Reid Main

I am going try to keep this short and sweet because there was almost nothing worth remembering about this day. The Coles Notes of it are do not go the Osaka Expo 2025! It was one of those those attractions that we planned an entire day around because we figured it would be incredibly easy to wander the grounds and visit various pavilions. We could not have been more wrong.

We woke up at 7:30am and partook in our typical morning routine of coffee and breakfast from a FamilyMart in the basement complex of our hotel. Like most attractions in Japan our tickets had timed entry so there was no need to hurry. The Expo grounds are actually on an artificial island near the western outskirts of the city. There is ample transportation but it's still a long trip that could easily take you an hour or more. We took the Midōsuji Line to the Chūō Line to Yumeshima Station and arrived a little after 11am. I honestly do not think I have ever seen so many people queued up for something. For the next hour we proceeded to snake back and forth across the entry plaza in the sweltering heat before finally passing through the security checkpoint.

Before I start talking shit I first want to call out something great which is the Expo grounds were beautiful. It consists of a massive wooden ring that encircles most of the pavilions. You're able to walk along its entire circumference, both underneath through all of the scaffolding, or on top along the "Skywalk" pathway that has an amazing bird's eye view of the grounds. If the ring still exists the next time I am in Osaka I would love to return here because it seems designed for a leisure walk followed by a delicious picnic.

Unfortunately, that was the only good thing about the Expo. Apparently we were incredibly naive thinking that we could just show up and partake in any of the pavilions. You needed to attempt to reserve tickets hours (if not days) in advance to remotely have a chance of participating. It was possible to queue up on the day but odds are you'd be in line for at least an hour or two. The density was also something I had not been expecting. It was basically just as bad as Universal Studios Japan but there seemed to be an even larger number of total attendees. This was my first ever World Expo so pardon my ignorance, but in my opinion if there are 188 pavilions and it is basically impossible to visit more than three in a day that is just poor planning. Oh and I am 99% sure I saw the food stall at the Canada pavilion using cheese curds from Wisconsin!

We made one final attempt at winning a lottery for a 3pm slot of the "Gundam Next Future" pavilion but once that inevitably failed we decided to cut our losses and head home. At 4:30pm we arrived back at our hotel which meant between 10am and now we basically did nothing but walk under and on top of a giant wooden ring. Not the best way to spend six and a half hours.

By now we were both tired and angry so we didn't want to deal with any potentially complex interactions for dinner. We figured this was the perfect time for some kaiten aka conveyor belt sushi. We had seen this YouTube video by Abroad In Japan about Sushiro, the countries largest conveyor belt sushi restaurant, and figured why not give it a shot. According to Google Maps the closest one to our hotel was only a 10 minute walk. But when we got there we found some small signage at the elevators saying it was closed, for no explicable reason. We figured there was some sort of maintenance issue and walked another 10 minutes to the next closest Sushiro which was on the top floor of a six story building. After slogging it up all of the stairs we were met with another closed sign. What is going on? Surely not every Sushiro in the country is closed today right? Wrong. Every year Sushiro closes down every one of their stores for two full-days to create a "more comfortable work environment" for their employees.

After questioning which god we had pissed off to have such a rotten day, we regrouped and were able to find another kaiten sushi place, Hakodate Kantaro, where we stuffed our faces before returning to our hotel and relaxing until it was time for bed.