I recently visited Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka Japan. 

Based on my experiences there, here are some tips that I have gleaned on how to beat the queues there. I hope to share them with you so that you too, can have a fun-filled day and beat the queues too.

My visit to USJ was on a Tuesday in late February. This is considered to be during their off-peak season. However the crowds at USJ were still significantly more than I had originally anticipated. Apparently USJ is one of Japan’s top tourist attractions. 

Note: Video embedded at end of post. Check out for more tips.

Buy tickets in advance 

For starters, it is very important to buy tickets in advance. Go online to the USJ website and purchase your tickets there.

Do note that you have to choose the date you are going to USJ in advance, so make sure that your travel plans are firm when you buy your tickets. The dates are not flexible and cannot be changed.

While it is possible to buy tickets at the gate, I strongly advise you not to do so because of the long queues at the ticket box office. You will end up wasting your precious time that could otherwise be spent inside the park. 

Adult single day studio pass tickets are priced at ¥8600 per person. There are studio passes that grant you entry for 1.5 days and 2 days if you are planning to spend more time at USJ. These work out to slightly cheaper than buying two separate one-day entry passes.

Express pass and timed entry tickets 

Secondly, I can’t stress more, how important it is to buy an express pass. There are different categories of express passes depending on the rides that you want to emphasise on.

The express pass we chose was the express 4: minion mayhem.

This pass gave us express for four rides: minion mayhem, Harry Potter and the forbidden journey, Mario Kart Koopa’s challenge and finally a choice between Amazing Spider Man and Jurassic Park. 

Our express pass was ¥6800 per person.

Express passes can only be bought online as they always sell out very quickly. You need to snap up your express passes soon after they are released. 

As well, the express pass we had granted us timed entry for Super Nintendo World and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter areas.

Do note that you can only visit Super Nintendo World if you have a timed entry ticket. This can be obtained either by rushing first thing to Super Nintendo World as soon as you enter the park and grabbing a ticket, or buying an express pass which includes entry here. For this attraction, they actually check and scan your timed entry ticket at the gate so there is no getting away with it.   

The express pass is the most foolproof option but as you can see, it isn’t cheap. Nonetheless I strongly recommend you buy an express pass that includes Super Nintendo World if you want to visit this area. I would rather not take the risk if I can’t get a timed entry on the day itself.

For the wizarding world of Harry Potter, while we had a timed entry as part of our express pass to visit this area, we found out that we could walk freely in and out of the attraction on the day itself. 

If you really want the top of the range express pass in order to skip all of the queues of the most popular rides, this will cost you ¥9800 and will give you express for seven rides: Mario kart: Koopa’s challenge, Yoshi’s adventure, Harry Potter and the forbidden journey, Flight of the hippogriff, the flying dinosaur and finally, a choice between Hollywood Dream and Jaws. It also gives you timed entry into Super Nintendo World too. This one is the universal express pass 7.

Do note that these prices are on top of the basic studio pass ticket. So you need to buy a basic studio ticket + an express pass. The express pass does not replace the studio ticket. 

As you can see with USJ, if you want more, you have to be prepared to fork out more money. It really isn’t a cheap place to go especially if you are going with your family.

If you want to save money, you really need to be prepared to queue. While there are single rider lanes for some of the rides, do note that this is not available for all of the rides. So you can’t rely on this. 

Comparison of queue times 

What are the queues like with and without an express pass? This is what I experienced on the day that I visited USJ.

Amazing Spider Man

We took the Amazing Spider Man ride in the morning at about 9.15am using our express pass.

Express: 10 mins

Single rider: 35 mins

Normal queue: 60 mins 

Minion Mayhem

Our second ride was the minion mayhem. This was also done on our express pass. We did this ride at around 10am in the morning. 

Express: 10 mins

Single rider: 40 mins

Normal queue: 90 mins 

After an early lunch at the minion area, we finally entered Super Nintendo World. There was a queue at the entrance as they actually check every single person to make sure you have a timed entry ticket. So there’s really no getting away if you do not have timed entry. 

Mario Kart Koopa’s Challenge

For the Mario Kart: Koopa’s challenge, we enjoyed this ride so much that we went on it twice: the first time with our express pass and the second time using the single rider queue. 

Despite this being one of the most popular rides at the park, joining the single rider queue actually helped to save us a lot of time, as long as you don’t mind being split up from your companions during the ride. 

Express pass: 20 mins

Single rider queue: 35 mins

Normal queue: 105 mins  

Yoshi’s Adventure

For Yoshi’s Adventure, we didn’t have an express pass. There was also no single rider queue for this ride when we went to the park. So we took the normal queue. This took 45 mins. 

Besides taking the Mario Kart Koopa’s Challenge and the Yoshi Adventure rides, do spend time looking around Super Nintendo World too. It is amazing and took my breath away. I simply could not stop taking pictures and as a result, my phone was full by the end of the day.

Harry Potter and the forbidden journey

As a huge fan of Harry Potter, this was one of my anticipated rides and it definitely did not disappoint in terms of the thrill and adrenaline factors. I’m so glad that we had express passes for this ride, as there was no single rider queue.

We had a timed entry for this ride that came along with our express pass. We took this ride at about 4.20pm in the afternoon. 

Express pass: About 15 min 

Normal queue: 100 mins 

Flight of the Hippogriff

This is the other Harry Potter area ride. We had no express pass so we went to the normal queue. The wait wasn’t as bad as I had expected. This ride did not have a single rider queue as far as we could see.

Normal queue: 40 mins 

Do take time wandering around the vicinity and check out the shops too, while you are at the park’s wizarding world area. It is truly magical and is designed to make you really feel as though you are in Hogsmeade. 

At Hogsmeade, you can buy your Hogwarts school house robes and plenty of other memorabilia. Regardless of whether you are a brave Gryffindor, smart Ravenclaw, loyal Hufflepuff or cunning Slytherin, there will be something for you to buy.

Honeydukes and Zonko’s joke shop are also real shops here, along with Ollivander’s and Flourish & Blotts. Yes you can buy your own magic wand for ¥5500; unfortunately to burst your bubble, as you are still a Muggle after all, you can’t actually cast spells with them. 

Also, do watch out for Weasley’s flying car when you enter this area too. The Hogwarts express is also on display in its full glory, so make sure you get a photo with it too. 

Queues get longer in the afternoon 

The queues at USJ were significantly longer in the afternoon, with more people coming to the park. Many of these were school students who wanted to have an afternoon of fun on the rides.

Also, the queues are much longer in the evening and the end of the day. The park closed at 7pm. It is because of the queues that we were not able to ride the Hollywood Dream roller coaster. When we got there at about 5:45pm, the ride had already closed for the day, due to the queue. So we were unable to go. 

For the other coaster, the Flying Dinosaur, this was closed for maintenance on the day we went to USJ, so riding it was not an option. This was disappointing but nonetheless is something that is out of our hands.  

The queue times at USJ are the shortest in the morning.

So if we could do something differently, we would have quickly rushed to the Hollywood Dream coaster first thing in the morning rather than taking the Spider Man ride first thing on our express pass. I guess this was a learning point for us. Next time round, I suppose.

Food and drinks 

As with most theme parks, the food and drinks at USJ are overpriced. I wouldn’t expect anything less. 

To give an example of the prices of the food and drinks that you can expect:

For instance, a small Minion-shaped bread roll will set you back by around ¥600. The Pikachu bun is slightly more pricey at around ¥700 or 800 if I recalled correctly, probably because you are paying for the character. 

A Minion set meal with drink at the Minion park Happiness Cafe will cost ¥2100. The food quality is decent and not as bad as I had expected, but portions are quite small. Most importantly, it is tasty and edible. And is super Instagrammable, with those cute Minion faces plastered on the burger buns. I couldn’t stop taking pictures. 

The Butterbeer is priced from ¥700 for a small cup. If you want a souvenir mug, the price goes up. Despite the hefty price, I would strongly recommend that you try the Butterbeer: it is shiok and tastes like nothing that you have ever had before. It’s non-alcoholic so don’t worry at all if you can’t tolerate alcohol or if your kids want to try it.

There was a queue for Butterbeer that looked quite long at first glance but it moved quickly and we got our Butterbeer within about 5 minutes. So we were lucky in this regard. 

And if you are thinking of sneaking in food, do so at your own risk. This is because there are staff at the entrance gates of USJ who actually check everybody’s bag throughly to make sure that you do not have any food inside. 

So I would recommend that you eat a big breakfast before you visit USJ. Do note that once you are inside the park, you cannot re-enter. So don’t exit the park unnecessarily.

Water bottles of 500ml or below are allowed to be brought in though. So they are not super unreasonable at least.

Conclusion

This is what I am able to share with you from my personal experiences and research of USJ. If you are planning a trip to Osaka, Japan, I do hope that these tips will help you to have a fun-filled day at USJ and most importantly, to beat the queues.