Every 10 years I need to renew it at the Consulate General of Japan.
They are located in several states in the USA, however they are not located in Arizona,
and there is a rule that Arizona residents who want to renew Japanese passport ( or many other kinds of procedures ) need to go to the Los Angeles Consulate general of Japan.
so I can't use another location to get it.
Since I came to the USA, this is the second time to go to Los Angeles.
10 years ago, we went there by car, and it took about more than 8 hours to get there from Tucson. It was a very long drive.
From Tucson to LA, a lot of the drive is through the middle of nowhere, so it was quite nerve-racking if something happened with the car during the driving.
That time we just got there to get my new passport and didn't have enough time to go sightseeing.
Because my husband could not get enough days off from work and needed to go back to work in the next day after coming back from the trip,
so this time we wanted to save time for the transportation and went by airplane to get to LA, and we also planned to go to the Universal studios Hollywood.
Because it's a good opportunity to go there.
Our plan for this trip was
11/17'2021 ( Wednesday ) : TUS - LAX - Enterprise car- Universal studios Hollywood - Omni Hotel - Grand central market
11/18' 2021 ( Thursday ) : Consulate General of Japan - Back to Omni Hotel - Check out - Grand central market - Consulate general of Japan - Enterprise car - LAX - TUS - EZ parking - Home
Before taking this trip, we prepared everything with details, like schedule , all the driving directions using google street views, etc..
Because of COVID -19, Consulate General of Japan accept only people who have appointments, and I needed to book online and get the reservation ID number. and they do not accept people who don't have that ID number.
They are very careful for the security since last year.
and they accept the appointment from next day to 2 weeks later and can not book in the same day's appointment.
and also if we catch a flu, and get high fever, we can not get into the building.
So if something has happened to us, and need to cancel for it in that day, I can not get the appointment to renew my passport during our trip.
This made me very nervous. so I was very careful for our health condition also.
It was only one night trip, but within the very short time, we needed to do everything perfectly , so if there was more time, I did not have to get so nervous.
Booking at Expedia
I made a reservation for the flight & hotel at Expedia's site about 1 month before the trip.
TUS (Tucson airport ) to LAX ( Los Angeles airport ) had many options and prices were still low.
so I selected 11/17 7:29 am American airline's flight.
and for return, from LAX to TUS,
I selected 11/18 7:02 pm Delta airline's flight.
and also for hotel,
I selected Omni Hotel ( which is the closest to Consulate general of Japan ).
and I saw the total price and it was less than $800 and I was not submitting the booking at that time, just wanted to see how much it will cost.
and I was saving the page in that day to tell about it to my husband.
and in the next day, when I tried to submit it , it shows the price had changed.
I was like what ??
and it showed about $50 higher than previous amount.
so I asked to my husband about it and then I submit it with that new price, but again it shows the price had changed so I could not submit it.
and within 30 minutes, suddenly the price had gone up another $50.
It was for LAX to TUS's flight.
so I was upset but I didn't want to get another higher price anymore so I submitted with the new price immediately.
Total amount we paid for it was $931.38(USD) including the tax and protection fee.
We both had not been using airplane since about 12 years ago so I thought we can get the boarding pass in the check-in counter.
But to do make things faster, we needed to do it by ourselves with the Itinerary number and confirmation numbers.
Nowadays, it's hard to live without internet and smart phone.
As for rental car, we chose enterprise because of high rating reviews especially for the time.
We booked compact car for two days with GPS and selected pay later and got the confirmation number.
EZ Parking Tucson
On November 17 ( Wednesday ), we woke up at 3am and had breakfast. I couldn't sleep until around 2am, so slept only 1 hour.
My husband slept only 3 hours.
Both of us are night people so it was not easy to go to sleep in early time. but fortunately we could sleep even short time and could get up on time.
Then we left home at 4:45am.
We were booking the covered parking place at EZ parking near Tucson airport.
Fortunately, covered parking place was available, so we parked there around 5:20am.
and then soon their own airport shuttle bus was coming there so it went smoothly.
TUS to LAX - American airline
We were preparing the boarding pass ( by printing out online at home ) , so after arriving at TUS ( Tucson airport ), we could just go directly to the security place without going to the airline counter.
We had not been using airplane trip since more than 10 years, so many things seems changed since then, and we were confused how to get the boarding pass in the beginning after make a reservation at Expedia.
I thought we will be thirsty during the flight, so I prepared two bottles of water ( 500ml ),
but in the security check, they told me we can not bring them to the air plane. so I needed to throw them away.
Airplane ( American ) departed on time, ( at 7:29am MST ) and estimated arriving time was 8 :19 am PST. ( about 1 hour 50 minutes )
and it arrived around before 8 am PST. Estimated flight duration was 1 hour and 50 minutes.
but It took only about 1 hour and 20 minutes from Tucson airport ( TUS) to Los Angeles (LAX).
It was amazingly fast !
Enterprise rental car LAX
After arrived at LAX, we looked for a shuttle bus of enterprise rental car.
It was pretty easy to find the shuttle bus and arrived at the rent-a car store faster than we estimated.
We chose enterprise rental car store because in LAX, many other rental car stores had many negative reviews which says waiting time was more than 2 hours. and read many negative reviews.
In this trip, time was very important for us , so we chose enterprise which has positive reviews about it.
Enterprise and Alamo and National are in the same building.
Check-in was easy and fast, without waiting time.
We were booking for check-in at 9am but we arrived there earlier , before 9 am.
When we booked the car ( compac 2 door ), it showed $237 for 2 days including the tax and GPS. and it said we can pay later.
So we just made the reservation for that car.
But in the check-in counter, we were told it will be about $270 for 2 door compac car including tax and fee , GPS, for 2 days.
and they took us to the place to pick up the car.
and then they offered a light blue Nissan versa 4 door's regular car.
I was wondering about it, but did not pay attention for it.
I just made sure the car condition outside of inside, if there is a scratch or damage part. and found one scratch in outside of the door and took a photo of it.
But the store worker was checking carefully with video ,so I did not have to worry about it.
I asked them to make sure there is GPS in that car.
but they found that car did not have GPS, so they tried to find a GPS from other car and put it in the car.
It was good to tell them about it because they were not preparing for it.
The car was a new model which we had no idea how to use it, so we needed to learn how to run the car.
The woman worker spoke so fast to explain and also asked us
if we need to add road assistance, so we added it and also she also asked us about gas.
She said we don't need to put gas when we return the car if we add that service.
and the 1 gallon about $4.65, and she said it's more expensive to put it in gas station, so this option is cheaper.
so we added that option as well, and she said the total additional fee is $88 for road assistance and gas fee ( for 2 days )
I just thought we will be in a hurry to return the car when we came back to enterprise from downtown because we had no idea what time we can get my new passport at Consulate General of Japan.
so I took that option.
but later I realized that we may not use gas much so I little bit regret about it.
GPS was working well for the place where GPS already know, such as famous hotels, sightseeing places, but when we put a particular address, it did not read it.
So I was using google map using my cell phone.
We arrived at enterprise rental car store earlier than we estimated but we were asking to the store worker many questions about the car and setting up GPS, so we left there around 9:30 am.
GPS was helping well so we could get to the parking place of Universal Studios without problem.
and the road was also not so busy so arrived there around 10 am.
Universal Studios Hollywood (USH )
Before the trip, we had bought the tickets of Universal studios Hollywood online at
" https://www.arestravel.com/ "
and the price was $102 each plus Ticket fee $4, total of $208 (USD).
It was cheaper than buying at the Gate or USH's website, and was no problem to use it.
I recommend that site for people who want to buy cheaper tickets of USH.
For driving,
and then turn left onto Cahuenga Blvd, and turn left onto Universal studios Blvd.
Soon we found the green sign of parking of USH.
It was faster than we thought because the road was not busy.
We followed the green sign to get to the parking place, and then we saw the parking entrance where we pay the parking fee.
We were worried about the location of the parking place in USH ( Universal studios Hollywood ), because there are several parking places and it was confusing which place is the best to park. and also there was no address for the parking place.
We chose general parking as a result after searching the reviews of preferred parking and general parking.
General parking place was located inside of building, which was nicer than I thought.
I thought it was located in the outside with no cover parking.
Parking fee was $30.
It's expensive but it's okay because it looked safe to park there. Some reviews said some cars got thief in the preferred parking place.
and also someone was saying general parking and preferred parking are located only 5 minutes different with $10 different fee.
So we thought general parking is fine.
It's said we need to walk 20 minutes to get to the main park but after we parked the car, the building is connected to city walk place where there are many stores and restaurants.
and we walked through the city walk to get to the main entrance of the park, so we did not feel we walked 20 minutes to get there.
It was fun to walk around that area.
It was also nice there are many rest rooms and whenever we need it soon we can go without looking for it.
I felt City walk place was like part of the USH's park, like walking in a another world.
If we had more time we wanted to spend more time in the city walk but we wanted to go to the main park so we did not spend much time there.
USH Main Gate
In front of the main gate, I wanted to take a photo together with my husband, so I brought selfie stick.
However, I had a problem with my cell phone's camera & video. and I only set up my cell phone with the selfie stick and did not set up with my husband's cell phone.
So we just hold my husband's cell phone to take the photo there.
( maybe we could ask someone to take a photo of us. )
We arrived at the parking place around 10:20 am, but we were hanging around the city walk and taking video and photos, so when we got into the gate, it was already 11am.
The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter
Our main attraction which we were interested in the most was Harry Potter's area, especially for the castle's ride.
We both are not so crazy for Harry Potter's movies but for this kind of attraction, it was interesting.
I really love the buildings and scenery of Harry Potter's area, it was like beautiful dream world.
We were very excited to see it and took many photos and video of all the building including the castle.
First we got a ride inside of the castle.
It's called " Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ".
This is one of my favorites in this park.
No waiting time !
Week day is not so busy I guess.
It's really fun and exciting and not scary.
First we were walking inside of the castle and then take the ride for adventure.
It was also nice there was free locker to put our bags because they were allowing only small bag.
But you can use the free locker only once.
It was interesting to know that it was not coin locker but using my husband's finger print to lock the door.
However, when we came back to locker, it didn't open with his finger print, so called the assistant to open the locker.
Seems like the system was broken.
Next, we bought frozen butterbeer drinks.
It's well-known drink in harry potter world, so we were curious and wanted to try it.
There are three kind of butter beer which are hot, cold and frozen butter beer.
Some reviewers said hot one is very sweet and frozen one is the least sweet. so we chose frozen one.
The price was $8 (USD) each plus tax. and paid $17.52 (USD).
It was unique taste and very delicious ! We both love it.
It's like butter scotch taste and heavy, so after we drank it, we got full.
If you love less sweet one, I recommend frozen butterbeer.
Flight of the Hippogriff
Next, we took another ride in the Harry Potter's area called " Flight of the Hippogriff ".
This was also no waiting time. Lucky !
It's a roller coaster which runs outside and not so scary , speed was so so, no drop from high place, it's just really fun.
We both really enjoyed with this ride.
For people who love super fast ride or drop down from the high place, Mummy ride or Jurassic park's ride are more thrilling.
French street
After that we were hanging around the park and taking photos and video.
I really like the French street area.
It was really fun to walk around everywhere.
Studio Tour
Everyone recommended to take " Studio Tour ", so we took it.
It's about 1 hour tour and we needed to wait about 20 minutes.
However no one mentioned us about 3D glasses in it, and after we got on the train, everyone in it was having 3D glassless.
So we were wondering when and where they got the glasses ?
Maybe with 3D glasses, we could get more thrill when many dinosaurs and King kong are appearing.
But it was interesting and nice to see many Hollywood movie's set and behind the scene.
Houses, building, ocean, street, cars, Jaws,
I like the set of old town.
The Hitchcock movies Psycho's motel ( Bate Motel ) and the house were also interesting.
and there was a actor standing with a knife in the porch of the house when we passed the place.
He looked like the main actor in the Psycho movie.
It was interesting however when just seeing the set, it's well made but it's a fake motel and houses, so it's not so impressive.
So I realized that the film makers and directors are doing amazing job to make good film.
Korean corn dog
After that we were getting hungry so we went to lower level area where there are Jurassic park.
I saw someone was eating Korean corn dog in the USH on Youtube video and it looked very delicious.
So I was planning to eat that food.
It's located next to " Revenge of Mummy the ride ".
So they call it the Mummy eats Korean corn dog.
It's a small food store and not a restaurant.
I ordered Korean corn dog with French fry and my husband ordered classic corn dog with French fry.
Korean corn dog is like Japanese cutlet , and usually for cutlet we use pork or chicken, but never eaten with sausage, so it was unique taste.
The taste was wonderful.
I really love it.
My husband also really love the classic corn dog in that store.
He said the taste was unique and delicious.
French fry was very delicious, too.
It's also store's original taste.
After we ate the meal, we were already full, so no space to eat any other foods.
Butterbeer and this Korean corn dog were what I really wanted to eat , so I'm already satisfied.
Transformers: The Ride 3D
Next, we went to Transformers ride, because there was no waiting time and also I could bring my backpack in the ride , so we could ride soon.
It's similar to Spider man's ride which we rode a long time ago in Florida's Universal Studio.
But Spider man was more fun and thrilling.
This ride was two huge robots fighting each other and the ride was often moving hard, so my husband didn't like it.
and we were wearing 3D glasses but we felt these were not really strong 3D , so it was like watching normal screen.
I would give 2 stars for this ride.
Jurassic World: The Ride
Next, we went to Jurassic world The Ride.
This is my top favorite ride.
I've read about that it's better not to sit in the front seats because you will get water a lot .
So I wanted to avoid to sit in the front seat.
But there was no waiting time, and not much people were there,
so we were waiting for other people is coming.
but soon after that other people came out and were navigated to sit in the front seats.
So we also went to the place and were told to sit in the 4th lane.
All the seats were wet from the water, so I was worry about we may also get a lot of water.
That ride also I could bring my backpack in the ride but afraid to get wet, so I put it under my legs.
Ride was peacefully running in the beginning and the ending was the one the most exciting and thrilling .
It 's going to the place which is 85 feet , very high, so the drop was awesome !
I love the feeling in the moment when it drops, like I can not think anything but feeling like I'm connecting to the universe.
Then it's going to the water.
Fortunately we did not get much water. But front seats people were.
I really love this ride.
after we got off the ride, it was already 4:30 pm.
I was planning to leave the park around 4pm because Omni hotel's check-in time is 4pm to 5:30pm.
and I also wanted to ride "Revenge of Mummy the ride ", but my husband was not really wanting to ride it, he imagined it's similar to Transformers ride.
I also did not know what kind of ride is.
Also we needed to wait 20 minutes.
So I gave up and decided to leave the park.
Continue to #2