Harry Potter And The 5.30am Wake-Up Call

Aka what we did to avoid a five-hour queue for the HP ride at Universal Studios Japan (USJ).

- Celine Tan

Theme parks are stressful, everyone knows that. A successful theme park experience requires planning, advance bookings and in my case, waking up at the butt crack of dawn. This is because, although I’m big on planning and a total Virgo, I wasn’t Virgo enough to book our Universal Studios Japan Express Passes in time (in my defense of the dark arts, it was a very last-minute trip). The Express Passes are limited and sell out faster than castella cakes, and by the time I finalised our trip, they were out. The next best alternative to being able to skip the queues (with the Express Pass 4 or 7, you get to queue in a different and shorter line for the hottest rides) was the USJ VIP Wristband. Awesome as this wristband may sound, it’s actually pretty non-VIP. Everyone knows how the Express Pass works, but the VIP wristband is — quite literally — a mystery.

So… to use the VIP wristband, you need to be in Osaka at least a day before you plan to hit USJ. This is because, for some bizarre reason, you need to pick up your wristbands from a place called Harukas 300 Observatory at least a day before your USJ sojourn, and you cannot go to Harukas and USJ on the same day (not that this would be possible anyway). For the record, I got our VIP wristbands at $36 per person from Klook.com (in comparison, the Express Pass 4 is $66), and also picked up our $92 per pax USJ one-day admission passes from Klook (no, the wristbands don’t include entry tickets; yes, it’s it opens to the public. advisable to buy everything Once you get in, run for the attraction of your you need before you head choice! Don’t shy! to Japan, where the Lost in Translation-esque language barrier is very real.) That’s how I found myself at the Tennoji subway station, heading to Harukas 300. I pick up our wristbands from the counter on the 16th floor along with a piece of paper with a secr