The World Expo

 

Our time in Japan almost up. On Wednesday we head off to the airport for the flight back to London. Yesterday (Monday ) morning we're up bright and early on our way to the World Expo in Osaka. You know it's early because the ladies who arrange the flowers in the lobby are hard at work as is the man who polishes the floors. We've never been to a World Expo and are unsure what its purpose is in an age of mass travel but the architecture is said to be stunning. https://www.japan-guide.com/event/expo-2025/

Another beautiful day as we head out of the front door of the hotel.

Our taxi whisks us to the station. It's an easy walk but we have to get to the bullet train platform which is some way away and we don't want to be late. Tokyo station is huge and confusing but great fun.  Cabs in Tokyo it has to be said are ridiculously cheap. All the cab drivers wear masks. Perhaps it's a regulation ?

When we get to Osaka things do not go smoothly.

1) It's unpleasantly humid and hot. Tokyo at six in the morning is cool. Osaka at ten  isn't.

2) We decide to take the subway from the station to the exhibition ground  to save time. This is a mistake. The first five trains are so busy we can't squeeze onboard. When the doors open we are faced with a solid wall of commuters staring back at us. Sardines in a can doesn't picture it. I'd seen videos of Japanese trains in the rush hour but had always assumed there was an element of staged exaggeration in them. We finally squeeze , uncomfortably, onto a sixth train.

3) The lines to get into the World Expo are enormous and slow moving. I've not seen so many people since Beijing on Mao's birthday. There are three large cruise ships in port which add to the crowds. After leaving the station it takes us an hour to get to the security gates. It seems that every schoolchild in Japan has chosen this day to visit . I would have to say that in comparison with their European counterparts Japanese children are incredibly well behaved. There are a lot of male primary school teachers . In the UK they are a rarity. Perhaps the two things are related ? From the perspective of a visitor Japan seems to get many basic things right.

Once inside it's just as congested. The cafes are super busy and the sign posting poor. Why are there never enough loos at these affairs ?  We wanted to see the Japanese pavillion but there's a two hour wait. Same for the French and Nordic  pavillions. The UK pavillion looks from the outside like a midlands motorway service station but there's even a half hour wait here.

We walk around the worlds largest wooden structure and then head for the exit. The worlds largest wooden structure is exactly that. On our way out 'The Font' notices that the US pavillions queue is composed (90%) of backpacking Americans . This says something although we can't agree on what. The French offering is very glitzy and from the outside looks like a lost Cartier store that's ended up here by accident. 

Faced with the humidity and the throngs of people the sensible thing to do is get in a cab and head for the airconditioned comfort of a newly opened hotel downtown. Two glasses of champagne in the top floor bar and a surprisingly good ( and stunningly cheap ) late lunch/early supper in the ground floor restaurant  and we're fit to face the dusk train back to Tokyo. A good bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse at half the price we'd pay in Scotland turns a rather drab excursion into a great day out. We are the only people in the bar and with the exception of a group of drunken Russians wearing what appear to be heavily patterned childrens pyjamas the only ones in the restaurant. 

'Jeffing'. Another of those things that's passed us by :https://theconversation.com/jeffing-how-this-run-walk-method-could-help-you-train-for-a-marathon-254837

This has just re-opened :https://shibuya-scramble-square.com/sky/the-roof/

Starting , soon, in London :https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hiroshige-artist-open-road

These are an example of the multi-coloured 'pyjamas' worn by our fellow dinner companions in the new hotel. Have you ever seen anything like them ? Is it a new fashion craze ? I'm guessing they're hugely expensive. It must be an age thing but they seem out of place in a hotel as does the recent fad of wearing  pyjamas on airplanes.