New Years at Universial Studios Japan

January 1, 2008 on 4:32 pm | In Crazy Consumers, Osaka | | Email This Post

I went to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka for a very consumer-esque New Years this year.

The park was open all night and they had a countdown, parades, fireworks, and other random festivities going on. It was insanely cold (I’m talking BITTER), and now I have a massive headache. Ugh.

For some reason they still had their Christmas decorations up. Slackers.

Some comedians were doing over-sized calligraphy, they painted a few characters throughout the night, this is the kanji for 庭 (garden, it is also used in 家庭 which means “family or household”).

Notice anything strange with it?

The other comedian did. For some reason there was a “ten-ten” (the quote looking thing) in the upper right, which shouldn’t be used on Kanji.

In true Osaka fashion the other comedian was hoisted up in his shorts and called the other guy on his foul-up. (Called つっこみ)

My favorite part of the night was seeing a mini-version of the Wizard of Oz play, Wicked. That’s good stuff. I want to go see the full feature some time. It was kind of strange seeing the play and growing personally attached to the Wicked Witch of the West, and then walking on to the Yellow Brick Road and being reminded that she is going to be smashed by a house when Dorothy arrives in Oz. It didn’t help that the tune to “ding-dong the witch is dead♪” was playing on the parks loud speakers as well.

Poor witch. It’s not her fault she’s evil.

Happy New Year everyone!

- Harvey

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6 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    Giant Kanji…
    That whole scene looks painfully boring.

    Comment by Chris B — January 1, 2008 #

  2. Gravatar

    I thought it was the Witch of the East who got smashed by the house…and the Witch of the West melts at the end of the movie?

    A friend of mine really loves Wicked…I haven’t seen it or read it, but I’d like to :)

    Comment by Heather Meadows — January 2, 2008 #

  3. Gravatar

    Doh! I think you’re right Heather! I need to rewatch that. Wait, but were there two evil witches? I thought the witch of the East was supposed to be all happy and nice. Why would they be happy if she got smashed by a house?

    Comment by harvey — January 2, 2008 #

  4. Gravatar

    witch of the north is the happy and nice one isn’t it? then, i don’t know, is there a witch of the south? gotta watch it again, together with pink floyd’s dark side of the moon (it’s synced, have you watched it together?)

    2008 nen mo, yorohsiku.

    -a.

    Comment by Ayumi — January 2, 2008 #

  5. Gravatar

    Yeah, the East and West witch were both evil. I always thought that the Wizard of Oz was the witch of the North and there was one of the South never shown… or even mentioned. I’m not sure. The story always bored me so I didn’t pay attention.

    All I remember is the story about the woman that hung herself during the production of the original movie and you could see her hanging in the background if you looked closely.

    Comment by Max — January 2, 2008 #

  6. Gravatar

    Max: All of those rumors aren’t true. Plus, the versions are all different. Some people say it was one of the munchkin actors who hung himself. There is no hanging body in the background of any scene. I don’t think that would make the cut.

    Comment by Alex — January 3, 2008 #

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