When I visited Osaka with my family last year, our main purpose was to see a new attraction in an amusement park, Universal Studios Japan (USJ). Along with Tokyo Disney Resort, USJ is a famous amusement park in Japan. It was opened in 2001 as the fourth theme park of Universal Parks & Resorts. It had been popular among tourists; however, subsequent to the late 2000's, the number of visitors decreased sharply.
On July 15th, 2014, USJ opened a new attraction to the public as a revival measure... "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter". Needless to say, this attraction was taken from the famous fantasy novels called the Harry Potter series. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has authentic-looking reproductions of the world of Harry Potter. I don't want to talk anymore about the attraction itself as you should just wait until you see it.
In the meantime, to visit USJ, please get off at Universal City Station on the JR West Sakurajima Line. It takes about 10 minutes from Osaka Station. Special poster trains, the EMU 201 series, are operated at intervals of 8 to 15 minutes. When I took the train last December, it was very crowded, like rush hour, even on a cold winter weekday. The only consolation was that we could use Suica and Pasmo (prepaid IC cards for railway passengers) of the Tokyo metropolitan area on this crowded line in Osaka.
The Sakurajima Line... it was a train to the hot spot in Osaka City.
