Unlimited Fun at Universal Studios Japan

It all started at 4 AM in the morning, when everything was set to go to Osaka. We started from dormitory at 4.30 AM on 4^th June, 2016. It was a beautiful day, and sun has just started rising. It is strange to see so much light at 4.30 AM , but this is why Japan is land of rising sun.

We reached Minami Kusatsu (nearest JR station from Ritsumeikan University) and took a train to Osaka. From there we have to take subway to City of fun, Universal City. We reached universal studios at 8 AM. We took a ticket worth 7,400 yen, and if you will take express pass , it would cost 5,500 yen more, but it will give faster access to all the rides, you don’t need to wait for hours and hours during rush for ride, if you have express pass. We chose to take just normal pass, and stand in a queue near entrance.

Gate of universal studios opened at 8.30 AM, and after entering gate we saw everybody was running. We were not able to get why everybody is running, but soon we got to know that people are running so that they don’t need to stand in long queues. We also opened a map of universal studios, which was given with the ticket, and started searching for the rides.

Universal Studios Map

Universal studios Japan is located in area of 108 acres in Osaka city of Japan. Universal studios is separated in various regions, themed on various on various places of world and movies. These regions are : New York, Hollywood, San Francisco, Jurrasic Park, Universal Wonderland, Snoopy studios, Amity village, Water world. Each of the region has rides, walk through, Theater show, stage show, street show, Parade and much more.

New york of USJ

As per our research earlier, Flying Dinosaur is the most popular and exciting ride. So we moved toward Jurassic park to take flying dinosaur ride. As soon as we reached there, we saw long queue, and it was around 90 minutes waiting. We also started our waiting in queue for our turn. The waiting area is so properly designed and managed, that you will keep on moving, so that you won’t get bore, and you will feel that you are going to arrive at your destination soon, But no, the waiting time is so correct you will never get a chance to reach before that waiting time. Finally we reached to the ride at around 10 AM. They make you sit on the seat, and fasten all the belts around you and then.. whoop 180 degree turn. Now your face is down and legs up, its at the height that you can see entire universal studios campus. Now the time has come to start the ride. Our heart beat started rising, even by looking at the path your head will start moving, but here we are about to take that ride. We all were so excited and we were able to hear excitement of others too. It started .. and then that 2 minutes, oh my god I still remember, with twist and turn, sudden ups and downs. Everyone was screaming.. some were remembering there parents.. some were remembering god. I don’t know what I was doing, Just remember that I closed my eyes 1 or 2 times.. Because it was looking so dangerous, and we were falling.. It seemed that it was a free fall.. all this excitement was for 2 minutes only. When the ride ended, I didn’t want to get down. I wanted to go again. But you can’t, as so many people waiting for the ride. This was the amazing experience of Flying dinosaur.

Flying Dinosaur Ride

After Flying dinosaur we went to Jurassic park ride. Which started with normal boat riding and sights of interior of Jurrasic park, where you can see so many dinosaurs and animals. It was looking like a kids ride, but then came a twist. The boat went up, up and up, and suddenly one dinosaur came, which just reach in front of our face, that we all get scared, and then whoooppppppppppp…. A fall .. a free fall.. we were all not expecting this, so my heart beat stopped for some seconds.. and we were all drenched in water. It was amazing experience, as in flying dinosaur we knew the paths, when it gonna fall, when it gonna rise, but here it was a surprise packet for us.

Jurassic Park - Ride

Dinosaur at Jurassic Park

Dinosaur moving in Jurassic park

After the amazing experience of Jurassic park we went towards Hollywood. Hollywood has 2 rides- Hollywood dream and Hollywood dream – Backdrop.. Path of both Hollywood dream and backdrop is same, only difference is, in one you have to be front facing while riding and in backdrop, you won’t be able to see whats happening and where you are heading, as it will be back facing. We chose backdrop and stand in the queue waiting for our turn. After around 45 minutes wait, our turn came and we sat in backdrop ride. It was also for around 2 minutes.. and in that 2 minutes we went through rounds, falls, ups and downs. There are speakers on the seat near your neck and in handle near your hand, there was options to choose songs. So that ride was full of screaming, songs, ups and down, which ended up giving us amazing experience.

Hollywood Dreams

After Hollywood, we went to Amity village for Jaws ride, which was a normal ride where you have to sit in boat, and a boat driver(lady) acts and take you to see sights of amity village, where you can see some sharks, fire, waterfalls. But all you have to see from far, nothing big as such. We chose this ride for some relaxation, as wanted break after 3 amazing rides.

After regaining strength from jaws, we started towards New York for the ‘Amazing adventure of Spider man- 4K3D ride’. After wait of around 40-45 minutes.  We get a chance to sit in that ride. We were given 3D glasses. It started and then we were in different world, where we were watching different monster, spider mans, buildings, and many more. Every now and then I was extending my hands to touch these, and wohhh.. it was all illusion. It includes riding up and down to see monster fighting, to follow spider man passing from one building to other. It was a great 3D experience.

Amazing adventure of Spider man- 4K3D ride

 San Francisco

We took 1 hour lunch break after Spider man, to recollect all our energy, as we had lot much to see now, and we were going to Harry potter world after lunch. As soon as we reached Harry potter world, it seemed that we have actually came in Hogwarts. At the entrance there was a car in which Harry has come to Hogwarts and then Hogwarts express. Entire street has been given look of Harry potter world, with the home roofs cover with snow. It looks so amazing, I can’t even describe in words.

Hogwarts Express

Hogwarts Streets

 We started with a small ride named ‘Flight of the hypogriff’. We waited for around 20-25 minutes to take that ride. It was a good ride for 1 minute, but you one can’t compare this ride with Flying dinosaur and Hollywood dream. In comparison to those rides, it was children’s play.

Ride- Flight of the Hypogriff

Next we started our way to Hogwarts castle, which is exactly similar to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry of Harry Potter movie. I was in dream. It looks exactly similar to that of harry potter movie. I can relate to what I was seeing there and what is there in the movie. There was pictures talking to each other, sorting hat, wizards, Dumbledore study, and many more. We ended our castle walk with a 4K3d ride ‘Harry potter and the Forbidden Journey’ . It seemed same as spider man 3D ride earlier. But it was far too different. In that ride, we were guided by Harry potter on broom stick, and he was playing quidditch . We crossed mountains, rivers,we saw monsters, different creature. While following harry I found so many times trying to touch items and touch harry, but evrytime I missed. It was such a wonderful experience, that I literally hugged my friend and was very very happy. After this amazing ride, we went for Harry potter world’s walk. We saw many stores with similar stuff as harry potter movie. We took photos with magic wand, Dumble dore hat, owl, broomsticks and many more items. We also tried Butter beer which was famous in Harry potter world. It comes with 2 variants – alcoholic and non alcoholic, and also 2 sizes, bigger mug cost 1100 and smaller cost 600. I took smaller mug of non alcoholic beer.It was sweet and similar to some of the mocktail we usually drink.

Butter Beer

Hogwarts Castle

After the harry potter world, we decided to go to Hollywood , and take Hollywood dream ride. About 1 hour waiting and then the riddddeeee.. Woohhhhh.. It was fabulous..

I wanted to take flying dinosaur again so we moved towards Jurassic park after Hollywood dream. We reached around 7 PM there, but our bad luck, it got closed. In universal studios, they organize special events starting at 8 PM and you can enter if you have pass for that. We was not having it, so we had to come disappointed.

Night view of USJ

Night view of Wonderland at USJ

We roamed in the streets of Universal studios, watched a 4D movie, did shopping, had snacks. I didn’t want the day to end, but it was not in anyone’s control. And as the day was ending, was feeling bad, that I will not get such a wonderful experience again. But yes, Will never forget that day again, and will hope to visit places like this again in my life.

Visit to Toyota

Our college arranged a visit to Toyota manufacturing plant in Toyota city on 30^th May, 2016. We had to report in college at 8.45 AM, and as always everyone came on time, and we started from college at 9 AM.

It was a lovely cloudy day, neither too hot nor too cold. We enjoyed the scenic beauty, greenery and cleanliness of Japan till we took a halt at Kariya Parking area at 10.30 AM. It was a big Parking area with some shopping stores and food court.

After finishing our lunch we start for Toyota city again at 12.15 PM and reached Toyota city at 1 PM. We were welcomed in the Toyota Motomachi ( Toyota Motocorp) by our guide for Toyota, her name is Mari. She told us about Toyota Motomachi plant which is constructed in 1,600,000 m² area, which is even more than 35 baseball court, and Annual production of this plant is 90,000 units (as of 2015).

There are 11 Toyota manufacturing plants in Japan , out of which Toyota motomachi is the second biggest plant after  Tahara plant.

We also got to know about eco-car concept in Toyota. Eco cars as they say is the product of eco plats and eco people. In this they use installation of natural gas co-generation system, reusing waste water and waste heat etc.

There are 4 major production process in a Toyota.

1.  Stamping – Which involves cutting of metal and giving it a shape of car parts, like outer body of car.

2. Welding Shop – Where various car parts are welded together.

3. Painting shop – where painting on welded car is done. On each car they apply 4 layers of coating.

4.  Assembling shop : Where all the parts are assembled and final product is made.

Toyota follows just in time approach- making what is needed, when it is needed in the amount needed. Tracking is maintained for all the parts and parts are ordered from the supplier when it will be actually needed. They use Kanban approach for effectiveness.

Toyota  plant is fully equipped with technology and robots. In the first assembly line we saw Door less system where doors of the cars are removed , so that workers can get direct access to the interior parts without struggling. Then the question arises, if they had to remove it later , why they keep it before, they should have kept it separately. But Mari told that they are fixed earlier so that painting should be uniform, so all exterior parts are assembled first and after painting, they take doors out and send it to separate line for doors which is called Sub-line for the door.

Toyota assembly line is a mixed production line, where different models are manufactured simultaneously. To make it efficient Toyota uses digital picking system, in which each car contains a tracking code, and system automatic detects which parts are needed for this car, and the parts automatically arrives at the assembly line.

In assembly line 3, windshield installation is done, which is done very carefully with the help of robots,  and 100 kg of force is applied on it to fix it.

Last stage of assembly line is Inspection, which is done in following phases :

1.       Visual inspection.

2.       Steering angle inspection

3.       Head lamp adjustment

4.       Driving performance testing

5.       Braking inspection

6.       Chassis inspection – To check whether all the parts are tightly screwed or not.

7.       Engine compartment checks.

Unlike other manufacturing plants, Toyota doesn’t work 24*7. Saturday’s and Sunday’s plants remain closed for inspection of robots and machine. In the weekdays Toyota works in 2 shifts, first one from 6.25 AM to 3.15 PM and second is from 4.10 PM to 1 AM.

Toyota believes in healthy work environment. Workers are given 4 breaks during a shift, in which 1 break is bigger for lunch(45 minutes) and other 3 breaks are smaller breaks for 10 minutes each. During the breaks production line stops completely. It takes 20 hrs to complete 1 car completely.

Cameras were not allowed in Toyota assembly line, I wish I could have taken some picture and shared with my wonderful experience.

Next we went to Toyota Museum, where we were allowed to use our phones and cameras. We saw different models of Toyota and also saw a short film on Toyota assembly line.

Above picture is of a robot which plays Violin.

Below pictures show different cars kept in Toyota museum.

It was a great time spent at Toyota, and we got a wonderful chance to get so much knowledge about assembly line and car manufacturing process.

Education system of Japan

Education system in Japan is quite different from India.  From the childhood children are encouraged to do extracurricular activities together with their studies.  

Japanese people give more emphasis on practical knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge.

When I met my faculty mentor first time, he talked to me very nicely and politely, and introduced to me to all the lab mates. It was entirely new environment for me, all my lab mates were Japanese. But they helped me in all the possible way they can. We mostly used Google translator to communicate.

Firstly I thought that all my lab mates are researcher, but later I got to know about Japanese education system, which is totally research based. Each student whether he is doing bachelor or master’s , he or she has to do some research. Research is major part of their study. For example, in Ritsumeikan university, where I am doing my research , doing a masters (2 year course), is a 30 credit course, which breaks down as 16 credits for research and 14 credits for other courses.

I find it great that San- Sai (Teacher in Japanese) are very polite and helpful. In group discussions and lab meeting, you will find everyone equally involved, and you can’t tell who is teacher and who is student. Japanese teacher don’t spoon feed you with the content, but instead motivate you and guide you to get the task done and help the students to achieve the same.

Teachers in Japan give more emphasis to effort rather than work.  In my lab, all the students need to give presentation every week, what they have done in this week, what was the result, if nothing has been done, where the point of failure is?  It is absolutely fine if you have done nothing in the whole week, but there must be a good reason where you failed.

Once one of my lab mate didn’t completed his task, and when asked by San-Sai, he said that he couldn’t get time to finish his task, and the San-Sai said nothing. He instead said, “ Ok, try to finish it in next week.”  He didn’t even asked the reason why the student has not completed the work. This is the level of trust between a student and a teacher in Japan.

Japanese students are very hard working and dedicated towards work. I find it bit strange that even in the absence of San-Sai everyone keeps on doing their work silently without disturbing anyone else. In a lab of 20 people, I feel that I am sitting alone and studying. San- Sai comes to the lab just once or twice in day, else he stays in his cabin, but still everyone keeps on doing their own work .

There are many common places to study in college. Also there are areas where you can do peer study, where there are lots of projectors and white boards are kept, so you can study with your group.  Students actually use these places very nicely while studying with their group without disturbing other groups. Not even a single time I saw group of students just sitting idle there and chatting with friends.

Japanese students are always eager to learn new things, and never feel shy to tell others their weaknesses, and also they work on it to improve. When I get to know that my lab mates wants to learn English, I took permission from my San-Sai to daily teach my lab mates English. It was wonderful experience, as I also got to know many Japanese things. I used some Japanese app to translate Japanese to English and English to Japanese. My lab mates always supported me, and are the best students I can ever teach. They try their best to speak in English. We used to have small presentations in English, where students came with many interesting topics. I am thankful to my lab mates, because of them I am  learning lots of thing in Japan.

In each laboratory you will find cooking utensils, cooking stuffs, coffee machines and many equipments you can use it for your daily use. You can freely make, eat and drink anytime in labs. Even you can have your alcohols in refrigerator.

In Japan, it is absolutely fine if you sleep at your work place, it signifies that you are very hard working. In all most all the labs, there are beds and sofas, so that students can take rest there. My San-Sai once told me that “ I would be more happy if more students will sleep here”. It is bit strange but students stay there in labs whole night, eat there, sleep there. So labs are like second home for them.

I am thankful that I got such a wonderful chance to experience this and share this with you all.

Japanese people and their culture

Japan comes in top 10 safest country of the world, where crime rate is very low. You can roam around freely at any time without being bothered. For the girls you can wear anything you want with no one gawking at you.

Japanese people are very courteous, polite and helpful. I never saw anyone speaking loudly or shouting at anyone. People in japan use to bow to show respect to others. Even strangers bow in front of you as a token of respect. I find it bit strange that while walking on road , a total stranger who is crossing you greets with Konnichwa (Hello in Japanese) and bow in front of you.

Many people in Japan don’t know English much, but if you ask something they will put there everything to help you. If you ask them any place near by, they will actually accompany you to that place.

Japanese people are very punctual. If you tell them any time, they will definitely turn up before that time. Even Japanese transportation works with exact time, without even a single minute delay. If by any chance train in japan get delayed, they will provide you with delay certificate, so that you can show it to the place where you are going to avoid embarrassment of getting late.

Talking about japan food, most of the food item contains meat. Sushi and Yakitori is the famous food of japan. People even organize Sushi and Yakitori party, where people meet and have this food while having conversation.

People of japan are quite conservative in nature. They are very shy to talk to strangers. It may be due to communication gap, as they don’t use English much.

I noticed one very strange behavior of Japanese people that while having any food item, they don’t believe in sharing. Even if you sit beside them, and you are talking to them, they wont ask you for the food item which they are having. Also unlike our culture, even if you are good friend of that person, they can hang around with you, but will never ask you to come home.

Another strange thing which i found in Japanese culture that children in Japan don’t call the place where they live from their childhood as their home, they call it as their parent’s home, and you will find that most of the students do part time job also to earn.

This is a brief insight about Japanese people and their culture, I will write more about Japanese people and culture in the coming blogs.

Thanks for reading, will be back soon.

My First landing in Japan 

From the day I got to know that I am going japan I was very excited and started reading about Japan,its people and its culture.

I was happy that we will be landing on Kansai International airport, which comes in top 10 best airport of world.

Kansai international airport (KIX) is made on an artificial island 4 km long and 2.5 km wide in the middle of Osaka bay.

My flight was from new Delhi at 11 Pm on 6th April,2016. My parents came to drop me at airport. It was all set for the trip, but flight was delayed by 1 hour, which added to the excitement. Finally we boarded flight at 12 AM .

Our flight had a halt at Hongkong for 1 hour.Although we were not able to get down, Hongkong seemed to be very beautiful city from above and I wish I will go to Hongkong also some day.

Finally we reach KIX at 2 PM on 7th April, KIX looks awesome from the flight, a beautiful island on a sea. Even after landing we were not allowed to get down because of heavy storm. So we get down at KIX around 2.30 PM.

KIX is a wonderful amalgamation of beauty with architecture.

Also it was a drastic change for us, as in the month of April,Delhi's temperature reaches to 40 degree Celsius, but here we have come to 8-9 degree Celsius. So, for all those who are travelling to japan, keep a jacket or pullover handy in all the seasons.

From the airport you get a good transportation to major cities, via bus or train (JR- Japan railway).

Although not many people in japan know English well, but still Japanese people are very helpful and supportive. I will write about Japanese culture in my next blob.

Thank you all for reading.