So, my wife is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, and loved visiting the Harry Potter store in Harajuku. We were thinking about doing Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Osaka, but I heard the one in Orlando, FL is the best in the world, and we still haven't been to the one near us in California. So, we opted not to do that and instead spend our two days in Osaka just sight seeing. However, what IS unique to Japan is the Making of Harry Potter WB in Tokyo.
There is only one other Making of Harry Potter studios, and that's the original set location in London. However, a friend of ours went to both, as she is also a huge Harry Potter fan, and told us the Tokyo one is better as it's bigger, and they imported a TON of the original set, including the actual train from the movie. So, naturally, we had to go to this thing. And, I was finally able to book it and we went on the last day before we had to leave Japan. I have to say that even as someone who has never had any interests in Harry Potter, the place was absolutely incredible, and by far the highlight of our trip in Japan — I'm not even kidding when I say this. However, there are some things to know beforehand:
1) Booking via the actual website while even in Japan was impossible. None of our cards would go through, even though we were actually in Japan. This is a well known issue with foreign cards, especially Visa, because of the 3D secure gateway and Japan's rigorous credit card fraud detection system. I was able to book other things in the U.S. on Japanese websites like Tablecheck. However, for some reason, it was nearly impossible (with both Visa and Mastercard) to book Harry Potter directly from the Japanese website. I wasted over an hour trying to book this, and calling my credit card companies to release the security gateway, and to inspect the transaction to see where it was getting blocked. Don't waste your time like I did. Do this instead.
So, what works? Klook. You will need to book this on third party travel booking sites. I also recommend booking well ahead in advanced, because the dates we wanted to book were available on the Japanese Harry Potter site, but they were unavailable on Klook and every other 3rd party site like Agoda. I think if we had booked a week earlier than when we tried, we would have been able to book during the first leg of the trip of Japan, while we were closer to the actual Harry Potter studio.
2) Honestly, when they said a minimum of 4 hours is needed to do the entire tour, I thought that was laughable. I've heard the same sort of thing about TeamLabs, and even one hour felt way more than enough for both TeamLab locations in Tokyo. However, they are not kidding about the length of time needed for Harry Potter. The studio is HUGE, and there is a LOT to see and explore. Also, half way through the tour, you will go to a really impressive cafeteria and Butter beer station. If you stop to eat here, that will take another 45 minutes. There is also a REALLY good cafeteria at the beginning of the tour. We arrived early, so we went to get some food here, and honestly, the pizza we had was one of the best pizzas I've ever had. It's that good.
3) There's a lot of shopping for merch at the train station in the middle of the tour, and and the end. My wife spent like almost an hour alone at the store at the end of the tour.
All in all, the entire studio tour took us 6 hours including dinner at the studio before we went into the tour, and shopping afterwards. And, for the price of just $40 USD, it was such amazing value for the time spent, that I would HIGHLY recommend anyone, even if you know nothing of Harry Potter, to do it. It was head and shoulders above our TeamLabs side trip in every way: value, amazement, food, and fun.
Finally, as an aside, if you want to do TeamLabs, I would still encourage you. However, don't be like us. Just do ONE of them. It honestly doesn't matter which one, because to be frank, they both felt the same to me, and a few exhibits were copied at each site. If you like it a lot, then I would book the other one. But, don't book both. Because, you cannot cancel it once you do so. And, if you don't like it the first time, I am pretty sure you will not like it at the other location.
by blr1g