I am tired. Actually I'm beyond tired. I have no idea how or why I'm sitting here writing this blog, but I am. But today was a great day. Today was Universal Studios Osaka, and it has been another day that I would estimate that we have walked 12km+. Started off with the usual routine. Veronica goes downstairs with Charlotte for weird rice balls and miso soup, while Angela and I stay in the room. Angela watches (and now sings along with) the Japanese kids shows on TV at that time of the morning, and I do the last minute planning for the days events, such as working out train routes etc. We set out from the hotel at about 9am, as Universal Studios does not open until 10am on Weekdays. We were worried about the weather, and according to the weather reports the chance of rain ranged from 30% to 70%, depending on which internet weather site you consulted. Not a cloud in the sky as we set off. And at 9am, I'd hazard a guess that it was already nudging 30 degrees. It seemed like just the right conditions to bring on afternoon showers, but I didn't want to think about that at that stage. Onto the train at Shin-Osaka station, change trains at Osaka station, and catch the Sesame Street Bert and Ernie train to Universal City, home of Universal studios. We got off at the station, and after a few quick photos of what must be the coolest looking trains in Japan, we made our way towards the Universal Studios gates. Along with 50 million other people. I was hoping it wouldn't be too crowded, but early signs indicated that I was going to be mistaken. Eventually we got our tickets, and with 2 adults, 1 child (Angela was free) and 3 sets of "Express Passes" which for $37 per person allow you to show the middle finger to the entire queue of people waiting for the rides and jump straight to the front like a VIP. There are only a limited number of these express pass books issued each day apparently. These passes were money well spent, not only because of the time saving, but also so you can enjoy the look on the faces of the people in the queue who have been standing there for 70 minutes, while you take the side entrance to the ride and are admitted before them. That will teach them for being cheapskates. Universal Studios Osaka is apparently a pretty close imitation of the U.S.A. version, with the exception that I couldnt understand a word that was being said in any of the rides, shows, instructions or warnings. As we walked in the gate, while Veronica and Charlotte were looking through one of the shops, the usual Angela circus began. A group of about 20 Japanese people started saying lots of stuff in Japanese and waving their cameras around with hopeful and questioning looks on their faces. So we assume the usual "Photos with Angela" drill that we have all become very proficient at: 1) I signal that photos are fine. 2) I take a couple of steps back, but still remaining close enough for them to realise that I'm not going far, and that I'm still watching everything they do very carefully. 3) Angela poses with whoever comes and stands/kneels next to her, and smiles at whoever is holding a camera and making the loudest noise. 4) Lots of smiling, nodding, bowing, thanking and talking in Japanese ensures, to which I just smile and nod with a friendly "you're welcome" look on my face. This circus actually came with a step 5) which has happened a few times, and which I'm not fond of. Step 5) involves one of the women in the group (and it is *always* a woman) giving one or both of the girls some lollies or chocolate. I realise it is a very sweet and very innocent gesture, but I still cannot let the girls eat what they are given by some camera wielding people we have never met before. Each time it happens I have to discretely tell the girls to hang on to the lollies until we are out of site of the camera circus, at which time I take the lollies and bin them. This never goes down well. Whoever came up with the phrase "...as easy as taking candy from a baby" have not met my daughters. After we made it through the first camera circus, we were accosted by another, slightly smaller circus consisting of only 3 cameras this time. "So beautiful", "Photo?", "Thank you", "Cheese!", "So Cute", "Bye Bye!" is getting really old, really, really fast. After this, Angela's hat came out of the backpack. With the blonde curls hidden, they tend leave her alone a little more. First ride was the Shrek 4D adventure, which was an identical film to the Gold Coast movie world, only dubbed in Japanese. It is basically a 3D shrek mini-movie in which you wear glasses, and the 4th dimension comes in the form of chairs that move or jolt in key points in the film, and water and air jets build into the seat behind, in front of, and below you, to spritz or blast you with air at the appropriate moment (e.g. when one of the characters sneezes). Not too bad, but Charlotte and Angela hated it. Next onto the E.T. Ride, which was the favourite of the day with Charlotte and Angela. Basically we got onto mock bikes, and rode around through some pretty pointless, but brightly coloured and flashing E.T. themed scenery. Great ride for kids, but the adults who were standing in the already estimated 40 minute queue were going to be bitterly disappointed. Then around to the Spiderman ride. Minimum height is 102cm to ride. Angela with her curls extended upwards is 101cm, so Charlotte and I went on the ride. It was excellent, and definitely my favourite for the day. Basically the ride sat you in a rollercoaster style car which twisted and turned and rose and fell through a building, and at each turn was a projector screen which also gave you the illusion that you were moving through the city and being thrown around and chased by the spiderman villains. Quite well done. Onwards to a 50's diner style cafe, complete with a Japanese Marilyn Monroe with a bad blonde wig walking around sticking her obviously padded bum out and pouting for photos. $25 for 2 very ordinary cheeseburgers, 2 small chips and 2 small drinks and we were on our way. We made our way to the "backlot" of the park, and came across a waterslide style ride, with a long queue. The girls both begged and pleaded to go on it, so I first took Charlotte. Unfortunately the express ride pass didnt cover this one, so instead we had to standing in line like commoners and wait for the ride. We got to the top half an hour or so later, climbed aboard the stupid rubber raft, were given our vital safety instructions in Japanese, and were pushed down the stupid yellow tube. At this point, I had my camera in my pocket, and my 1 week old Nikes on. First corner, the raft bites a rail, and a bucketload of water breaches the side of the raft and drenches us. We are no longer sitting in a raft, but rather something resembling a big yellow child's wading pool. Next corner, and dammit it happened again. Great. The sequence repeated for 6 or 7 more bends, until we finally got to the bottom, and my shoes, pants and bum were completely submerged. You know it is bad when even the ride staff point and laugh at you. That ride sucked. So I returned to Angela and Veronica, only to have lots and lots of other Japanese people laugh at me, especially when I took of my shoes and poured the water out of each one. On the plus side, I was now cool (my lower half was anyway) and the camera still works. Next Angela wanted a turn. Great. And what made it worse was that the ride had grown. Who in their right mind would want to go on this stupid ride??? And what kind of idiot would turn around and do it again? Yep. Just me. The second time I got just as wet, and the ride was just as bad. Apparently it was the girls favorite ride, along with E.T., so I guess it was worth it. Almost. Next was the Jaws ride, on which a group of people got onto a boat, and floated around in a big circular pond, listening to a female boat "captain" who, at just after midday, was obviously already getting sick of being on that damn boat and giving the same stupid corny "oh look out, it's a shark!!!" act every 10 minutes. All of this while pretending to act scared of a giant plastic shark which was popping up so close to the boat that the hydraulics propelling it out of the water were clearly visible. We should have just sat in a stationary boat which never left the dock while someone held up photos of sharks. It would have been similarly scary. Jurrasic Park was next, and it was the typical ride where a group boards a boat which floats down a river, looking at all of the pretty stuff (in this case, nice dinosaurs like stegosaurus) until the boat makes a detour into some place dangerous, and ends up climbing a mountain somehow and plunging down a splash-down style drop narrowly avoiding disaster (a tyranosaurus rex on this ride). Basically people sit through the entire ride for the last few milliseconds of freefall. Not bad, but again I'm glad I had the express ticket, as the queue wait time estimations were now up to 75 minutes for these type of rides. Suckers. I had to wait 3 minutes. Onwards to "Back to the future". Again Charlotte and I went on, and Veronica minded the 1cm too short Angela, and we jumped the mammoth queue again, which was a blessing as we found out later. We boarded the ride, and after we had the instructions and numerous safety warnings read to us in Japanese, we crammed into the ride car, which was styled a delorean from the movie. I was sitting the back corner seat, and unfortunately the door system to the ride was also styled after the gullwing doors of the delorean, but unfortunately they must have measured their dimensions based on a Japanese persons stature, because when the door came down, it came down ******** my head. My skull must have registered a jam in the mechanism, so the doors rose back up, and a little Japanese man with a torch came to see what the blockage was. As he shone his torch in my eyes, to see that I was clutching my scone and grimacing, he said something in Japanese, which I assume was "duck next time" and again gave the thumbs up for the doors to be closed. Thanks for the sympathy. If I were American I would be on the phone to my lawyer. Needless to say I kept my melon out of the way of the damn door, and we were underway. Not a bad ride. Similar to the Batman ride at movieworld on the Gold Coast, the ride consist of the passengers sitting in a car that rocks back and forwards, and side to side, while a screen a the front of the car gives the passengers the illusion that they are moving. Relatively effective. Basically the car just flew around, bumping into stuff, and narrowly avoiding other stuff from dinosaurs and volcanoes to buildings and other cars, before coming to a crashing halt back in the original room, at which point the car fills with a pretty ordinary smelling gas, which is supposed to represent fire extinguishers being sprayed. So we exited the ride, which is where we were met with the Perfect Storm. A torrential downpour worse than I have seen in a long time had somehow hit Universal Studios while we were inside in the ride. The ushers guided us out of the ride and into a small area out of the rain, but with no seating available. It was then that the thunder and lightning started, and the park shut down. We were the very last ride which made it through Back to the Future before they switched it off for the storm. I have no idea why they needed to switch this ride, or any of the other indoor rides off, except for the fact that they were advising that nobody venture out into the rain as it was "dangerous", and perhaps if they pushed more people through the ride there would not be enough room to house them in the exit area. So basically we got comfortable and waited the 90 minutes for the ridiculous deluge to stop. As we left the Back to the Future ride, the line was so long that a 100 minute wait was predicted. And when we walked away, they, had not yet started the ride back up again, and the 100 minute delay only referred to the wait while the ride was running, and it was not even taking the rain delay into account, so I almost felt sorry for those at the back of the line. Almost. As least now I wasn't the only one in the park with a saturated undercarriage. Back to the other side of the park, Charlotte took Veronica onto the Spiderman ride, as she was now a 1 previous ride veteran, while Angela walked me all over the park, and posed for 2 more sets of damn photos. When we go to Disneyland in a weeks time I'm gonna hang a 500yen per photo sign around her neck. I then went on the Terminator 2 ride and wished I hadn't. I wont bore you with the details, but lets just say I had to put up with 20 minutes of over-enthusiastic Japanese acting before getting to the actual "ride", which was a show with both live actors (including a 5ft tall Japanese Arnold Swartzeneger which made me laugh out loud and draw attention to myself) and 3d screens. In the end the show was quite good, but the 20 minutes of filler before hand really ruined it. Then onwards to the 4D sesame street presentation. Similar to the Shrek one, except with the Sesame Street characters with badly dubbed Japanese voices. Bert sounded Indian, and Big Bird sounded hoarse, and in need of a throat lozenge. One last ride, as 7pm was approaching, which was Charlottes choice, so again we did the E.T. Ride. The Express pass again come in handy for one last time, as we bypassed the 200 or so people standing in line, and was immediately admitted. The same lame floating around on a pretend bicycle, but Charlotte seemed to enjoy it. With that done, we checked out a few of the overpriced souvenier stores on the way out, before battling our way to the exit. There is a Hard Rock Cafe at the exit, so we stopped and bought 2 shot glasses to add to Veronica's collection, as she did not have some from this location yet. Onto a train bound for the very busy Osaka station. We've worked out a train station system too. If you pick a path to where you want to go, and dont deviate from the path as if you definitely know where you are going, people will avoid you and find their way around you, but if you hesitate or change direction suddenly, people tend to run into you, or you will cause a mini human pile up behind you (which is funny to watch if you aren't involved). Changed trains at Osaka to head to Shin-Osaka station, and then a short walk back to the hotel. All up that was a 12 hour day containing a lot of walking, and I'm not sure how I'm still awake writing this blog. Tomorrow we are going to the Osaka Aquarium (which houses the whale shark tank) as well as possibly doing some of the other nearby attractions such as the IMax theater, which is supposed to be the largest IMax theater in the world. Not sure whether we will fit everything in, but if we have to leave IMax off the list I wont be too disappointed. It is in the "would be good to see" rather than the "must see" pile of things to do.