USJ 25th Anniversary – Part 1 Party or No Party?

 

Party or No Party?

Since March 31, 2026 would mark the 25^th anniversary of the opening of Universal Studios Japan, we wanted to get together in Osaka with other team members to celebrate.

Many changes have taken place in the past 25 years—including change of ownership. When we were there, a multi-national conglomerate (USJCo) owned the park. Today it is wholly owned by Universal Studios. Unfortunately, we were not able to get any help from them in any way.

All the people who planned the delayed 20^th anniversary party two years ago were too busy or out of the area and could not help us this time. I tried to make arrangements from here, but it proved impossible. So, I cancelled the event.

However, an angel named Atsuko Sera, Japanese born and bilingual, said she would see what she could do. She contacted the same hotel where the party had been held two years ago. They were willing to give us the same deal that we had then for the same price! (The only difference was that we had the room for two hours instead of three.) Fortunately, the exchange rate was much more favorable to us this time. The party was back on!

She and I coordinated the preparations and tracked the attendance. Two weeks before the event, we had 80 people who responded positively. This was the number we gave the hotel. (It was like a wedding reception where the number we locked in was the number we were responsible to pay for.)

Unfortunately, a war started two days afterward. Several people were stuck in places where they could not get a plane out. (One family was in Dubai, and the airport had been bombed.) Others were afraid to fly. A few had medical issues. We heard about long delays and cancelled flights at US airports. Still others just didn’t let us know their updates.

Fortunately, several who had not RSVPd were able to get to Osaka. We told them to come!

Sara-san (Atsuko) recruited a couple of friends to help with registration. She would be the MC for the event and do some of the translation. Fortunately, most of the speakers sent her their speeches for translation early!

It was a mad scramble, but we felt we were ready!