Osaka’s major draw was the 2025 World Expo. However, once we got there we realized the complaints that a lot of others have voiced. My take is that the venue is capable of handling tens of thousands of visitors in a day; however, the pavilions inside are not. Each one is like a mini museum for the country where you stand around and read a wall of text and look at interesting pictures and things. They’re not designed to move people through at a fairly decent clip. After a couple of hours Ted and Grace were done so I took them back to the hotel (and I took a nap – I’ve been working several half days per week which means staying up till 2 AM each time and it was catching up to me). Lynette and Anna stayed and had a wonderful time. They went to a large number of the pavilions that didn’t require reservations and found out fascinating things about a number of countries (some of which are now added to Lynette’s bucket list to visit). Ted and I went back to the expo in the evening and it was significantly better experience. The crowds had thinned out and we were able to get into a number of pavilions.
While the kids went to Universal Studios Japan, Lynette and I visited some shrines.
More shopping was done. (It seems to me that it’s cheaper to just go sight seeing!) It’s crazy how packed the trains can become (and the first picture below wasn’t the worst of it!), and how long they are.
While out shopping we wound up at a Mega Don Quijote (think Dollar Tree/Target/Walmart that’s seven stories high) that has an oval Ferris Wheel. One of the interesting things in Osaka (at least in the Dotonbori area) is they have huge 3D models coming out of the buildings advertising what they sell.
Some of the streets are really packed and kind of narrow. This is true in most of the major cities we visited.
But they do try to make them attractive when possible.
