost instantly. Like, the reservations for that go so quick.
And again, that's only in Japanese, unfortunately. The. The website, the reservation and stuff.
And then there's the One Piece Story ride, they call it. It's. They put a track on the Hollywood Dream. The ride which is fun. It's just like the character screaming at you because they're on, like they're.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: They're enjoying the coaster with you. Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:19] Speaker A: And they all. They start bickering or fighting with each other and blah, blah, blah. And they start screaming and stuff. It's. It's. It's cute. It's fun. I like when they do that.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's really.
Especially for the fans of, like, the show. It's like a really nice thing.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: It's a nice little variation to add to something, you know, that, like, the coaster doesn't change. Right.
[00:53:41] Speaker B: And it's always, like, really funny, like, to hear the characters, like, in this weird situation, you know, that, like, it would never happen in the, like, the comic or the show, you know?
[00:53:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's like, you're never gonna hear that anywhere else. Like, you're only gonna find that here. So if you're, like, someone who loves hearing, like, obscure things from your favorite characters, that's something to, like, check out.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: Which I always think is fun, 100%.
[00:54:08] Speaker A: Oh, one thing I want to mention, I didn't.
I didn't know this. So the no Limit Parade is gone.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: What? It says no Limit Summer Splash Parade.
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Yeah. It's coming back for the summer.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:54:25] Speaker A: As a splash parade, but as of right now, the regular version's gone. They're not doing it.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: That's a bummer, I guess, because it's so crowded with the expo, though. That would make sense.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not sure why, but. Yeah, it looks like a version of it's coming back for the summer and then probably going away again.
Because I know people were wondering. And I was wondering too. I was like, what's going, like, because. Yeah, it was just gone off the. Off the schedule. Right.
[00:54:50] Speaker B: But they do that. They'll do that, like, with the different parades that they do. They'll have it, like, for like, a short time. It's a really good parade, too. And then they'll just, like, stop it and then renew and do something different later, which I kind of like, though, which is nice.
[00:55:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I just kind of wish it would tell us, like. Okay, okay, it's done now. Okay, cool. Not just wondering, like, why is it gone? What's going on? You know?
Yeah, that's. That's pretty much it, you know, not that that's a lot an hour and like.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: And that's in addition to all the regular stuff that you can do.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Super Nintendo World, Jaws, Harry Potter, Jurassic park, all the.
Well, we still don't know what's happening with the Spider Man Closed ride. Like, we have no idea what's going on over there. It's still boarded up. It is very much boarded up.
Very boarded up. And same thing with Backdraft. That is also very boarded up. So something has to be coming. They're doing something with it. We just don't know what it is yet.
[00:56:02] Speaker B: I feel like they use that backdraft building for, like, Halloween stuff. So I wonder if that's just going to be used for temporary.
Like, it's a temporary attraction space.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: Kind of like what they did with the One. The The One Warehouse. They. They have Chucky in, like, I. I'm pretty. I'm convinced they don't take anything down from the Halloween Hornets Chucky house. It just sits there.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: No, yeah, I get it.
[00:56:31] Speaker A: I wonder if it's a. Who knows?
[00:56:33] Speaker B: Maybe like this, like a dedicated space that they can, like, do, like, different stuff.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe.
Okay, well, I think. I think that's good. I think that's good enough. We've talked a lot about Universal Studies Japan. So if you haven't. If you haven't already, Explorers, go check out our guidebooks in Universal Studies Japan, please. We put a lot of work into them. We revamped a lot of the sections. So if you're visiting anytime soon, please go check it
[email protected] books. Okay. Please.
Before we go, though, we want to thank some wonderful explorers that are supporting us over on Patreon.
And if you want to support the show, head over to patreon.com TDR now.
And a huge thank you to Acro Disney Girl, Adam, Amanda C, Amy B, Amy C, Mama, Explorer, Banjo, Brent M, Carrie, Crispy, Claire, Claudia, Dave, David, Baker, Kevin, Harry, Marina, Beth, Eli, Robinson, Taylor.
[00:57:35] Speaker B: Mel, and Alex and Jamie, Jose, Kathy, Lee, Marie, Michelle, Murray, Sophie, Spoopy, Thomas, Kate, Alexandra, Lizzie, Amy, and Andy, Dana, Cassandra, Annie, Sonia, W.W. paige, Adelaide, Tara, and Axel.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: And if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button or follow button on your podcast app choice. That way you don't miss any of our. Any of our newest episodes. You can stay up to date with everything at University of Japan and other theme parks in this area of the world. I'm one of your host, Chris, chief content editor for T Explorer. And I am the one that is very exhausted from writing guidebooks, but I am glad they are out there in the world for people to enjoy. So please enjoy the fruits of my labor. Our labor.
And joining, as always, is the wonderful Patricia.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I am now. Oh, no. I want to go see dinosaurs and Doraemon maybe, but not when it's crowded. So I don't know, maybe I'll go check out the movies.
You guys let us know. Are you in town for the expo? What do you think? If you did go, did you also go to Universal Studios? Let us know how your trips are going and keep exc. Exploring.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: All right, explorers, see you in the next one.
Bye.
