Who's been to the Aichi Expo?

[Tragedy]

I went (for two days), and I have to say it was highly overrated. I saw the Toyota, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba pavillion shows. Good thing I had reservations because if I had to wait hours in line to see those shows, I'd be pretty upset.

The expo had a nice layout, and I saw a lot of country pavillions, but I was not satisfied with it at all.

What's your take?

[Flash]

I dont think its worth going for 2 days, anyway. It has a nice layout I guess and some of the country pavillions were good, others were terrible. I was also working at it too so I didnt get to see everything. I was cleaning the toilets as part of a demonstration with the community I live in so if anyone needs info on expos toilets, Im your man!

[Maciamo]

I didn't bother to go because I knew it would be a disappointment, like most of the show of this kind. For the same amount of time and money, Tokyo residents had better go to Shanghai or the like.

[Windy]

I loved it.

But then I had zero expectations.

And I got paid to get and be there.

[Shibuyaexpat]

I had zero expectations.

And I got paid to get and be there. This is my dream in life. Have no expectations but get paid to simply be somewhere :wave:

[blade_bltz]

I loved it too. I really had no expectations either, since I sort of shipped myself off to Japan for a month with what seemed like zero planning, and was therefore thrust headfirst into whatever came my way (even though I of course did plan everything...)

I went for 2.5 days and saw a bunch of the more popular pavilions (e.g.,Toyota, Hitachi) and was given insider's advice on which pavilions to avoid (Mitsubishi, Toshiba). All in all I was very satisfied, even though the food was inordinately expensive. Fortunately, I was treated to some delicious Chinese food by a friend from Nagoya.

I wasn't paid to be there, though. Does anyone know people got hired for country pavilions? Were they hired in their home countries or are they foreigners living in Japan. I would have jumped at the chance to work at the USA pavilion if I'd known about the opportunity earlier. Of course, I'd probably go crazy having to hear about Ben Franklin and his kite for the zillionth time...

[Iron Chef]

I lived in Nagoya for just over a year but moved to Fukuoka this past March and have not yet had a chance to come back. Hopefully I can make it over before the Expo ends. Even if it doesn't quite live up to all the hype, looks like a fun place to at least make a half-day of before catching up with some old friends. 8-)

[oceansportrait]

I went to the expo when I went on a ten-day trip to Japan about two weeks ago and I wasn't very impressed. The two shows I wanted to see (Toyota and Hitachi) I couldn't get into. Toyota, the people working there told us we should come back at 2pm because that's when they started giving out the tickets for the next show. But when we went around 12:30 they told us the tickets for the DAY were sold out. And if we still wanted to see the show, we would have to line up to get into a show around 5. So we would have to wait around 4+ hours in the heat without leaving the line. So we ended up choosing not to wait so we would have those 4+ hours to go to the other buildings.

I enjoyed the Singapore pavillion because they were creative in their presentation. They gave umbrellas to people coming into the building and let them into a room where a screen had different images going across as it rained from above (which is what the umbrellas were for ^^)

While I was lining up to get into the building for Canada, I got to talk a little with one of the workers there, and it turns out someone from my city in Canada was working at the expo. What a coincidence :D

[Maciamo]

Those who have been there, what were your favourite country pavillion ? And which were the worst ?

[Elizabeth]

I've also heard good things about the Toyota, and Japanese, pavillions, but haven't been myself.

When is the end ? I'm returning the end of the month and really want to visit around 飛騨高山, so if something else besides these two is interesting may be worth a spin. :-)

[openup]

I heard the expo ends in the end of September or middle of it.

[oceansportrait]

Those who have been there, what were your favourite country pavillion ? And which were the worst ?


I enjoyed Singapore and Poland. They had really creative displays and their pavillions didn't consist of more than half the space going to gift shops selling gifts from that country. I didn't find the African countries that interesting, there were about 4-5 in one building and they seemed to serve more as information centers because there was very little in terms of displays (artwork, etc.). As well, I lined up for Korea but I didn't find it that impressive. You have to line up for about 20 minutes once you're inside the building to see the special show they have going on.

[-Yu-]

Take a note that Aichi Expo. caused the destruction of the environment surrounding the location. The theme of the Expo. is "Love the earth", well, what do you think?

the link is in Japanese and is a little one sided but if you haven't read/heard of this thing and you can read Japanese, it's worth taking a look at it

http://www.h2o.or.jp/~banpaku/Gazou_Sizenhakai.html

[Mizuiro]

I visited the expo and was unwilling to wait on the lines, so I didn't see much but the smaller pavillions. What was in the Japanese pavillion?

Noteable was the Italian pavillion, which I expected to be much fuller. Sure, ancient statues recovered from sea are cool but... not -that- cool.

And then there was the 600 yen gondola ride. Yeah, passed that one up.

So, besides my discovery of Coca Cola's "Extra Creamy Cocoa" in the vending machines - I found the Expo disappointing, too.

[ax]

Seems Nagoya has given more promises than what they can really give. I live in Nagoya and don't bother to go either. I did take the Linimo and passed thru the banpaku site a week ago and saw the crowd jampacked the small square they have for the expo. Newspaper the next day said that banpaku visitors has soared to the max due to the sanrenkyu (three days off). Well instead of going to banpaku that day, I went to the next station, which is museum of ceramics, and enjoy making the mould of my liking. I just received the finished ceramics yesterday and was very pleased with the quality.

ax