USJ: Spider-Man and beyond

We exited Jurassic Park to full darkness a little before 7. The park was closing at 9; we knew we only had enough time for one more ride. We checked the map and decided to go for Spider-Man. The wait was 70 minutes, which guaranteed we'd have no time left for rides afterwards.

There were no wacky goings-on in line, possibly because everyone was getting pretty tired. The ride was still as freaking awesome as I remember from Orlando. It (and possibly the Incredible Hulk Coaster) remains one of the only rides I can safely say is worth every bit of a 70-minute wait.

We popped out at about 8:30. We started to head to the front of the park, but I wanted to try to squeeze in one more ride. I had noticed a roller coaster in the park, but hadn't been able to figure out what its name was. After a few minutes of darting around the park, I found the ride... just as the "closed" sign was put up. Oh well.

On my walk back to the front of the park, I passed Snoopy Studios and the Land of Oz. Something tells me Snoopy Studios is exclusive to USJ, but I wonder if the Land of Oz section is at Orlando.

Back at the front of the park, I did a little bit of souvenir shopping. I was mainly browsing, curious whether Japanese tourists shop en masse any differently than American tourists do. There were just as many screeching kids (Japanese parents seem even more lenient with their little kids than Americans), but the parents I saw didn't look as stressed-out or exhausted as their American counterparts look at the end of that kind of day.

As I stood in a fairly long line, I watched how the clerks worked. Each purchase was placed delicately in a gift bag, with multiple purchases being carefully matched and divided among different bags. This was touching, but it made each transaction last about ten minutes.

Anyway, after escaping USJ, we took the train back to Osaka proper and started the search for a hotel. Two hours later, we still hadn't found any vacancies. Despairing and more than a little cranky, we ducked into a restaurant for a late dinner.

Tummies full, we resumed the search. We even tried love hotels, but they weren't too keen on admitting a party of three. Eventually, we found a normal hotel with a reasonable rate, and got to bed a little after midnight.