Japan Trip - 5 - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Universal Studios

My favourite day of the whole trip was with Cam at Universal Studios visiting Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. We started the day early and started our day by exploring Hogsmeade, where we were surprised to find it not so busy. We managed to get into Olivanders right away where we watched a wand selecting ceremony and then Cam was able to pick a magic wand that he could use throughout the park to do magic! Hogsmead is filled with all the shops you would expect to find...

Honeydukes: full of yummy candies and treats including Berty Bots every flavoured beans, butterbeer candies, and chocolate frogs.  Zonkos Jokeshop: where Cam found a set of extendable ears. The Owl Post: with real owls, we also posted a postcard to ourselves.  The Three Broomsticks: Where we ended the day with a roast chicken salad. The Hogs Head: For all your butterbeer dreams, and yes they are amazing. And a plethora of clothing and souvenir stores.

The highlight was definitely the Hogwarts castle which included an awesome 4d ride which we rode twice and an amazing light show in the evening which had dementors attacking actors. 

Tokyo Trip - 4 - Disneyland

Japan Trip - 3- Castles and temples and shrines, oh my.

Its pretty amazing how abundant castles, temples, and shrines are within Japan. I was expecting to have to take larger day trips to make it to them but they are pleasantly everywhere in the middle of most cities, right up next to the highrises. We went and saw quite a few, including:

Tokyo: Tokyo Palace, Meiji Shrine, and Ueno Park

Kyoto: Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kinkaku-ji Golden Kemple, and Fushimi Inari Taisha

Japan Trip Photos - 2 - Kyoto and Arashiyama

Japan Trip - 1 - Tokyo