Golden Week v2: The Osaka Expo

Henry didn’t have too many requests for the trip, but the one thing he absolutely wanted to see was the world exposition in Osaka. Before he mentioned it, I didn’t know anything about it, but it ended up being a very fun, and very long day. 

Our trip from Tokyo to Osaka was pretty uneventful, aside from a brief ticket mixup, so for once, I’m going to just skip recounting a day of vacation. We arrived in the early evening, checked in, ate some dinner, and went to bed fairly early. The first full day in Osaka was going to be at the expo, and that was definitely going to be an all day adventure. 

Thankfully for me, Henry didn’t want to go right at the opening of the expo, so it wasn’t too early of a morning. We hopped on the train and got to the expo grounds around 10 or so. This is the second time Osaka has hosted the World Expo, with the other time being in 1970. Basically all I knew about the previous expo was that it was the reason people in Osaka stand on the right side of the escalator, unlike Tokyo which stands on the left.

By the time we got off the train, I was starting to get a sense of how big of a deal this event actually is, or at least how much money had been spent on it. The station looked brand new, and was quite spacious, funneling a decently large crowd up towards the expo gates. Each country participating had a flag raised, and I could see larger structures waiting behind the gates. 

Once we got inside the gates, Henry wanted to stop by the gift shop. It seemed a little odd to go shopping already, but I relented. Henry had heard about a stamp book you could buy, where you could collect stamps throughout the Expo. We looked around for the book, but weren’t able to find it. I asked a staff member in the best Japanese, they were right by the entrance, we just happened to miss them. 

In what was a very sweet moment, Henry told me how glad he was that I was with him. I’m sure the staff member probably spoke English, but it made me feel useful to be able to help out. We both grabbed a stamp book, checked out, and began our day at the Expo in earnest. 

Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to get any reservations at any of the pavilions. Like so many other things in Japan, they used a lottery system, and out of the 5 slots we were hoping for, we got none of them. You might have been able to make some day-of reservations using the app, but it either wasn’t working, or there weren’t any available. 

So we decided to play it by ear, my favorite, and walked around the Expo taking in the sights, and more importantly, hunting for stamps. Each pavilion had their own stamp, and the book probably had around 150 spots for stamps. As we walked by each pavilion, no matter how big or small, we kept an eye out for a spot to stamp our book.

As we walked, we found one pavilion that had a line that wasn’t absurdly long, the Kingdom Of Bahrain, which I pretended was a country I knew that existed. We waited about 30 minutes before we got inside, I think we both wanted to make sure we got into at least one pavilion today, and this seemed as good as any. 

They gave us a quick introduction, and then let us wander around at our own pace. The whole structure was built like a ship, and featured many different things that were important to the country. We could even touch and smell various things, which made it a little more personal than something like a museum. There was a small cafe here, so we had a tasty snack, date cakes, coffee, and croquettes, before moving on. 

It was after this, we discovered that many of the smaller pavilions were clustered together into various halls. We could see a lot in these halls, and also, it was a treasure trove of stamps. We could get 20+ in one location, and even better, these places had a special stamp. The special stamp was an overlay, where you needed to go to 6 different locations to complete the picture. 

We bounced around from hall to hall, while we admired the different pavilions. It was a bit disappointing that the big pavilions all had lengthy lines, or were simply unavailable without reservations. After a while I could feel my energy dropping, and it was time for some food, and to get off my feet. 

On the far side of the expo grounds we found a food court, refueled, and returned to our stamp hunt. My personal goal for the day was just to get the fancy overlay stamp, so as long as we got that I was happy. The sun started getting lower in the sky as our hunt continued. Before long, it started to get dark, and the crowds had gotten a bit thinner. 

This meant the pavilions were a lot less busy, and we managed to get into some of the larger pavilions. We stopped inside Malaysia, since many of the people were distracted by a performance outside. After that we even got inside Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates pavilions. 

These were all quite cool, but weren’t exactly countries I felt much attachment to. Henry wanted to get a photo next to the Canadian pavilion of course, especially since it felt like our day was beginning to wind down. As we walked by, I heard them say the wait time in Japanese, so I translated it to Henry, about 45 minutes. 

The staff member began chatting with us, so we mentioned we were both Canadian, and made some small talk. To our surprise, they told us we could use the reservation line to get inside! Henry and I were stoked, and hurried to the reservation line. We were inside the pavilion in less than 5 minutes. I felt a bit bad that we were cutting the line, but we were Canadian afterall! 

National pride may have been a factor, but this was also my favorite pavilion. They gave us a tablet attached to a selfie stick type contraction, and you could look through it like a camera. In the main area, there were various white rocks that when you looked at it through the tablet, it transformed into various digital tableaus representing various things about Canada. 

I remember being blown away when I was inspecting a tableau featuring someone making a small carving. They were probably Inuit, a culture we often learned about in school, but as I pulled away, the whole scene was taking place on the back of a narwhal. It represented a lot of what I loved about Canada, the beautiful nature, the various ways of life, and all of it was viewable through an interesting lens, technology and innovation. 

By the time we left the Canadian pavilion, many were beginning to close their lines. We wandered around a bit more, and happened to find people congregating around the plaza. It was then Henry remembered, there was a water show. We found a seat, as it quickly filled up with people. 

The show was a story about a boy getting lost in a magical world and finding a rainbow under the moonlight. It was all in Japanese, so many of the particulars were lost on me, but I got the broad strokes. Besides, we were mainly there for the spectacle, and in that sense I think it delivered. The water was well timed with the music, and the sights and colors kept me interested during the runtime. 

After the show, the expo would be closing soon, and that felt like a good note to end on, so we started making our way to the exit. As we left, it seemed like we missed one last surprise. As we made our way to the gates we could see a final light show taking place, and so we kept turning back to catch glimpses of the show. 

It had been a long day, but quite the fun adventure. My stamp book still had plenty of spaces, but I had achieved my mission, getting the overlaid stamp, along with dozens of others. It was among the highlights of this trip, which is stiff competition, since this whole trip was a highlight. It went from being a thing Henry wanted to do, to quite the special experience, and one I’ll remember fondly.