Today I went to Universal Studios with my mum and brother (actually yesterday, but I was too lazy to post this last night). We went to the Back to the Future ride first and as we got closer, a hoard of uniformed Japanese students came seemingly out of nowhere. I'm guessing that they were high school students since I don't think college students wear uniforms. Actually, all day there were loads of Japanese tourists, not just that hoard that must've been an entire student body (really, there were that many!).
Spending the day in Universal was pretty nice after being in Disneyland for the past two days. For one thing, there are a lot less strollers in Universal. I've become afraid of strollers now because they seem like they could roll over my feet at any given moment (yet I've somehow avoided them so far). Disneyland is just swarming with strollers. (shudders)
So after the Back to the Future ride, my brother said we should go on the Jurassic Park ride. It was good, although you get pretty wet on it. You're basically in this huge vehicle that initially goes by a bunch of peaceful looking dinosaurs, and then everything goes horribly wrong and encounter some not-so-peaceful dinosaurs with lots of sharp teeth. And then there's a big drop in the end because...well, just because. That's the point! The last drop wasn't the thing that made you the most wet though. There were some instances before where you'd just get shot with water. I wasn't really prepared for it, so I was pretty much just thinking "CRAAAP" during the whole time.
Water ended up being a major theme in the Universal Studios experience. A lot of the interactive shows involved being sprayed with water in some way, like the Shrek 4-D show. It was really enjoyable, although every time Donkey sneezed, you'd get a small blast of water. All the seats in the theater moved, which I wasn't expecting, but I guess that's why it's 4-D and not plain ol' 3-D (that's for lesser mortals). There was another 3-D show for Terminator 2, which I thought was pretty good but not something I'd be inclined to see again. The 3-D effects were pretty impressive and the show itself was kind of...odd, but then I haven't seen the movie. I think when I was really little I saw bits of it, but had no idea what was going on.
Other shows that we saw were for Animal Planet, Spider-Man, and Waterworld. We also saw a special effects show and the backlot tour. Overall I guess everything was pretty good. The hosts for the special effects tour were funny and the Waterworld thing was funny because before the show started some of the actors would fill buckets with water and just toss it onto the audience. I would've gotten really annoyed after being drenched for the fourth time (really, these guy would do it over and over again), but some people must've enjoyed it. Some were armed with ponchos, so they must've expected it. Besides buckets, the guys also had these water guns that would suck in water and then pump it out like a hose. Thankfully the actor on my side of the stadium wasn't that masochistic and I didn't get wet at all. At the end of the show I realized that the actor was one of the two main clueless British soldiers from Pirates of the Caribbean, although I couldn't tell at first until they introduced everyone at the end of the show.
One thing about Universal Studios that suck is that it's almost completely devoid of fruits and salad. I got a fruit cup for lunch, but Disneyland is really chock full of fruit stands, to my surprise. Like all the food they sell though, the fruit is pretty overpriced. $1.50 for a banana? Or an apple? Or an orange? I guess it's still the cheapest thing you could get to eat there though, besides candy or something. A hot dog and chips is $7. It might be some gigantic mutant hot dog, I don't know. The fruit is definitely just normal fruit.
I'll have to write separate entries about my other days...doh!