January 2, 2015 – Welcome to the final installment of our journey through Universal Studios Japan. This update, while arguably less timely than the rest, wraps up the park with a Halloween theme. If you are just reading about this trip for the time, we encourage you to read the earlier installments first. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 are all ready, waiting for you to explore! But now let’s put a bow on this excursion!
It’s time. The final update! And it’s all about Halloween! Citywalk loves to decorate!
Don’t believe me? Just watch! CityWalk gonna give it to ya!
During the daytime, they refer to it as “Universal Surprise Halloween”
And if you have paid attention in previous updates, all the employees are dressed up like some sort of Flintstones witch.
It looks cute, but I’m sure the Flintstones resemblance is accidental.
Throughout this update keep an eye out for costumes. Like these Waldos. (Waldi?)
There they go! Don’t worry. You’ll find more later.
Little kids get dressed up, too. Like Snoopy, here!
And Halloween at the end of a three-day-weekend is why the park was so crowded. I mean extremely crowded.
Anyways, inside there’s Halloween touches everywhere.
Everything is adorned with pumpkins.
They really tried hard to decorate each storefront.
And have cute food.
This I don’t exactly understand the name here. Since it’s not Surprise Halloween, rather Horror Night, the adult version. But it’s Snoopy…
More costumes
More Waldi
Marios
Aside from the repeated Waldi and Mario (You’ll see), there were creative people, like Business Spider-Man!
Plenty of merchandise was out. Like these “Zombies’ Snack”
It’s blinky junk with a purpose. In the scarezones, the scareactors will pay more attention to people wearing these.
Also, despite how much unique merchandise they have, there’s plenty of generic Halloween stuff.
They also have Halloween-themed food.
They’re looking for a pipe to jump down.
Surprisingly, this is this color year-round. But what’s that to the right?
Halloween Hot Dogs.
More themed food carts.
Kaitou Kid!!!
Also, pay attention to the sign. During Halloween Horror Nights, many of the attractions have alternate versions. This year they were themed to The Ring. Specifically the girl from Ring, Sadako Yamamura. (The one in the well with hair draped over her face)
More Waldi
The zombies’ snacks are sold everywhere.
Outside of that, there’s a lot of other HHN merchandise.
And of course, Halloween-themed merchandise for all three main characters.
They make a lot of it.
The stores get into the silliness.
Cute stuff.
More speciality foods. This is a sandwich.
This is the first maze. Jason’s Blood Diner 3. If you see the sign, the word “Diner” has been reduced to the word “Die”
As stated before, these wait times are a lie. It was stated at 240 minutes before the attraction opened and never changed. The actual wait was closer to 2 hours.
More Marios. You can also spot the “End of the line” employee for Jason’s Blood Diner 3.
The details in the queue for Jason’s Blood Diner were pretty thorough.
The gimmick behind Jason’s Blood Diner is 4-6 of you walk in together, all holding a single white towel rope. You all must hold on together to make it through.
Japanese mazes are less conga lines and more based around scenes. They use more animatronics and less blood. The wriggling bodies suspended over campfires were insanely realistic.
At one point you walk down a hall and Jason comes out to chase you from behind with a machete. There’s not much comparing to having to keep up with scared screaming Japanese girls as Jason charges at you.
I’m not sure about the costume rules, but it seems to be very lax.
Overall, Blood Diner was awesome. There’s only two real mazes in the park, so it’s important for it to be worth it.
I’d love for theme to attempt more mazes. They have the room.
They have the right idea about how to scare people.
And there’s a big demand for it.
With so much going on, it’s tough to figure out who in costume is a guest or not.
Here is The Dark Restaurant, where you wear a blindfold and are served in complete darkness by zombies just wanting to cook. The menu is not shown to you before hand. It was sold out days in advance.
BANANA!
We’ll touch back on this in a bit, but gamers should know what Raccoon City is home to.
In the meantime, we can take a look at their Surprise Halloween parade! Here the Umbrella Corp clear out the streets.
The zombie prisoners from earlier. Group costumes are popular.
Hugh Hefner fans?
Hurry, kid!
Actually, don’t hurry. There’s a pre-parade and lots of trick-or-treating first!
So before it starts, the characters pump up the crowd.
Rawwrrr
Yup. The WaterWorld Deacon, Terminator’s Kimberley Duncan, and the ghost with the most.
Anyways, let’s get this show on the road! LITERALLY!
YEAH!
The Mardi Gras carinval theme is strong.
Hello Kitty’s float. This is her family. Not her.
Between-float people pushing masks. Yup…
Everyone is smiling and having fun.
Twenty foot Hello Kitty!
Even stilt walkers seem small after that.
So cute.
Snoopy is the king of Halloween, searching for the Great Pumpkin.
Some of it is a bit creepy. Bring back memories of Mark Hamill as the Trickster from The Flash TV series.
Mardi Gras? What’s that?
Hey! It’s Charlie Brown!
Finally something that’s a bit more approriate to the globe.
I think he’s wearing a female’s outfit.
They also encourage guests in costume to join in the parade.
Chu!
Kimberly Duncan next to Doc Brown…
More escorted costume people.
Whooooo!
This parade doesn’t stop!
Whoo!
I’m running out of things to say.
Hail Lord Elmo!
She thought my joke was funny.
Bert dressed up as Carmen Miranda… hrmm..
And a breakdancer wraps up the parade.
Hope you enjoyed it. Now let’s go across the street.
Grabbing some t-Virus Wrapped sausage at the Raccoon City food cart.
Wash it down with a Hazard Drink.
Random pumpkin scarecrow!
The characters do have themed meet and greets that fill up instantly.
Just imagine Snoopy here.
So, let’s get into Biohazard The Real 2. This is a guided maze themed to the Resident Evil game series by Capcom. It was so popular that it runs on non-HHN days.
Much like Potter, you need to get your return ticket at park opening if you want to stand a chance to experience this.
After waiting in a bit of a line, you get your ticket to Raccoon City.
Time to wait…
Once inside, they teach you how to wield and use the shotguns. They have LED displays with your health and shot count on them.
I know I’m repeating myself, but pictures were not allowed. I tried my best. Inside it’s amazingly well themed. The costumes, actors, everything was perfect.
If you went to Knott’s Scary Farm this year and experienced Infected: Special Ops, this is similar, except this has no scoring, but a lot more digital projections and a much bigger budget.
After you finish up, you can get your posed photo.
Their gift shop is a dream for any Resident Evil fan.
I’m not sure, but there was something about this display that made employees keep guests away.
The night draws closer. More rides convert to their Sadako versions. In this case, Space Fantasy runs completely in the dark, and the pre-show actually has an actress play Sadako come out and scare the heck out of everyone in the room. Pretty intense.
There’s also a street zombie show that I didn’t exactly understand why it was so popular.
But now we’re in line for Chucky’s Horror Factory. And it’s a long line.
Seriously. Just miles of queue.
There are occasional reminders of what you are waiting for. But they’re just far enough inbetween that you get worried.
In this world, Toy Toy Kids is a new manufacturer of Chucky dolls.
There were lots of Chucky toys around.
He’s your very best friend.
The announcer guy hyped up the crowd.
“Good Guys”
Seriously, these are shady toys.
I can see our house from here!
Once inside, I tried to take photos because they weren’t going to stop me.
Typical to most mazes are scenes of gruesome violence.
Also people appearing to be strangling themselves.
And upon exiting the maze, you are grouped together for a posed photo. Only to have the wall behind you drop and monsters reach out from behind you to try to grab you.
Sadly, that wraps it up. This really is all I have left to say. I hope you enjoyed the pictures from this trip. There’s still more to explore at the park, but that will have to come at a later date. Until then, farewell.
Chris Glass is an editor for Inside Universal.
Chris is a Los Angeles native who grew up visiting the best theme parks in the world, but that wasn’t enough. Whenever he has the chance, he flees the comfort of Southern California to see what the rest of the world has to offer, and is always happy to return home.
You may contact Chris at chrisglass@insideuniversal.net.
