USJ, Kiyomizu Temple & spooks

the 1st attraction spot i visited in japan was UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN @ osaka! *wee* didnt regret the my choice of choosing it over the osaka castle. :P though we spent only a mere 5 hrs+ over here, we enjoyed ourselves immensely. USJ is decidedly so much smaller than disneyland, hence making it easier to explore.

despite the lack of time, we managed to slot in 1 ride (which we queued for an hr!! if you think this waiting time is ridiculously long, wait till you see my tokyo disneyland entry!). and that's *drumsroll* the amazing spiderman ride! lol.

me=a huge fan of peter parker, okie! and its totally worth the wait! as we snaked our way for the ride, we were presented with Daily Bugle (JJJ"s office) and we even see PP's cubicle! lol. its adorned with Mary Jane's photos of cos! (you've to be familiar with spidey to know what im talking about anyway)

and the ride is a 3D simulator ride (actually i feel its 4D for when the baddies get to us, we actually feel the heat of fire, droplets of water & big wind blowing through our hair) which is simply AMAZING! very surreal and most of the time, i really feel my vehicle is being flinged around by bad Dr Oct and there was this scene where we were brought up to those high NYC building and being flunged down. that was so real n the height really scared the hell outta me! but of cos, spiderman to the rescue!! haha.

okie, in all. enjoyed my time there. showing some photos below:

elmo!!

the ride!

in USJ

jaws!!

in snoopyland!

USJ!

we visited the Kiyomizu temple (清水寺) @ Kyoto too. its a UNESCO world heritage site and i got the major hots for UNESCO stuff lor. like these sites are going to disappear ever so soon and its really great to see them before that happening.

the part where we climbed upslope to reach the temple was fun too for the road is narrow & winding and lined with nice (touristry, no doubt) shops. mum seemed to enjoy it better for we were very lucky to chance upon a geisha and took a photo with her too!

@the temple


happy mommy with geisha

oh, and one of the nights we were actually staying over at this onsen (hot spring) place and seriously it freaked me out just that little. the place was quite old and our group seems like the only group staying in the hotel at that time. *errie* and though our room was big (i have this thing about big hotel rooms, too much space makes my hair raise!), it feels cold & when we opened the sliding door of a cupboard, there was this big gaping hole on the inside wall, peering into unknown darkness! eeks.

okie, abit over the top here but was really glad we survived the night and i was never happier to check out of a hotel before. :P

okie more on other places later!