5 Tips for the Visiting Muggle to Wizarding World in Universal Studios Japan

For us wee Asian muggles who missed our letters from Hogwarts and despaired of ever setting foot in anything Harry Potter-related, the news of Universal Studios Japan building its own Wizarding World theme park came as an answer to a prayer. Finally! We can fulfill our Hogsmeade dreams of drinking butterbeer!

Notwithstanding the obvious language barrier, WWHP in USJ is... in a very cliched term, several kinds of awesome. Several different kinds of awesome. It's like unicorns and rainbows and chocolate and winning the lottery all at the same time. (On second thought, maybe not so much winning the lottery... but it's close!) Here are some hopefully helpful tips for first-timers on their way to demand their much-sought-after letters from Japanese Dumbledore.

1. First of all, never ever go on a weekend. Or a holiday. Or summer. You see, the Japanese love their theme parks. LOVE them. And the locals are bestowed this one thing that ensures their theme parks are loved all the time: an Annual Pass. It's expensive, yes, but it means they get to go in and out whenever they please. ALL. YEAR. ROUND.

[Edit: I forgot to mention that fortunately, foreigners can buy tickets to Universal Studios Japan (6980Yen) at the Travel Desk in Kansai International Airport. The tickets are not dated, so you can use them anytime during your stay. Just make sure you don't lose or forget them on the actual day you go to the theme park!]

We went on a Tuesday. I don't know if it was a holiday or something special, but this was what Tuesday morning at the gates looked like:

Which, when I think about it, wasn't so bad... and brings me to my next tip...

2. Come early. The photos above were taken at around 8AM. If you're in the middle of that line, you have a fighting chance to be in the Wizarding World area without needing a timed-entry ticket.

3. Wear comfy shoes. I can't stress this enough when traveling, because obviously you'll be doing a lot of walking--Universal Studios is HUGE--not to mention lining up for rides and shops. Also, it'll help especially when the gates open, and everyone does a mad dash to Wizarding World.

3.a. If you can manage it, please exercise weeks beforehand. Running is all the rage these days. Do some laps in Global City. You'll be healthier AND you won't have to wait 160 minutes to get on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. Or line up to buy stuff at Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop. In fact, run a marathon. Treat it like practice.

3.b. There will be running as soon as you get off the train. Then there will be running once the gates open. Basically, there will be running.

However, if you don't feel like racing towards the gold medal that is to be the first 100 or so people to get into Hogsmeade, then let me tell you about #4.

4. Get a Timed-Entry Pass. This pass lets people in every 10-20-30 minutes or so to control the number of people entering WWHP. (Because if you haven't noticed from the photos yet, everyone and I mean, EVERYONE heads to WWHP as soon as the gates open.) If you're among the first group in, CONGRATULATIONS! DON'T LEAVE. When you do leave, you'll notice that they've already barred people from entering unless they have a timed-entry pass.

Here's what the pass looks like, and yes, that's us,
utterly ecstatic after getting it. See anecdote below.

The passes are churned out through machines which are located underneath a section of the Hollywood Dream roller coaster. They are at the other side of the "road" from the entrance to WWHP. I will now tell you our story. You see, I had thought that we would need a timed-entry pass to get into WWHP. So, when the gates of USJ opened, our game plan went: GO STRAIGHT FOR THE TIMED-ENTRY PASS MACHINES. DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT CASH. I asked for our fastest runner, and gave all our USJ tickets to him as soon as we cleared the main gates. Unfortunately, in the entire rush to go to WWHP--hell those Japanese can RUN!--we mistakenly followed the crowd STRAIGHT INTO Wizarding World. We, the girls, had been separated from our runner (who had all our tickets, by the way, and had gone ahead) and our photographer (my husband).

<--- We were here! And we could see Hogwarts Castle! But we were confused! "We're in?! I thought we needed those timed-entry tickets!" "I think we should've gone left." "Oh no, where's our runner?!" So, we reluctantly ambled back to the main theme park road to look for the timed-entry machines. We noticed that they had already closed the way going into WWHP.

Naturally, there were now lines forming to get the passes, so we fell in. BUT, we were still missing our runner who we suspected had followed the crowd right into Hogsmeade. Fortunately, we found my husband at some point near the front of the line, who had the good sense not to follow the crowd and instead looked for the machines. More importantly, he had one of our group's pocket routers--our runner had the other one--which finally enabled us to contact our runner, get our tickets and get our entry pass into WWHP!!!

Here's a little infographic of that part of the USJ theme park map. The crowd will be going in the direction of the orange arrow. If you find yourself being able to enter WWHP without any difficulty (or are suddenly surrounded by lots of trees), then HOORAY! Otherwise, the entrance to the Timed-Entry Pass Machines are indicated by the yellow arrows.

<--- There will be this person indicating where the machines are. But noooooo... no one's paying attention. Everyone's running towards WWHP like there are zombies chasing them. 

These huge rocks mark the beginning of the WWHP area.

To summarize, this is what my friends and I learned with regards to item #4: If you're early, you can get into Wizarding World without a Timed-Entry Pass. If you're not, you need a Timed-Entry Pass.

If you're planning to spend the entire day at the park, we suggest you go into WWHP first, walk around a bit, then you can fall in line for the timed-entry machines again to get another pass for a later slot, preferably in the evening so you can experience Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle during day and night. Our photo above shows that our first entry was at 10:20AM. After our first go around, we got another pass for 6:10PM. Take note that eventually the passes do run out, which is why we really recommend visiting the park as soon as it opens.

5. Go on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. You know what? We almost missed this. In the morning when we first got in, the waiting time was 70-80(?) minutes which made us balk. Instead, we took the Castle Walk which tours you around and inside Hogwarts, same as the line for the ride, except you end with exiting the castle. On our second entry at 6:10PM, the waiting time had ballooned to about 160-200 minutes; the tail end of the line extended to Ollivander's Wand Shop. We vacillated for a bit, but we fought for it, feet aching and all. And OHMYGOD. For a Potterhead, it was the BEST RIDE EVER. I don't even care if Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and the Phelps twins were all speaking in Japanese. I would have gladly lined up for it again, but by the time we were done, it was closing time. :P Boo. End of one of the best days ever. 

Now celebrate with some butterbeer! Cheers!