TUESDAY, MARCH 28 – FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023

ACROSS THE US, ACROSS THE PACIFIC, AND A DAY AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

My trek to Japan started with two rescheduled flights that, long annoying airline frustration story short, ended up with me booking a third-time’s-the-charm flight from NYC to San Francisco on Tuesday night after work, working remotely from San Francisco on Wednesday, flying to Tokyo late Wednesday night/Thursday morning, arriving in Tokyo very early Friday morning, and finally taking an hourlong hopper flight that morning from Tokyo to Osaka.

I can’t say I was looking forward to that journey, but couldn’t have been more excited when the day finally arrived, and knew it’d be worth it for the destination!

After shutting my laptop on Tuesday, I practically flew to JFK with anticipation, and had dinner in the airport before my nighttime flight to San Francisco. I took it as a great sign being at gate B28, as it’s a running joke with my family that I am seemingly always at gate 50-something, which is such a ridiculous hike in Terminal 4 at JFK. A civilized 28!

So strange! Never experienced such an empty flight.

The flight was a little under 7 hours and was one of the weirdest of my life as the plane was practically empty – I was literally the only person in Delta Comfort Plus. The flight attendant for the section jokingly called me “the chosen one” and kindly snuck me a comforter and sleep kit from Delta One, which was incredibly nice of her!! I was able to stretch out over a middle row and get some legit sleep (had no idea that first class blanket is an actual real, cozy blanket), which ended up being a total blessing.

Thanks, kind flight attendant!

Definitely did not need this nice a hotel for a stopover, but couldn’t pass up the convenience of a hotel right on the AirTrain line.

Landing in San Francisco in the middle of the night (so pretty early morning Wednesday NY time) I took the AirTrain to the Grand Hyatt SFO hotel, which is right on that line, checked in, and took a quick nap before getting up for an East Coast time work day.

I definitely had half a brain on vacation at this point, but was able to knock out the last of my to-do list before signing off in the afternoon 🎉, taking a real nap, then having a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant before checking out and heading back to the airport at about 10pm for my 1:45am flight to Tokyo.

A particularly nice pumpkin soup at the hotel restaurant

Trying to get there overly-responsibly early, of course the ANA counter wasn’t even open yet 😅, but I waited in line and then relaxed in the airport for the couple of hours before my flight. The 11h15m flight was pretty uneventful – I tried to stay up for a bit to get my body on Japan time, but found myself nodding off a lot.

Pretty path from hotel to AirTrain in San Francisco

Landing in Tokyo early Friday morning, I knew that I had a very tight connection to make my hopper flight to Osaka (tighter since my San Francisco flight had left about 30 minutes late), and the flight attendant kindly made way for me to book it off the plane and speed walk to immigration and customs. Japan has a QR code system for entry so you can pre-clear everything before you arrive, including Covid vaccination proof, so I was able to get into the immigration line fairly quickly. It wasn’t the world’s longest line and I was there as fast as humanly possible, but at 4:30am there were only a couple of booths open and it was moving at a snail’s pace, and I started to doubt that I’d make my connection.

I finally made it through, and speed-walked to customs, picking up my checked bag on the way since I would need to re-check it to Osaka. (I had been worried that this would be the holdup, but it took less than 30 seconds since it was already off the belt and it was right on the path I was walking.) Through customs, I then had to take a 15-minute shuttle bus to a different terminal to my domestic flight, and that’s when I finally threw in the towel, knowing that there was no way I was making my flight. Normally I wouldn’t have really sweated it, but I was worried about getting to Osaka asap because I was meeting three of my fellow travelers early to go to Universal Studios Japan, and I was the one with the tickets.

Once at the domestic terminal, I headed to the ANA counter where thankfully they couldn’t have been nicer about simply rescheduling me on a flight about an hour later (the hourlong flight from Tokyo to Osaka is very frequent), which incidentally was the flight that one of my fellow parkgoers Emma was on. It was a stressful morning, but couldn’t have worked out better.

First high-tech Japanese toilet

I called the ride service that was supposed to pick me up in Osaka to cancel, met Emma at the gate, and we shared our excitement about the trip ahead of us while swapping stories of our previous Flash Pack adventures.

The quick flight to Osaka was an easy one, with some great scenery below. We picked up our luggage and met the Flash Pack driver, and headed to our hotel – the Moxy Osaka Shin Umeda in the Fukushima neighborhood. I was pretty impressed that they already had my name on the driver’s sign since I had just rescheduled that morning.

Arriving at the hotel, we pre-checked in and dropped off our bags, took some time to freshen up after all of the flying, met our fellow travelers who were already at the hotel, and the four of us hopped in a car to head to Universal.

Because I work for NBCUniversal, I get four free tickets to the theme parks, and I was so grateful that Andy at Flash Pack was able to email our group ahead of time to see if anyone else was getting to Osaka a day early and was interested in joining me. Flash Pack always puts everyone in touch with each other two weeks before the trip through WhatsApp, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough advance notice to get (very necessary) Express Passes for the rides, so it worked out so well to be able to get in touch with Emma, Yalda, and Janie early to make plans.

Once we arrived, we stopped at the group sales counter to pick up our free passes, and headed into the park for a day of fun.

I had heard talk that all of the big Asian theme parks are always crowded, but as a New Yorker who worked for years in the middle of Times Square I brushed off the warnings. But I was in for a shock – Americans have no idea what crowded means! Seeing the sheer masses of people was further confirmation that it was worth us splurging on an Express Pass that would allow us to not only skip the line on seven specific rides, but gave us timed entry into both the Harry Potter and Nintendo World areas. The majority of my interest in coming to the Japan park was Nintendo World, so it was 100% worth it to guarantee that entry, especially arriving at the park in the late morning when same-day timeslots were surely already sold out.

Laughed that this was basically the first thing we saw when we walked in, as we had *just* finished a whole Puss in Boots marketing program at work. It was also the pivotal moment when I tried and failed to jokingly send a pic to my team and realized with some alarm that my T-Mobile temporary international plan was going to be useless for internet. Would need to address that for sure!

Walking through the park, we made our way to our timed entry into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section. This was pretty identical to the original Harry Potter worlds in the States, so not new to me, but the other three were very excited to check it out.

We walked around a bit, then entered Hogwarts Castle to ride the Forbidden Journey ride, which is a state of the art dark thrill ride with 3D graphics. Once inside the castle, there were lockers to check our stuff… where I regretted leaving my phone, since the rest of the queue featured the Harry Potter characters speaking Japanese which I found charming. Thankfully it exists on YouTube:

I clipped this so it’s just some of the speaking parts in the queue, followed by the whole ride with the characters yelling at you in Japanese. But if you want to watch the whole thing (and to give full credit to the person who filmed it), here is that link.

After the ride, we walked through some of the shops and around the area, then stopped to have a glass of butterbeer (which is basically butterscotch-flavored cream soda), and ride Flight of the Hippogriff, a family roller coaster.

After the ride, we stopped at the Three Broomsticks restaurant to have some lunch.

Leaving the Harry Potter area, we found ourselves at the Jaws ride, which is a leisurely boat ride but with special effects, animatronic sharks, and a lot of pyro. I used to love this ride in Orlando but it’s been closed for years, so it was a fun little nostalgia trip.

So nice to skip the line!

Leaving Jaws, we ended up next door in Jurassic Park. First, we rode the classic Jurassic Park: The Ride. Probably would’ve been better to wear ponchos like the other smart people on our ride, as we got pretty soaked!

After that fun, normal ride, we decided to use our Express Pass for The Flying Dinosaur, one of Universal Japan’s flagship and most popular rides. It was intimidating, as it’s a roller coaster where you’re strapped into a normal seat, but also around your calves, and then the whole seat tips forward so you’re face down and literally flying like a pterodactyl. Great concept! And somehow we were feeling brave, except for Janie who was feeling smart and decided to wait for us on solid ground.

I think that as a teenager I would’ve been obsessed with this ride. As a grown adult… woof. The three of us who rode were all on the same page that it was genuinely terrifying, and after the initial wooooo! ascent, we didn’t make a peep for the rest of the ride, just clutching the restraint for dear life. I remember thinking, while hurtling through the air upside-down, that I was glad my apartment at home was spotless in case this was the last moment of my life. But we did it! 😅

Here we are naively smiling on the way up

QUITE the line – even with the Express Pass this one took a while

Here, experience the terror yourself!

Back on solid ground, we wandered into the much more civilized area of Minion Land (all decked out with Easter decor) to sit down and have a snack.

We work on Minions all the time at work, so I was really hoping to find some fun Japanese Minions thing to bring back with me, but ironically almost all of the Park’s merchandise is in English, presumably because that’s what the locals want! That said, the “Happiness Cafe” cashier did give me little Minions stickers that said “The Best Team” and Universal Studios Japan on them, so I had to bring a few of those back.

At this point it was a little after 4:00, and our entry to Nintendo World wasn’t until 5:15. They were understandably pretty strict about not letting people in early, and Emma and Yalda were too tired to hang on, so they left to go back to the hotel while Janie and I walked around the park some more to kill time before our Nintendo entry. I wanted to try to find something USJ to take back with me, and after stopping into a few stores was happy to find a simple tumbler with the park logo that I now have on my desk at work as a water cup.

Speaking of, for my coworkers who will see this: Illumination repping well in Japan beyond just Minions!

I always love a theme park version of fake New York 😂

Finally, it was time for our entry to Nintendo World! I had seen a bunch of photos, but it was so much more impressive than I had imagined. Of course you first enter the world through a warp pipe, and you can’t help but smile as you walk through it and emerge on the other side to the most colorful spectacle of a view of the Mushroom Kingdom.

They nailed the overall look and feel, but all of the little details from the music playing, to the sounds of people smashing coin boxes, to the moving piranha plants and turtle shells skidding and little music note boxes – it was just so impressive. We had a timed entry to the flagship Mario Kart Ride and a little bit of time to kill, so just spent some time wandering around and taking in the atmosphere.

One of the most innovative parts of Nintendo World is that they’ve created Power-Up Bands that allow you to fully interact with the world, and connect to their official app. So when wearing the wristband, all of the coin blocks (and regular blocks) are designed to be hit from underneath, just like Mario, and then those coins save to your app account where you can compete with friends. I’m pretty sure it’s cumulative, so you can come back to the park again and again and keep playing. There are other challenges that help add coins as well as little prizes and hidden objects to your account, including within the two rides in the world. It’s really so unique.

I think at that point because it was just the two of us, and I could tell Janie was fading, we didn’t get the bands – so I will have to try this out at the just-opened Hollywood Nintendo World (or Orlando when it opens there in 2025).

Did of course have to stop in the main store to check out all of the merchandise. Picked up a little Yoshi photo clip stand thing for my desk at work – it was too cute to pass up.

Finally, it was our time to ride the Mario Kart ride, which I had been looking forward to for a few years now, ever since it was announced in development for the park. It uses AR technology in a visor to add the classic Mario Kart elements (shells being thrown, banana peels, other racers etc) to a physical track ride, all while you use the vehicle you’re in to shoot at things and gain points (which, if you have the wristband, will incorporate into your account). As someone who has followed innovation in the theme park/experiential world for a couple of decades, this is as state of the art as it gets. Riding the ride, I was having fun while still trying to take it all in (Rainbow Road! Squid ink!), and I wish I could’ve ridden it many more times just to capture all of the detail that the engineers and designers put into it. So impressive.

Following Mario Kart, it was our designated time to ride Yoshi’s Adventure, a slow-moving family ride. Like Mario Kart but on a much, much simpler level, there’s a goal on the Yoshi ride to spot three different glowing eggs on the ride and hit the corresponding button on your Yoshi vehicle. The ride itself is not particularly exciting in the scheme of rides, but it offers the best views of Nintendo World as a whole, and as the sun was going down and the whole world was lit up, it was a really fantastic view.

Green egg: spotted

After the Yoshi ride, it was time to wrap it up and leave Nintendo World and the park. Emma had been messaging our little group about a dinner she had booked, and so the plan was to go back to the hotel to quickly get ready for that.

Future entrance to the new Donkey Kong expansion coming in 2024

All in all a really fun day. We didn’t get to everything (I’m not sure it’s physically possible to do everything here in a day, even with all of the Express Passes!), but it was a great taste of the Japan park and I’m so glad I got to see it. Couldn’t be more different than the rest of our upcoming Flash Pack itinerary, but it was the perfect pre-trip treat, and definitely made me proud to work for the company. Especially with all of the innovations in Nintendo World!

So our first night in Osaka was the one big regret I have from the trip – basically a giant lesson in “know thyself.”

I don’t like seafood. There are a few exceptions, but regardless of my best intentions my gag reflex always likes to reject it. I am not proud of this and wish I was an anything-eater, but my lack of seafood-eating has really never been an issue in the States or the other places I’ve traveled since I eat plenty of other things. But in Japan…. I was worried. Even the non-seafood items here, they manage to find a way to add seafood. And like 90% of it is raw.

I’m genuinely fine with fasting if need be, so wasn’t actually worried about eating while I was away, it was more the social factor and the fact that we had a few group meals as part of the itinerary that were definitely out of my comfort zone, never mind the worry that I would offend the Japanese people with my aversion. I had been stressing about it for a while leading up to departure day. (And I realize how horrifying this is to some of you whose #1 priority for a trip to Japan would be the food!)

Anyway, I was trying very hard to pep talk myself into just going for it tonight in Osaka, what the hell. And so when Emma said she had booked an omakase meal at some well-reviewed place near our hotel, and Janie in the car on the way back was trying hard to convince me that I should give it a try, and because I really do wish I could be an eat-anything person and didn’t want to be difficult with my fellow travelers on the first night, I agreed.

The four of us freshened up and walked over to the tiny restaurant which wasn’t far from our hotel, and were seated in a cute little private room off to the side. The waiter brought a drink menu (fully in Japanese, so we got out the Google Translate) and we ordered sake for the table. So far so good! Kanpai!

Then the first course came out, and it was like a stringy seaweed in a clear slime sort of substance, like the consistency of raw egg white or mucus. I love dried seaweed as a snack and eat it often back home, but this was my first eye-opener of even the vegetarian things I have no problem with potentially being too off-putting in Japan for my palate. What had I gotten myself into. 😳

The second course came out, which was little pieces of octopus tentacle, suckers included. I think cooked at least? I internally pep talked (mind over matter!), smiled, and put a piece in my mouth, and it was over. My body physically would not swallow it, I had to lean under the table to put it in the napkin, and my eyes started watering from just trying to not publicly gag.

I came clean to the three of them that this kind of meal is not just “a new experience” but is basically my food nightmare, and they kindly offered that it was totally fine if I wanted to leave and go back to the hotel. I wish I could’ve stuck it out, but there was just no way. So, tail between my legs, I apologized profusely and ducked out before the server came back with the next course, thankfully back out in fresh air.

For what it’s worth, I found out the next day that not only did it get worse, but it got too weird for even them, including some potato-sized whole raw cuttlefish thing they showed me a picture of. Absolutely not.

(Want to take this moment to declare that this is entirely “it’s not you, it’s me.” I don’t mean any disrespect to Japanese cuisine – it’s just a totally different culinary world!)

So we weren’t that far from the hotel, no big deal, called it an early night. However, I still didn’t have working internet on my phone, and I really hadn’t been paying attention to the way we walked to get to the restaurant, which was a lot of little unmarked side streets. Before I left the restaurant, Janie took a screenshot of the Google Maps path from the restaurant to the hotel so I could use it as a guide, but sure enough I took a wrong turn. And, nothing really being labeled on the screenshot, and everything around me being in Japanese, got lost.

It was my first small moment of worry, though I knew that Japan is extraordinarily safe, so I was grateful that at least I didn’t need to waste any energy worrying about being alone on the street.

After wandering fruitlessly for a little while, my plan was to try to find any hotel where at least they could point me in the right direction (or have wifi I could tap into) but thankfully I kept checking and was eventually able to find a sliver of city wifi on the street, enough to get Google Maps to load, and then –thank you, technology– easily find my way back to the main avenue that our hotel was on.

Not my best night to say the least, and in hindsight I so wish I had just trusted my gut and stayed solo at the park, but tomorrow is a fresh start, and I was excited to explore Osaka a bit before meeting the rest of the Flash Pack group.

One nice perk of the lost and wandering walk back to the hotel: my first cherry blossom sighting

The Moxy Hotel in Osaka was a cute little boutique hotel – perfect for our group and for a two-night stay.