HERE FOR THE FUN

It’s me, Mario

A big reason many including myself come to Osaka besides the wonderful food is to visit UNIVERSAL STUDIOS OSAKA and mostly for SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. When I went, they did not even begin construction on the DONKEY KONG COUNTRY area so I will need to revisit the park for that eventually. One unique fact about this park is this is the only park with the (pictured below) YOSHI’S ADVENTURE ride.

park admission + express passes

Interesting park ticket entry is actually not too expensive with (non peak days) GENERAL ONE DAY TICKETS AT $55 USD. The price can go as high as $90 USD if you go on busier days such as weekend or holiday. The problem is adding their version of fast passes which they call UNIVERSAL EXPRESS PASS and they come in different tiers. The highest tier is PASS 7 which includes front of the line passes to DESPICABLE ME: MINION MAYHEM, THE FLYING DINOSAUR, JAWS, HOLLYWOOD DREAM - THE RIDE, FLIGHT OF THE HIPPOGRIFF, HARRY POTTER AND THE FORBIDDEN JOURNEY, YOSHI’S ADVENTURE AND MARIOKART: KOOPA’S (BOWSER’S) CHALLENGE. The last 4 are timed entry which are given to you when you purchase times online. The time entry indicates when you can enter the area where the ride is located. So you can only enter certain areas like Super Nintendo World during the indicated time which for me when I purchased my ticket was 16:45.

There was an ADDITIONAL ADD ON during my check out process which includes the UNIVERSAL VIP EXPERIENCE GROUP TOUR: SUPER NINTENDO WORLD 10:00~ which I’m assuming you’ll be guided at 10:00 throughout the Super Nintendo World first. Park entry ticket is required and the tour is in English. This will set you back an additional $225 USD.

If you’re able to splurge, I would because sometimes the queue can be 150-200 minutes long. I remember they had a DORAEMON pop up and the ride was 350 MINUTE QUEUE. The queues can be insane and the worst part is these Express Passes tend to sell out. It’s obviously up to you and if you’re comfortable splurging, but I would at least recommend the Express Pass over the VIP tour. The next section will about the food.

here we go

hunger games

I’m sure after all the fun and games, you’ll want to check out the food. I will preface that most of the food inside Super Nintendo World aside from KINOPIO’S CAFE is mostly snacks and treats. YOSHI’S SNACK ISLAND is mostly drinks including lassi with different flavors. DO NOT SKIP ON THE POPCORN! I know it sounds dramatic but I was in LOVE with the 2 popcorn flavors: CARAMEL PEACH AND MUSHROOM CREAM both are pictured below. One is sweet and the other savory but given that they only have 2 flavors, they have perfected them. The photos below are LINKED to the official website so don’t forget to click on them and check them out!

so it’s not toad or bowser here?

cafe time

I’m just going to start off by saying that KINOPIO’S CAFE is truly Mario’d out in the best way possible. Everything thing has so many eclectic charm from the game that it’s hard not to love it. Now with that, I want to say I wasn’t the biggest fan of the food. I would probably rate it 6/10 however it was nice to be here, try the food and live my nostalgic life I have always wanted to do. The only fairly good item is the (pictured below) SUPER MUSHROOM PIZZA BOWL which to me felt more like a cheesy chicken pot pie except with mushroom. It was actually one of the better items so I would just stick with that. CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR MY IG REEL EXPERIENCE.

unique temple visit

 ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE QUAINT spooky TEMPLES

I actually found this temple on a whim as I was in Osaka. NAMBA YASAKA JINJA is located not too far from Dotonbori street which is a great spot to visit since it’s nearby. We got there fairly early around 9 and it wasn’t too crowded but it wasnt until 10-ish that it really started picking up. It’s a small spot so you probably won’t spend too much time here considering there isnt much ground to cover. You might finish up in 30 minutes however we were busy taking photos and stuff.