Henry's Notes

Nature was good to visitors to Aichi today. Typhoon that was destine to hit full force onto Japan unexpectedly turned back out into the Pacific Ocean. So we were left with a sunny weather with very nice breeze.

The Aichi World Expo is 30 minutes outside of city of Nagoya. We had to take a bus from the city center to get there. The expo opens at 9am; We got to the West Gate by 8:30am and the line was already 30 minutes long. I couldn't believe the number of people attending this event. I think it's more than Disneyland on a summer weekend (left above)!

The idea of the World Expo is that it is a gathering of world cultures to bring to a region for people to experience. Looking at it another way, it allows someone with limited means of travel to visit virtually all places on earth. With this mission, I think the expo did a great job. However, this specific expo was supposed to focus on harmony with nature using new technologies. In this respect, I was greatly disappointed as I did not see many exhibits pointing toward this mission. I think it would be great if there is an exposition showing all the latest technologies people can use in their everyday life to lessen our impact on earth. Anyways...

Our plans to see Japanese corporate expositions (like Toyota, Mitsubish, etc) were not possible. When we got to the area (about 9:40am), tickets for the morning show were already taken and people were lining up for the 2pm tickets! It simply wasn't worth it. So we moved on to see the Mammoth lab exhibit. On our way to the Mammoth lab, we visited the super hi-def TV show. It's supposed to be 4x more detailed than the current TV and 2x more detailed than the current hi-def TV. Truly, it looked like we were at all the sights shown to us. However, given the current adoption rate of the hi-def TV, I wonder if it would be at least 20 more years before super hi-def will be adopted. As for the Mammoth lab exhibit, it was a bit disappointing. It was just a quick showing of the mummified mammoth skull and one foot. We weren't allowed to take any photographs; What a rip.

We then visited South Pacific Islands commons, including Malaysia, Vietnam, and Island states. Most notable was the small exhibit of Tuvalu, the country with the internet ending of ".tv". It turned out not only they make money from the internet address, they also make very beautiful stamps, which were quickly sold out to avid Japanese stamp collectors.

Next stop was the Africa commons, where we visited Egypt, sub-saharan African states (including Angola!), and South Africa. I was pleasantly surprised at Sub-Saharan African exhibits. Although most of their booths were small, most showed something unique about their culture worthy for me to take some pictures :) There were also exhibits of an African elephant skull (not mammoth skull!) and an homo-erectus skull with a video showing the reconstruction of what the owner of the skull might look like. Pretty cool. While at the Africa commons, we had a Egyptian curry with rice for brunch. It tasted pretty close to Japanese curry though... I wonder.

Another one of our plans was to see the German exhibit in the Mediterranean commons (yeah: huh?), which was recommended by various reports. However, we again abandoned our plans when we realized that the line was over 2 hours long! Instead, we visited Morocco, Turkey (very beautiful exhibit of geometric patterns in nature and Turkish designs), and Tunisia. We also watched a decent show of Flamingo dance performed by 4 Japanese ladies on the courtyard stage.

My dad really wanted to have some Belgium beer so we moved on to the Europe section. We skipped the waffle line and went directly to the Belgium pub for some (expensive) beer, Belgium sausage, and almond waffle. It was a good stop. Afterwards, we visited Romania (a 20 minute contemporary dance show), Ireland, and Czech (whimsical musical instrument and light exhibit).

Next, we wondered into the forest area where we took a forest lesson tour. The guides explained about several plants we saw along the way and then ended the tour with a hands-on exercise to draw a family crest. We learned that a tree nicknamed "The Order" got this name because it's young leaves can be eaten. Therefore, the old empire made an order to plant this tree in case of crop failure.

Finally, we entered the India continent area, where we visited India and Nepal. India felt so familiar even though my last visit was when I was 9... maybe it's because I have many Indian friends. Nepal has a really nice exhibit, although I wondered how many people looked carefully at the intricate carvings... I am showing one here, but it's all over the place.

Because I foolishly used my JR pass the first day I arrived in Japan, today is the last day before it expires (instead of tomorrow as my dad had planned). Therefore, we decided to take the train back to Tokyo tonight and spend an extra day in Tokyo. It's not so bad because now I have more chances to talk to Luke.

(left: Evening sky at the Expo)