I attended EXPO in Osaka 9 days after it’s opening day (April 21). In the USA EXPOs are referred to as world’s fairs. It is located in Osaka, Kansai, Japan beginning April 13 until October 13, 2025 on a man-made island called Yumeshima and is projected to welcome 28.2 million visitors.

Some highlights of the site: The 2-kilometer wooden skywalk is a highlight, with its impressive size. The pavilions are visually striking, with many adopting flowing, circular forms. Some reviewers praise the Japanese public restrooms, noting their cleanliness and thoughtful design (because public restrooms are very difficult to find in Japan).  Video: my 1st encounter with the wooden skywalk

I planned my trip to Japan without knowing that Osaka was hosting EXPO this year so, I had to change my itinerary to include it without regret. I really enjoyed my day at Expo but it has been subjected to very bad press, some justified. I was helped by an encounter in my hotel’s elevator where I met 3 ladies employed at the Qatar Pavilion who told me to 1) pre-register for pavilions at 2) get to the entrance very early to beat the crowds 3) carefully plan to run to my top preferences before the crowds arrive.

The reasons for these recommendations were to handle the huge crowds – 155,000 visitors on the day I visited. So, one major complaint is overcrowding, long wait times for both entry and popular pavilions, and a lack of multilingual support, making it difficult to navigate (which I never experienced anywhere in Japan). The gates open at 09:00 and I arrived before 8 (I should have arrived at 6) – look at this video to see the chaos at 1 of the 2 entry gates. And, yes, the lines to enter pavilions were long – I was unable to (actually not interested in standing in the sun for an hour) visit Spain and Italy. I got to about 20 country pavilions (see below).

No other EXPO has setup a reservation system for entry into pavilions – presumably you will get preferential entry if you have a reservation. The reservation system totally sucks – it’s confusing and restrictive, with limitations on how many pavilions can be visited per day.  I attempted to use this system and discovered none of the hundreds of the listed pavilions had any available reservations. Hence I did not get to Spain or Italy or Japan or China, for example. But, I did OK without reservations.

The theme of EXPO is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” and the “People’s Living Lab” concept.  Countries were encouraged to showcase their key technologies such as robotics, AI, smart mobility, energy solutions and advancements in health care. So, the UK was demonstrating a new photo system where you can have an exotic background behind you. For some reason the guy doing the demonstration chose Alhambra as my background (above).