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A Trip to Universal Studios, Japan!

Macks Koontz headshot
Macks Koontz
March 8, 2023

This week I got to go to Universal Studios Japan, and I cannot describe just how fun it was! A couple of weeks ago, someone reached out to me about going with them and I just couldn’t turn it down. One cool thing about classes here is that there are none on Wednesdays, so you can have a day to relax or take a trip somewhere/hang out with friends/etc. USJ was offering a student discount where you could go for two days for the price of a day and then the second day was 50% off, so we made sure to take advantage of that! We went after class that Tuesday (also I got to ride the Shinkansen for the first time—it was incredible), and then had the whole day on Wednesday.

I went with a couple of people from the IJS program in addition to a Japanese student here. It was really nice to get to know them more because we hadn’t really had a lot of conversations beforehand. It was super fun to be around them, and we also had some Japanese speaking practice!

All of the lines were super long, and I can completely understand why. They were all definitely worth the wait! In addition to that, they had a collaboration with Spy x Family and there was a lot of very cute merchandise and food. Spy x Family is my favorite anime, so it was very cool that it ended up being at the same time! There was a mystery hunt, but we didn’t do it because it seemed a little difficult and would have taken a lot of time. However, we did go to the Harry Potter attractions, along with Jurassic Park, Hollywood, and Mario! The food was super good, and we definitely took a lot of pictures to capture the moments :)

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Macks Koontz

Hello! My name is Macks and I'm a sophomore at the University of Tennessee majoring in Child and Family Studies with a minor in Japanese. I love learning, hiking, reading, and playing the guitar/ukulele. Studying abroad is super important to me and I am so very excited to be able to share my journey with other people :)

Destination:
Term:
2023 Spring
Home university:
University of Tennessee - Knoxville
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