The excitement was thick in the air this morning, and we went through the motions of breakfast and a little bit of learning on the computers, but no set workload today. Our tickets to the Expo were for entrance at 11am, so we had a lot of time before departure today.
We walked up to our closest subway stop, took the pink line, switched to the green line and OH MY! I was told to expect crowds, but this was “sardines in a tin can” Japanese subway experience! So we awkwardly stood swaying and clutching the hand rails on the subway for the entire ride, because of course everyone was going to the same destination.
We are in the final three weeks of the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, and the locals are panicking. The season pass holders are panicking. Tourists from all over the world who have bought tickets but not secured their entry date and time are panicking. Everyone is scrambling to get one more visit in, to try to get into that one pavillion they haven’t seen yet. It is so packed with people in all directions, the line ups are crazy, and at the same time smooth and well organized.
I am glad and relieved I read one more first hand report yesterday, a lady went yesterday and said she learned not to arrive early for her timed entry. Our time today was 11am. If we had arrived early, it would have meant waiting in a giant line at the gate for it to strike 11, and then shuffle in that same line through security and ticket screenings. Instead, we arrived maybe 11.20am, and because our entry time had already passed, we could go in special lines with near zero wait. Security and tickets both went fairly fast, and then we were through!
World Expo is an amazing, incredible event, it now happens only every 5 years. The first one happened in 1851! Did you know there are different types of Expos? Me neither, until just now, sitting down to write to you! I found this website helpful: https://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/expo-index. Osaka has hosted two types of Expos before, one in 1990 and one in 1970.
Let me get back on track: Entering the Expo, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. There are people everywhere, lineups in all directions, and every announcement and all staff direct people in Japanese only. They built the World’s Biggest Wooden Structure for this event, a structure that will be mostly torn down again after the Expo ends on October 13th. I really wish my grandpa could have seen this enormous ring. It surrounds most of the Expo, and a part of it is even in the ocean! There are escalators to go up and down from the ring, and two different levels of foot paths on top. Also, it’s beautifully landscaped with grass and flowers up top!
The day was overcast and around 29C. Even though our line moved quickly, with the packed subway and the walk from the subway to the gate and all the people everywhere, we were ready for a bit of relief from the heat and humidity. We ducked into the closest open building, which happened to be Commons A. The commons buildings are like event halls, with stalls and exhibits of the participating countries that did not want and/or get to build an entire pavillion. This one in particular had a bunch of countries that we were not very familiar with, so we enjoyed learning a thing or two about the ones we stopped in at. The girls also collected stamps in little notebooks from each of the countries. (Collecting stamps are a big thing in Japan, not stamps for letters, but decorative inkpad and stamp-type stamps.)
Maylin let us know she was DONE with lines, done with crowds and all done with Commons A, so we headed back out. By now, we were ready for lunch, and did not want to venture far to find food. The nearest “restaurant” was a take-away counter with a few stools, in a “forest” area with benches. I picked up two bento boxes, one with beef and pork over rice for the girls, and an eel over rice for Joe and I. The eel had more bones than I’m used to, or it could have been just cooked differently, but I’m glad it was ours, and not the girls’. Theirs was just delicious, through and through.
It wasn’t supposed to, but I don’t think the clouds knew that, so it started raining. More drizzle, really, felt nice and cool on arms and legs, but nonetheless, Commons B was right next door to our lunch spot, and bonus: indoor washrooms! We had been warned to expect 15 minute lineups for washrooms, so we made sure we lined up in plenty of time before the dreaded “MOM! I HAVE TO GO PEE!”. And we got to tour another bunch of countries, and collect another bunch of stamps!
And then suddenly, everyone was chased out of the middle of the building, the barriers came up, and there were a whole bunch of stricter looking security with curly wires from their ears and stuff. We (Joe and I) thought for sure someone important was going to come through, and we got one of the Japanese staff to translate for us: today is Fiji’s national day, and we just happened to be in the area of Fiji’s exhibit. So they closed off the bulk of the building, and told us they would reopen at 3pm. This was at 1.50pm, so we left, no celebrities in sight.
But we did find a different celebrity we could hang out with! Which photographer was better at getting a high five with Gundam?
Gundam was actually outside of the ring, as part of the commercial pavillions, not countries. At this point, we are completely opposite of where we wanted to go next, to the Canadian pavillion. So we took the opportunity to explore the ring! Yet again, we found ourselves at the end of a seemingly endless line up, this time for the escalator to go up onto the ring. It’s such a shame they are only keeping a part of this incredible structure after Expo ends! It was so busy getting up, and there was such a crowd at the top of the escalator, I was worried as it kept slowing down and people just weren’t able to move out of the way fast enough, that the escalator would just keep feeding people into an avalanche of people. But nothing happened, hopefully security cleared the congestion in time. That said, I haven’t seen a single accident or near-miss, even with all the cocky bikes in traffic, or people in all directions. They truly have it all under control! Even when encountering bewildered tourists…
Once back down to solid ground, we rounded the Portugal building and found HOME! The Canadian pavillion had about 45 minutes to line up, but we approached a staff member, and they oohed and aahed and opened the VIP line (I mean the citizen line) and poof! We were in! It was so cool, and truly made us feel special. There were so many Canadians working this pavillion, and the requirements were some level of fluency in Japanese, and they got to live in Japan during the entire period. Maybe we’ll do that somewhere, once the kids are grown…
The Canadian pavillion is three rooms, and the experience requires one tablet per two visitors. Maylin and Téa took charge, and pointed the tablet in all the right direction. Once the tablet recognized its surroundings, it would overlay images. The first room was like we were under the water in a river in Quebec (I forget which river, she mentioned it, but the room ended too soon).
The second room had nine illuminated glaciers. Once you scanned each glacier with your tablet, there were scenes full of landscapes, people, animals, buildings, fireworks, it was so, so cool!!! Each glacier was a different setting, there were polar bears, dogsleds, ice fishing, Niagara Falls, Quebec City and Chateau Frontenac, Toronto and the CN Tower. There were Rocky Mountains, trains, bridges, waterfalls, and an indigenous artist carving a narwhal out of soapstone. Absolutely incredible! As the guide told us before we went in, there are so many Easter eggs hidden in each “glacier”, you really could spend all day in here, exploring each tiny detail.
The last room was outer space, and again our tablet overlaid stars and astronauts, as if we were in the International Space Station. All in all such a great experience, proud that Canada had reportedly one of the more interactive pavillions, and such friendly staff.
Now if only the Nordic Circle had a special VIP/Citizens’ line! We tried, but it didn’t work. They wouldn’t let us bypass anything. So the girls and I lined up for snacks at the Nordic hot dog stand, and Joe tried to sweet talk the staff into letting us in. All Japanese staff, nothing I could flaunt my Scandinavian languages to get into. The hot dog for Joe and I, and the two cinnamon buns for the girls, cost almost as much as our two bento boxes for lunch.
We took our snacks down to the water to watch the ring while we ate. It was probably the calmest and most relaxing spot in the entire Expo.
Hands sticky with sugar and cinnamon, we said we would go find the immense washroom lineups, and the girls and I headed for the shortest looking line full of women. Unfortunately, our line was for one single “All Gender” washroom, not a room full of stalls, so we spent the next 45 minutes standing in line, and learning to count to 10 in Japanese from the sweet old ladies behind us. But seriously. 45 minutes. Joe was so bored, he went roaming, refilled all our water bottles, and filmed the _null building endlessly. About 10 spaces from the front of the line, he told us there were other lines moving faster, and we’d picked the wrong one. Gee, thanks. It was a circular building, impossible to tell from our side what the other lines were doing.
By now it was 5pm, and we had spent near 6 hours exploring World Expo Osaka. We could have waited another three hours for the drone show to start at 8pm, but with two young ones in tow, we did the grown up thing and headed for the subway. The reports I’ve been spending weeks and months reading are telling horror stories about how cramped the subways get at the end of the day, so we knew we wanted to get out earlier than the rest. As luck would have it, my tactic scored us seats on the subway home, and it was much less crowded than when we came, or at least it felt that way to us, seeing as we were all seated and relaxing by now.
We took a different route home, with a longer subway stretch, and a new-to-us bus route down to the main road just past our AirBnb. Right next to our closest conveyor belt sushi restaurant is a cluster of other restaurants, and we just wanted to be fed and have a quick walk home after. We ducked into an enticing one, it promised udon noodles, but that’s all we knew. Turns out it was almost cafeteria like, with trays, a large self serve soup section, a noodle order station, tempura of all kinds, and a cashier. So we pointed (actually I took pictures of what we wanted from the menu) and with a chef with almost no English and us with a few words in Japanese, we were able to place our order. The girls both had kids sets, which again came with a coin for the gachapon machine, Joe had hot noodles, and I had cold noodles.
By 7pm, we were home and ready for the shower. It was a full and exciting day, fun and delicious, and one that can’t really be recreated in a similar way until Riyadh, 2030.