I finally got to visit the attraction I’ve been dying to visit… The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan!!!

Similar to the Attack on Titan USJ post, loads of photos in this post as well! (but I take and edit awesome photos, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy the eye candy, heh)

PRO TIP: Buy your own USJ tickets online and skip the queues with this guide!

As it was mad crowded, we had to queue for a timed entry ticket, which allowed us entry into the HP area during a certain time period. Although there was a restriction on when we could enter, there was no restriction on how long we could stay.

Past the HP area entrance was a meandering pathway through the woods, as if to represent the journey into the magical realm…

Everything was peaceful until we heard obnoxious honking noises coming from up ahead, and we realized…

A bit more walking and we arrived at the gateway to Hogsmeade!

HOGSMEADE

Told you it was crowded! Lots of plainclothes wizards and muggles alike. What’s the difference?

Muggles have zero knowledge of HP and cannot fully appreciate the greatness of this world they are in. All the little details, all lost on them! Plus they are uselessly crowding the place hrmph.

When I hear someone go “What’s this?” I mentally judge them. Severely. Lol.

My first stop after entering Hogsmeade is to… GRAB A BUTTERBEER!!!

It’s not actually beer la. It tastes quite sweet, and I felt like I tasted ginger in it. (Fu agreed.) It’s not my favorite, and at 1,200 yen, I probably won’t drink it again (especially now that I have the mug!)

PRO TIP: Don’t queue for Butterbeer at the outdoor stores. The lines are insanely long. Instead, buy it from…

HOG’S HEAD

The queue is the shortest of all the places to get Butterbeer! There’s no seating, but that’s the same as getting from the outdoor stores.

OWL POST AND OWLERY

OLLIVANDER’S

Didn’t go into shop because there was a 30min queue just to enter -_- But I had a peek when they opened the door. Lots and lots of boxes of wands!

If I’m not mistaken they have an event where the wand will choose the wizard. This person will supposedly win the wand, although I read somewhere that a sales staff will follow the winner after the winner walks away and ask for payment haha. Not sure how true it is!

Before I came to USJ, I wanted to buy a wand. But after seeing the price (~S$50) and the fact I won’t actually have much use for it except do “Lumos” and “Nox” (there’s a wand with a tip that lights up and extinguishes with a flick of the hand!) all day lol.

DERVISH AND BANGS

FILCH’S EMPORIUM OF CONFISCATED GOODS

This Filch, really knows how to make money… Opening a shop out of all the stuff he confiscated over the years! He even charges for carrier bags! S$5 for the smallest size!!! If you don’t buy the carrier bag, you have to walk around hugging your purchases in the free but handle-less paper bag.

HONEYDUKES

There was also a queue (about 45 mins) to enter Honeydukes, but I really wanted to go in, so we queued!

All the candies jumped out from the books into real life! I’m like a kid in the candy shop, oooh-ing and aaah-ing over everything.

Before I entered, I wanted to buy some candies. Like every-flavor beans (ear wax flavor! lolol) for punishment for the loser when Fu & I play board games lol.

But so bloody expensive!!! S$20 for a small box of every flavor beans?!! GO AND DIE. Sorry, I meant, Avada Kedavra!

So I just took a ton of photos. Free and can keep forever hahaha.

ZONKO’S JOKE SHOP

Zonko’s Joke Shop actually carried products from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, since WWW did not have a shop of its own :(

 

 THREE BROOMSTICKS

HOGSWART EXPRESS

At certain times of the day, a train master will appear and pose for photos with people! The train also emits “smoke”, which is pretty cool!

HOGSWART CASTLE

THIS PICTURE NICE??? I think it’s very nice leh! I manually combined two photos in photoshop cause my camera couldn’t nicely capture this scene. See if you can spot what gives away the fact that it’s not a single shot!

In fact, all the castle photos in this post are really nice! Watch out for the rest later in this post! :D #doesnotknowhumility

OTHERS

Random tidbit: Moaning Myrtle haunts the female toilets! She’s speaking in Japanese though, haha.

 NIGHT FALL

Told you the castle photos are nice!!! I’m damn proud that my little camera managed to churn out such nice photos! Thank god I bought the camera before the trip, else all the night photos will be very grainy and gross cause iPhone absolutely cannot handle night photos.

One of Hogsmeade by night:

Overall, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter attraction at USJ. I can almost believe I’m a student wandering the alleys and streets of Hogsmeade! But of course, I’ll enjoy it more if there are less people. Like, 90% lesser people lol.

I didn’t bother to queue for THE ride (Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey) because the wait time was 250 MINUTES!!! So I didn’t get to see the inside of the castle :C

But I believe I will return again anyway, to enjoy the place during a more relaxed period, and visit the places I missed on this visit. The next visit will probably with a HP fan (at the mo’, my sister’s face comes to mind. And when she reads this, she’ll say “YESSSS!!!” with crazed eyes hehehe).

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Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan

English website

Special Japanese website
(even if you don’t understand Japanese, watch for the fancy Flash animation anyway!)