Marie and I took the train from Tokyo to Nagoya about a 2 hr ride. We were planning on going to the Aichi Kyuhaku (also known as Aichi Expo) which is a sort of world's fair, for 6 months only. It takes place in the town of Aichi where they tore down about 3 square miles of forest for the exhibition. It is supposed to celebrate the earth and humans and technology's relationship with it. Why they had to kill 3 square miles of one of the last forests in a small country like Japan with limited forests to begin with in order to do it, I will never understand. You can read more about it from the official website http://www-1.expo2005.or.jp/en/.
We had just been in Yakushima for the 5 days before (with a 18 hr break in between). We got to Nagoya about 10:30 at night and after taking he subway to the right section of the city for our hotel and finally checked in by 11:00. We had to wake up really early because there would be a huge lines just to get in. All summer, people have come from around the world to see it, has written up in the NY Times and other major publications. Now that it is nearing the end of it's 6-month run, everyone is trying to get there before it closes. Furthermore, due to a vast amount of websites and tips documenting the best way to go about seeing everything, everyone knows everyone else will get there early.
The gates open at 9am, so we planned to get there around 7:30am the first morning (we planned to be there for 2 days since you can't see everything in one day). It was about a 35 minute trip from the hotel to the site and we were really lucky to find a hotel that close that still had rooms. Most hotels in the surrounding area have been sold out for months. We took the subway for 20 minutes and the transferred to a monorail built just for the expo. As we took the monorail to the site, at each stop, more and more people kept squeezing their way onto the train making it fell like I never left Tokyo and was on my way to work. We got there at 7:30am and was amazed to see how people were already there. Maybe 5000-10000 already in line! About 25 lines of 250 or more. We got into one of them, sat on some concrete, applied sunscreen since there was no roof or shade (the sun was already burning hot that early in the morning), and got out our books and breakfast snacks we had brought in anticipation of the long lines. We had a map of the park and planned our day and which events we would get reservataions (you can get one per day where you don't have to wait in line) for first and from there which events we would then wait in line for.
About 10 minutes before 9am they started letting people in. There were metal detectors and they were searching bags so it takes a while for each person. As we got closer to getting in, Marie pulled out our "tickets" and realized they were vouchers and we had to be in another line to exchange the vouchers for actual tickets. While she went off, back out of the line we just waited 1.5 hours in to exchange them, I kept going and went through the metal detectors since that took a while and waited in the demilitarized zone in front of the tickets gates. About 15 minutes later, she foudn me there, handed me the ticket, and we got in. We ran off to the most popular exhibit and got in line for the reservations for it but it was another 1.5 hour wait for those (the wait of the actual thing, not for the reservations but for the actual event, was 3 hours!). It was in the hot sun, nonetheless. I quickly got discouraged and gave up. We decided to get out of that line and actually go to a part of the park that was not popular just so we could actually enjoy something we had paid a large amount of money for (hotel, trains, admission, etc).
The expo is basically designed like Disney World with separate zones containing like-attractions. Picture Epcot center with the same ratio of rides-to-attractions-to-shows-to-specific country exhibits. So, to get away from the crowds, we went to the farthest seperate zone. To top it off this zone was focused on nature and the forest an had no famous attractions. We took a gondala there and true to the article I had read, it wasn't crowded, but it also wasn't that interesting. We watched a movie on how they built the park and tried to preserve as much of the forest as possible. We walked through some mist-making machines to cool off, and we walked through some natural houses. For example, the house made of clay and mud was suprisingly cool inside for how hot it was outside. I think that's all we did, then we took the gondala back to the frentic part.
When we got back, I checked the length of the lines for the reservations and they were empty because the reservations were sold out. We decided to walk to the different country zones as they wouldn't be as crowded as the actual attractions. There were basically zones with countries seperated by continents, but slightly differently: Asia, North and Central and South America, North Europe, Southern Europe, Africa, Malasia and Australia.
We started wth Asia which had buildings for countries like Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, China, etc. Each building was supposed document how that country is using technology to save the earth. However, each building just had a lot of art and things they were famous for, things for sale, and authentic food for sale. For instance, India showed people making actual old style garmets, had small instruments for sale, and had a restaurant serving curry and nan. The authentic food, and the real citizens who had come there to work for the summer, was the best part. A couple country's buildings had longer (10-30 min) lines as they had actual shows or exhibits worth waiting for. I will detail a couple that Marie and I were impressed with.
I did have some Nepalian curry and nan for lunch the first day. It was good, albeit quite a small amount (more like a sample) for 10$. Korea had a whole concert with dancing every 30 minutes, but the line was a 45 minute wait and we didn't want to wait. Next, North, Central, and South Americas. Canada was first. As we waited in line for 10 minutes outside, a real Mounty came over and struck up a conversation with Marie and I, perhaps recognizing my North American-ness. She asked where I was from and the normal details. I then interogated her and found that she had been asked to go there by the Canadien Mounty Society or whatever her employer is named. They are paid a modest sum and get free housing and have 2 off a week to do whatever they want. There was another Canadian outside showing a live web cam from Canada. Canada had a great artistic movie docmumenting life in canada showing lots of real scenery and life in Canada. You could then chat via computers live with real canadiens. It was nice, but not sure how that shows how they are using technology to help the earth. We saw a neat magic act outside the US's building, but we didn't go in because there was a long line to see a virtual reality Ben Franklin. The line was long, not because Ben Franklin is famous here, but because the US was the only exhibit to have its own set of metal detectors (thanks a bunch Mr. TERROR), so getting in was ridiculously long. We also saw Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, etc. I noted where Mexico was so I could get some authentic mexican food for lunch the next day. I miss Mexican food living here.
By this time, it was about 1pm in the afternoon and was as hot as it would get. We were so drained from walking, waiting, being in the sun, and from eating lunch. We needed a place to rest. It was hard walking the quarter or half mile to the next continent zone - Southern Europe. The expo was not well designed as there was no shade provided anywhere in the complex (other than the actual exhibit buildings). The buildings were nice as they had the air conditioning cranked up high. In Southern Europe, Spain, Italy, France, and germany all had popular 1 hour long wait exhibits, so we went to the lesser countries. At one point, we went into Turkey's building. The AC was turned up really high, it was almost completely dark and they were showing a movie displaying all the reasons to go to Turkey. Instead of a voiceover for the movie, they had clasical music. It had carpet and not many people. We found a place in the corner and laid down on the carpet and fell alseep for 30-45 minutes. It was much needed and without I couldn't have gone for as long as we did that night. However, I realized hours later, that that must have been the place I lost the cover for my cell phone. Now my cell phone will forever have the battery exposed. Oh well. On our way out and on to Africa, I noted a rench bread Pizza restaurant, and a French dessert place and an Italian dessert place. Lunch, tomorrow, would have plenty of options.
Next, we saw Africa which had one huge building separated into stalls each devoted to one of the countries. Marie bagained and got a small hand-carved giraffe for 6$ even though it was marked at 10$. As we walked out from there we saw the first non-country exhibit with a line less than an hour and a half. The sign said 80 minutes from that point, but it was even more like 60 minutes. Plus, it had a small roof with shade. I bought a bottle of water, we got in line, I pulled out my book (I read 2 books over the 2 days!) and waited. This exhibit was just showing off some of the robots on display at the expo with some movie whose message was that we are destroying the planet. It was just ok.
A recurring theme many exhibits portrayed was how we were destroying the earth, BUT there were never any solutions. I think you are supposed to draw the folowing conclusion on your own. Since the sponser companies like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, etc. all are able to admit the problem that our earth is in bad shape, maybe they are actually doing something about it to. But, we are never told what they are doing for it. The only solution presented was to wait in line for hours in the sun and spend god-awful lots of money of souvenirs and food. Sorry, if I'm a little jaded, but I didn't see much more than money-making organization in the whole expo.
After that let down, we went back for more countries seem they seemed to be interesting. Next was Northern Europe. Norway, Sweden, Denmark shared a building and showed off some dancing and a live gospal choir concert. Austria sold beer out front. Belgium sold 6$ ice cream cones with all kinds of things for which there was a long, long line. The line for the ice cream even had the time markers with people as far back as "30 minutes from here". We also saw England which had a nice display of some art using computers. Latvia (I think), of all countries, had the most artisic presentation with a huge molded film reel unreeeling in the building upon which they were showing movies. You can see this in my pictures. You could also use computers and see information about Latvia. The line for Russia was too long (but we'd be back tomorrow), but we saw a nice film in the Poland building. Did you now poland was famous for Rock Salt and exports tons of salt from their salt mines every year!??! I noted the restaurant in Poland's building was very nicely done, had the feeling of cafe (Warsaw Cafe in Philly, anyone?) and had delicious looking food. We had actually forgot our camera this whole first day, leaving it in the hotel room. We knew we'd be back tomorrow because Marie wanted pictures of a lot of this stuff, so I planned all the food I would be eating the next day. So when you look at the pictures, keep in mind they are all from the second day :(
Finally, after that, the sun was starting to go down and it started cooling off. We headed to the Japan Zone. Instead of putting Japan in the Asian zone, Japan got a zone all to itself, since it had lot and lots of buildings and exhibits. We saw the world's largest Kaleidoscope (3 stories tall in a huge wide building). We saw a movie in a 3D theater where you stand on a small bridge in the middle and the screen was all around you - even under you feet. More 3D than normal 3D theaters where you stand on a normal floor and the movie is only on the walls and above you in the top half of the hemisphere of the theater. I read more of my book as we waited in lines for these, too. One other thing Disney does much better is keeping you entertained while in line like prepping you for the ride or showing small movies on TVs above the line. Disney also keeps the lines winding, never letting see how many people are actually waiting. Of course this was only a 6 month exhibit, but the designers still should have done a little more research of the psychology of line waiting. Maybe it's just me, though.
After that, it was getting late, we were getting cranky, so we decided to get dinner. We went to a Turkish restaurant (in a different part of the park). I recognized the name as the main branch sponsering it is a restaurant actually in the town I live in in Tokyo. The real restaurant is horribly expensive (maybe 150$ for 2?) because you get a belly dance show with your meal and it's the only authentic Turkish restaurantin Tokyo, so I thought we could sample the food there for a reasonable price. It was good and we still got the belly dancing.
Lastly, before we went back to the hotel, we took a tour throught the Malaysian (and Australia) Zone. It was about 8:30pm and we were tired, but we had a lot to still see tomrorow so we wanted to check more off our list. We walked through Brunei's building and I reminisced on my 3 week trip there for work years ago. Funny how they were trying to show off their beaches and forests when, 10 years ago, they were tearing all their forests down and trying to build cities and communities. Also saw Singapore, Bali, Phillipines, etc.
We were done for the night by about 9:15pm and I pictured getting back to the hotel room by 10pm and sleeping early so we could get up early tomorrow and see the popular, technolgical and robot exhibits. As we approached the gates (the same one we had waited at for 1.5 hours that morning to get in), we realized everyone was trying to get home before the park closed at 10pm. The line out was just as bad as another ride. We had to wait in lines to get through the gates, buy our subway tickets (we should have pre-bought the that morning), and worst of all, wait for the monorail. It must have taken us 1.5 hours in total to finally geton the monorail plus another 40 to actually get back to the hotel then. Plus, we were actualy staying at a new hotel (no way you could get a room at the same hotel for 2 straight nights), so we had to go through check-in again. Probably fell asleep by midnight and set the alarm for 5:30am.
Everything went smooth the next morning, except for a 15 minute problem checking out of the hotel that morning. We got in the long, pre-gate line (probably 50 farther back than the previous day) and did the whole sunscreen, breakfast, reading drill. When the gates opened we darted for the main exhibit we wanted to see and got reseravtions for about 2 hours from then. Next, we immediately ran to the Mammoth House which is another popular exhibit. We got in within 15 minutes. Great timing. I had this figured out. I owned this place! There, we sat in a realy nice, huge movie theater. About the width of 3 normal movie theaters and twice the height. Like an IMAX without all the height. The theme of the movie was more of humans are killing the earth and if you extrapolate the data, everything will be worse in 50 years. I really wish they would give at least one solution, but they never do. If I was a child watching, I'd be terrified and become apathetic. From there we could see the famous Mammoth head that everyone in Japan goes to see. They have an actual head of a mammoth that was found in Russia a couple years ago. It was encased and perfectly presreved in ice when the peopl found it so it still has grey skin and fur - the first find of its kind for a mammoth. Quite eery actually seeing it so up close! Not sure if I have a picture of it. There are pictures of other mammoth moels and real horns, but I don't think we were allowed to take pictrues of the actual head.
After that, we still had a little time before out reservation, so we just walked around the Asian zone a little more. We went in China, which had too long a line the day before. There we saw a concert performed by Chinese Women in Kimonos singing beautifully.
After that we headed back to the exhibit where we had made reservations. While the normal line was about 3 hours, we just showed our reservation passes and waited about 5 minutes. This was for Mitsue-Toshiba joint project/exhibit. They were showing off their technology where they can scan a face and have the computer recognize it (where the ears, nose, eyes, etc are located), scan it into memory and manipulate it to make it look like you are talking or closing your eyes or something. What they did was separate us into groups of 20 and give us background on a team of space travelers we would become in a movie, then we went into a small room and stuck each of our fcaes into a small hole in the wall and it scanned our features. After more talk and about 10 minutes (while the computer is crunching all the data), we were ushered into a small 20 person movie theater. We watched a 10 or 15 minute short Science Fiction film that had our face inserted for the characeters faces. I had a hard time recognzing which one I was at first (sad, considering everyone else was japanese), and had Marie pinch my arm anytime she came on screen (to alert me it was her - without that I might not have known). It was neat to see, but the technology is not ready for prime time. Also, not sure how that is helping our planet.
Had lunch at Mexico, took photos in England, had lunch in Poland, and was very impressed with Russia's displays. I think they were the only ones sticking to the themes of the expo. They showed off all kinds of technology and even had videos of a total green energy community they have of about 20 test houses and a town center all powered by the sun and water and wind. The lunch in Poland was also really enoyable. We talked to the chef of the cafe there while we where eating and exchanged stories of how he got there and what he thought of Japan. The best part of the whole expo was definitely just meeting the people and eating the food.
At another zone of the park that we had not venetured to yet, we saw exhibits about the new mag-lev (magnetic levitation) high speed train japan is building (they curently have a ~20 Km test track working perfectly north of Tokyo. The train reaches speeds of 550 Km/hour and doesn;t touch anything while its moving because of the super magnets arounjd the sides and tracks. Amazing. We also saw the builing of 6 new robots that have been built and they would move and you could see what they would do. Not much. Mostly for cleaning houses and for cleaning bombs from war sites. There were also two almost lifelike robots, Japanese scientists are working on that do translation and move with lifelike movements and such. Check my photos of them.
We decided to leave by 7pm that night to avoid the rush out. We had no reservations for a hotel (it was a Friday night so it would be even tougher) and still had to get a 2 hour train back to Tokyo. I just wanted to relax, have a nice dinner and sleep in for once. So, Marie had called 2 hours earlier and found a room that had just opened up at the hotel we stayed at the first night. We left, checked in, found a small local restuarant near it, had a great meal, looked for a place where we could get a 10 minute foot massage (so tired from all that walking and standing for 2 staright days), but they were booked solid through the night, so we just went back to the hotel and fell asleep. Next morning, I woke up, logged on to the internet (I had brought my laptop and the hotel had free internet!) and relaxed. It was nice. For about 1 hour. Then we had to check out by 11 am. We checked out, walked around a little but that was a pain as we were carrying all of our bags, so we just found one more restauarant for brunch and then got the first train back to Tokyo. Looking back, I love the traveling and seeing new things, but for the time I spent, the time I actaully saw exhibits, and the money I spent, anywere outside of Aichi would have been better. It was still a good experience.
