Yesterday (I didn't blog before going to bed last night, you'll see why) was a f*ck of a day. I knew it was going to be rough, I just didn't anticipate *how* rough. It started out normally enough, breakfast for all 4 of us together (a rarity this trip) at the bakery downstairs. I got the ricotta and blistered tomatoes toast and what I read online is the best thing they have, Honey Toast. It was a really thick piece of bread that seemed to have been soaked in a thinned honey syrup and then gridled. The outside was hard like candy. It was hard to cut and crackled with each bite. It was yummy, but I think I'd like to try something else next time.
Before breakfast I had started a couple of loads of laundry and went to switch them. We waited for laundry to be done before embarking on our day to the Osaka World Expo 2025. We took 2 subway trains to get there and the 2nd one had it's final stop at the Expo. The Expo is on a man-made island. The island itself was built to house the Expo. It was an engineering feat! Kenji says they've been working on this for 10 years After getting off the train we had a 15 minute walk to get to the front gate. There was a huge area in front set up to handle enormous crowds with queueing lines all arranged for the back and forth of crowds. When I handed my bag to Security for a bag check, I was asked if I had any drinks. I said yes and he asked me to remove them. I pulled out a bottle of water and a Diet Coke and he put one at a time in a plastic ring and pushed a button to determine the contents of my bottle. How innovative! I didn't have to lose my drinks and they were satisfied I wasn't going to blow the place up! Disney needs these things.
So what is the Osaka Expo? Think World's Fair. There were pavilions sponsored by countries, showcasing what's there and what the country is about and why they're each awesome and why you should go to their country to visit. Some pavilions were huge for a single country, like Malaysia, the first pavilion we went into. It was a 2 story pavilion! They had exhibits like in a museum, with video explanations of what we were looking at as well as an enormous ceiling to floor Tree of Harmony made from bamboo and rattan. Other pavilions shared the enormous hall and each country had a booth of sorts, that could be walked into to view a few posters and maybe a small display. Such was the case with the second pavilion we went into, The Commons, which was filled with booths from countries of the Commonwealth of Britain. The guys had gone ahead of Mom & I, having finished Malaysia before we did. When Mom & I walked into the Commons we took an immediate right and she walked into the first booth, I forget which one it was, and spent a good 5 minutes in there. Then she walked into the next booth. Good Lord, she's going to go into every single one here, isn't she??? And there was nowhere for me to sit and wait. There was nowhere to sit inside any of the pavilions. *face palm* While Mom was in the 2nd booth Kenji texted and told me they had found the Sri Lanka booth in the back, so when Mom came out I told her that, hoping to nudge her along. It worked to an extent that she didn't then go into every booth along the way.
Of course, we went into the Sri Lanka booth. They had posters on the walls about fun things to do in Sri Lanka and a tea display as you exited. We wandered around the rest of The Commons and went to sit outside. In the sun. There's very little shade at the Expo. And it was the hottest day of the year so far. Because of course it was for the day we went. Just our luck. We tried to find the guys and I sat down at a group of tables near a could of food stalls to check my Google Maps of where they were and Mom got interested in the Azerbaijan pavilion and went to see it. That was fine. I was overheating and needed a rest and time to drink some water. Kenji found me and I got a curry rice bowl to eat. Mom came back with a tale of how she had waited 20 minutes to get into Azerbaijan, but she had thoroughly enjoyed it. And that began the tale of the rest of the day. LONG lines to get into pavilions, *if* you could get in at all. A lot of the more popular pavilions (read: popular countries - Japan, USA, France, etc.) had a reservation requirement AND reservations had to have been obtained well in advance of your visit AND were only available via a lottery system so as to be fair to everyone. Ok, I get that part, but lotteries are common in Japan for popular events BUT they are convoluted and not well explained for tourists who don't use the system.
We didn't enter the lottery system so we had no reservations for any pavilions. We knew that and the plan was to go into the less popular pavilions and perhaps wait until evening to get into the popular ones, when the crowds die down, we thought. Walking around the Ring Mom found Turkey with a short line and wanted to go in, so Kenji and I found an indoor restaurant where we sat down and got a Mango Shave Ice to share while we waited for Mom. She joined us after touring Turkey and Leo joined us shortly after he had been through the Indonesia pavilion. And then the skies opened up (we'd been hearing bug thunder booms for awhile) so we stayed put inside where we had seats and there was a/c. We got some food to nibble on, so we could justify holding the table and stools. We got some fried gyoza, tempura that turned out to just be 2 pieces of shrimp and 2 pieces of chicken, and some edamame for Mom. We watched on Kenji's phone the weather forecast for how long the rain would last and the guys decided to share a bowl of katsu curry udon (breaded & fried chicken cutlet in a curry sauce over thick noodles) and Mom and I went to see where else we could get into. We thought we went the right direction for Germany, but we were wrong. We passed many other pavilions with long lines to get in and turned around to head for Germany where Kenji was waiting for us. Leo had decided to head back to the hotel.
We found Kenji and walked past other pavilions with long lines. Germany's line was 90 minutes long! Mom said no, she's been to Germany and didn't want to wait that long. We were able to walk right into United Arab Emirates and enjoyed what they were showing. One display I saw showed how different the sand is in different parts of the country. I needed a sit down and rest at this point and have some water so Mom and Kenji went on. When I got back up again there was an announcement that the top of the Ring was being reopened after the storm. I wanted to go up there so I texted Kenji to let him know. He and Mom had gone into the Vietnam pavilion. I got int he very long line for the escalator ride up to the top. The Ring is a huge wooden structure built around the pavilions. It is more than 65 feet tall, more than 98 feet wide and more than a mile around. There are no nails in it. It's an engineering feat and quite a thing to see. I can say with certainty that it was the highlight of the day for me. The views from up top were grand! As I took the elevator down Mom and Kenji were getting on to go up, so I sat and waited for them to come back down.
We walked some more and continued to find long lines everywhere. We were discouraged and talked about how it was disheartening to come all this way just to not be able to get into more pavilions, that the lottery system, while trying to be fair, excluded visitors unfamiliar with it. We hadn't found any maps of the Expo to see what was where so we could seek out specific pavilions or find what other exhibits were there. We made the sad decision to leave as we were frustrated and didn't think we'd be able to get anything more accomplished. We saw an Info booth on the way out and stopped to see if they had a map of the Expo! They did! They were the only place that did AND they were selling them for 200 yen (about $1.50). Really? Selling the maps??? *groan* Mom bought us each one. We wished there had been a sign as we came in at the start of the day, pointing to the Info Booth saying "Maps this way!", we would've bought one at the beginning of the day. *sigh*
As we made our way out we were treated to a beautiful sunset along our 15 minute walk back to the subway. 2 trains and 30 mins later we were back and a quick stop at 7/11 for evening provisions and were back in our rooms. I got a fruit sandwich, finally, which had sliced strawberries, peaches and pineapple set in a bed of whipped cream on white bread. This is a delicacy that has to be tried to be appreciated. It's a 7/11 staple and I hadn't spotted one yet, as they are popular. I snagged it along with what was described as a Pork Ham with Cucumber sandwich, but as I bit into it I discovered they slipped wasabi in the cream cheese spread. Yowza! There were 3 halves to the sandwich and I powered through 2 of them cuz I was hungry, but gave the 3rd half (how does *that* work?) to the guys. Leo didn't like it after 1 bite, so Kenji finished it. I also shared the 2nd half of my fruit sandwich with them.
Mom and I watched another baseball game between the Carps and the Tigers and once again the Tigers won. I'm sorry, Erica. Mom and I were both too exhausted to blog last night. I took ibuprofen and my muscle relaxer to knock me out so my feet and ankles wouldn't keep me awake. I was asleep by 10 pm.
They can't all be winners.
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