Saturday morning, I wake up ready to a new adventure. Everything is mostly packed; I just have to put the last few odds and ends away and do a last check around the apartment. Then I gather everything up and lock the door for the last time.
A quick walk to the train station, where I stop and grab a bottle of tea for along the way. I find Ishii-san and the head teacher waiting for me there; Nakagawa is in charge of one of the sports teams and must be at school for the opening of the holiday weekend tournament, along with Principal Yagi.
Both teachers rode the train in from Fukuoka and will ride back to Hakata Station with me. As I am more-or-less loaded down like a typical American tourist, each one grabs an extra bag to help me along. I buy a local ticket and we head for the train.
Once at Hakata Station, we go to the Shinkansen tracks (in a separate part of the station). Here we discover that my original JR ticket included train fare from Futsukaichi – I didn’t need that local ticket at all. Since we have plenty of time, Ishii grabs both of the tickets and hurries back to the local tracks to get a fare adjustment.
Once that’s done, the two teachers buy ‘platform passes’ for the shinkansen line. These are tickets that are good for access onto the train platform itself, but will not give you a train ride (without paying the full fare); you must leave from the same station that you entered. These are a great way to help someone get settled on the train and see them off in proper style (much as people used to be able to do at airline gates, before boarding pass security became the norm in the U.S.).
As the train leaves, I wave goodbye and settle back for the ride. The car isn’t very full, and I wonder if perhaps I should have gone ahead and gotten a non-reserved ticket. That notion disappears rapidly as the train moves north – with every stop, the seats fill up. By the time we have passed Hiroshima, some people have left, but others board and take their vacated seats. Okay, the reserved seat was a good idea, after all…….
A little over three hours later, I arrive at Nagoya station. My friend Hiroko had e-mailed me to suggest that we meet at the Expo information booth in the station; that’s a good idea, but where is the booth? A check with the station master gets me some directions, and I walk over there, looking around for my friend.
“Rebecca!” I hear, and there she is! She hasn’t changed much at all, except that her hair is shorter than I remember it. We hug each other and exclaim how happy we are to see each other.
She arrived earlier than I and has been talking with the people at the information booth; she has brochures for both of us (in English), and the tickets she had previously bought for the full day we have planned for Sunday. As we grab all of our stuff, we decide to go ahead and get lunch at the station, then head for the hotel.
Lunch is at a Maccaroni Grill restaurant – probably not related to the one of a similar name in the U.S., but has Italian (with Japanese accents) cuisine. I order something called a Hamburg plate, which turns out to be something very close to….meat loaf, the first I’ve had in Japan! And there’s rice, some pasta and a small salad; the pasta and meat have a tomato sauce that’s good. Hiroko orders a variety of pizza and seems to enjoy it as well.
Just as we are getting up to leave, the server, who is clearing the table next to us, drops a glass, which shatters on the tile floor. Everyone freezes; there’s glass and water all over, and we are all concerned that someone will get cut or slip in the water. Fortunately, we were close to a side window, and the area immediately around us had already cleared of patrons (we were the only ones left in that section).
A manager comes over just as I pick up the two bags that were closest to the spill; he anxiously asks if we are injured. A quick check and I assure him that no damage was done, as another server offers napkins to help with drying things (not much, actually – the server was between us and the glass). I am more concerned about the server herself and ask if she was hurt by flying glass; she assures me that she is fine. We stay put while the last of the glass and water are cleaned up, then head for the front to pay our bill.
Our next stop is the subway station across the street; our hotel is just a couple of blocks from Atsuta Shrine, and it is accessed on a different (non-JR) train line. After a bit of minor confusion over what kind of tickets to buy (there are both above- and below-ground trains to that station, and each uses a different ticketing system), we get to our destination and head out to find the hotel.
Hiroko was told by the hotel staff that the building is on a side street directly across the main road from a Denny’s restaurant; that turns out to be a familiar sign that’s easy to spot about two blocks away (yes, it’s the American one). We’ve both already agreed that it’s hot outside (much hotter than Komatsu usually gets, in the mid 30s Celsius), and the cool lobby is a relief. Check-in is painless – I’ve learned already that my passport will be the first thing requested and have gotten it out along with my credit card for her to process.
We are asked if we would like breakfast tickets during our stay; after a little discussion, we decide to get them for Sunday, but not Monday, when we will both head back ‘home’. Then the next question is “what kind?” – Japanese style, or something closer to an American breakfast. I opt for American – toast, egg and coffee; while I like the foods that are usually served in a typical Japanese breakfast (mostly a version of a traditional bento, or box, lunch), I am not that fond of fish first thing in the morning (it’s one of the few foods that I don’t handle well at first light – good thing I didn’t live back in the 1800s in England, when kippers or fish balls were a common morning offering).
My friend had suggested that we think about two options for Saturday evening; we can visit the shrine just down the street and perhaps see a bit of Nagoya proper, or we can take a train out to the Expo site and buy an evening-only pass – a half-price ticket that allows you to enter after 5:00 PM on any fair day. Her previous research had determined that our best chance for seeing some of the very popular corporate pavilions would most likely be in the evening; all reserved spots for their presentations were taken, and there were a limited number of non-reserved places available during each viewing period. After a bit of discussion, we agree that Expo was where we wanted to be, so we head back for the train and find the correct line for the Expo shuttle.
We arrive at the site a little before 6:00 PM, and buy our evening tickets, then head for the gates. Here we find a full security check going – bags are being searched (and they were polite but thorough; I even had to open the small zippered sections on the outside of my backpack), followed by a walk through a metal detector. But the line isn’t long, so we quickly get into the fair.
We check with the main information booth – unfortunately the Hitachi pavilion is completely booked for the evening, as are several others that we were considering. But I notice a sign just behind the counter – it seems that the Toyota pavilion (another very popular one) has four ‘open’ shows in the evening – no reservations, first-come, first-served. Okay, let’s head for that one first.
There’s a long line already for the early evening show, and it appears that we are unlikely to get into that one. We decide to visit the India pavilion in Global Commons 1, just down the loop from the corporate area and then come back to join the line for Toyota.
India is very good – a diverse presentation of its sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes (there’s a curry restaurant at the side of the building). We enjoy walking around and viewing the displays. Then we stroll around the commons area and head back for the corporate area to join the line for Toyoto.
It turns out to be a somewhat long wait – a bit less than an hour – but the show inside is well worth it. Toyota's pavilion theme is that of future mobility based on robotics technology, both as independently functioning units and as devices that aid human movement.
The show starts with a human DJ ready to sing and rap; along comes a walking robot carrying…a trumpet. It puts the instrument to its ‘face’ and music is heard – and it’s not prerecorded; the robot is moving its fingers on the valves and blowing through the instrument!
‘He’ is joined by a robot band (called Concerto); two more trumpets, a flugelhorn, a trombone, euphonium and drummer, all playing their instruments. The only ‘anomaly’ is with the trombone player; ‘he’ was using something called a valve trombone, an actual instrument that plays in the same range as a slide trombone, but uses valves to open and close the tubing, rather than actually sliding the long tube section (that requires a bit more precision than even a robot has at this point).
The last to join the group was a robot DJ, who raps with the human and then helps lead both a Dixieland and rap version of “When the Saints Go Marching In” (with new words). It’s a great performance!
The main show is a dance and multimedia presentation in the style of Cirque du Soleil, complete with an aerial acrobat/dancer and others doing floor work, showing images portraying the dawn of history, a la “Rite of Spring”. Suddenly they are joined by others – robotized ‘vehicles’ called i-Units, a single-person chair/car that can be used in both low-speed and high-speed transportation. These units have robotic technology built into them; they can literally drive themselves or respond to guiding signals from a human passenger.
The last unit to arrive is an i-Foot; a robot designed to hold a human and walk, even up and down stairs!
From previous news reports and some science information gathered from robotics websites, I knew a little about the concept of a ‘walking’ wheelchair, one that is not limited by barriers that conventional mobility units cannot conquer unaided. I had no idea, though, that a functional working model existed; to see this unit walk around the stage area, with a live human being directing it, was fascinating!
My friend and I both agree that this show was well worth the wait.
When we leave the show, it’s just about closing time, and we are confronted with what will become very familiar this weekend – a long line waiting for the shuttle bus to take us back to the train station. Not quite two hours later, we finally arrive back at the hotel, dinner in hand (we each grabbed something at one of the food booths before we left the fair), and adjourn to our rooms to eat and sleep.
Sunday, we get up and prepare for the day. We have agreed to meet downstairs at 7:30 AM for breakfast, in hopes that we can catch an early train to the Expo site. It works – sort of – but everyone else in the city apparently had the same idea.
Trains are crowded – we get on the first available train, but just barely. The shuttle from Bampaku Yakusa station to Expo North Gate has a long line – we wait for several buses before we get one. (Fortunately, I found something of interest in the bamboo forest next to our line – a large bird people-watching in the trees not far from our line. It looks a bit like a large kingfisher; I will have to look online and compare the pictures I took to decide what it is.)
We get to the Expo site, and here our line-standing assumes new depths – the security checkpoint takes over an hour to clear. Okay, we’re finally in the park, and we head for information to see if any reservations are still open – we and a couple of hundred-thousand others…..
No, there are no daytime reservations left at any corporation pavilions; country pavilions have some, but those reservations must be made at the pavilions themselves. But the good news is that many of the areas are not congested, including several of the country pavilions we want to see.
So we head out on the Global Loop – a huge walkway built near the center of the complex that takes you to each of the areas or commons. The Expo site is very hilly and has many trees and other plants; since the theme of this Expo is “Nature’s Wisdom,” every effort has been made to avoid making too many changes to the natural surroundings. The Global Loop allows movement from one area to the next without forcing one to use steps continually and without requiring massive terraforming to make a smooth walkway.
We got to see India’s pavilion last night, so today we start with a couple of other Asian pavilions. While the Korean pavilion has a 2 hour wait (we pass on that one), there are several others that have interesting sights, including the Nepal pavilion. My friend is very interested in the various aspects of Buddhism as it appears in different countries; she and I both enjoyed seeing the examples of both Buddhas and the various Hindu gods in the Indian pavilion. Today she points out how Nepal has both Buddhism and Hinduism within its borders, and that in some respects the two religions have mingled, much as Buddhism and Shintoism are joined in Japan. The Buddhas that are on display here are much more ornate, closer in style to some of the Hindu gods.
After our visit to the Asian area, we travel further along the Loop and eventually descend to the central area, where we find the Global House – and a 3 hour wait for non-reserved visits. No, that doesn’t sound like a good idea either, so we instead head for the next Global Commons area, where we find Mexico, the USA and other American continent countries. The Mexico pavilion was on our ‘to-see’ list, so we join that group and soon are inside looking at views showing the differences in geography and commerce in various parts of the country.
Our next stop is in the central part again, known as Japan Plaza. We had hopes of seeing the Japan pavilion, but the wait there is also about 3 hours long, so we stop to eat some lunch and then decide to try the next two Global Commons areas, with European and Middle Eastern countries, and the African nations.
The Egypt exhibit has another long line, but the rest of the Africa area is easy to enter. There are shops and displays from countries all over the African continent – carvings, weavings, jewelry (Hiroko is soon buying) and musical instruments (and it’s my turn).
I end up with a mahogany djembe, an African drum. I have wanted one for a number of years, but they are often quite expensive in the U.S. Today, I have found a smaller one for Y5000 (less than $50 U.S.) from the Congo; it is well put together and has interesting carvings and a nice sounding drumhead. Now I just have to figure out how to get it home – mahogany is heavy!
Our pavilion visits also take us to Greece (with displays about ancient traditions such as theatres and the masks often used in traditional Greek performances), Bulgaria (where we find a musician playing a Middle Eastern version of what Europeans call bagpipes), and a walk past the Nagoya City Tower (where we can hear various types of traditional Japanese music, both formal and informal).
Listening to the music provokes a discussion with Hiroko; she wants to know why the Bulgarian musician’s melodies have a sound similar to that of Japanese music. I talk about traditional instruments and the scales (tonal groups) commonly found on them, and this leads to a further discussion of music styles from all over the world.
We’ve had discussions of this sort via e-mail before; Hiroko isn’t a music teacher (she teaches English), but her college studies were in cultural anthropology, and she has previously noted the ways that music can represent a culture. She also gets lots of questions about modern music styles from her junior high students and has occasionally asked me to help define a specific style, such as rap or hip-hop or rock-n-roll, so that she can explain it correctly in English.
It’s time to take a rest and get something else to eat, so we grab some Japanese finger foods – fried balls of shrimp and octopus, and cherry flavored ice cream, which is absolute delicious! As we sit and watch ducks and koi in the large pond in the Plaza, we talk about many things, including Hiroko’s interest in returning to the U.S. to work on doctoral studies in cultural anthropology. She had hoped to attend this coming year, but there were no openings in her chosen graduate schools, so she will try again for next year. I hope that she is able to fulfill her dreams; I have helped her with editing on a paper she is trying to have published, and I know that she is very interested in working on Japanese cultural studies.
We head back for the front of the park; many of the pavilions have more openings in the evenings, and we hope to get a shot at visiting the Hitachi pavilion, which is the other corporate pavilion we wanted to see. But a check of the situation tells us that there is a 4 hour wait! We are really beginning to feel tired, and we both decide that a soak in the tub back at the hotel might be a better use of our time.
One more stop to make – and one more line – at the gift shop. The store itself is packed; moving from section to section is a bit like trying to change cars in the Tokyo subway during rush hour! Hiroko elects to stay outside with our belongings; I dive in.
First on my list are the small stuffed versions of the Expo mascots, Morizo and Kiccoro, and those are easy to find. Then I head for the back of the store, where T-shirts can be found. With a little searching and some help from a stocking clerk, I am able to find all of the shirts I want.
Now it’s time to pay for my choices. I can see the checkout area, but don’t see any way to join the line. A question to a clerk gives me the answer; the checkout line is another queue, with a 40 minute wait! Okay…….
This line, unlike many of those we have seen today is set up to be single file, so it is almost impossible for people to ‘migrate’ forward, as has been the case in other lines. And the wait really isn’t that bad, other than my feet are now pointing out that I’ve been on them for at least 10 hours today, with a couple more to go.
Purchases made, I rejoin Hiroko; she had eaten some ice cream (vanilla this time) and suggests that I get some before we head out. While I am eating, we strike up a conversation with some other waiting patrons; they are interested in what I have bought, and I explain that they are souvenirs for my family members back in the U.S. Just before we leave, we ask if one of them will take a picture of Hiroko and I together, and one of the young men agrees. (We have several shots of each of us taken at various points in the park, but no pictures together.)
Then we head out the North Gate and join another line, this time for the Limino, an elevated train to the main station back at Bampaku Yakusa. This train is an example of more eco-friendly transportation – it runs on magnets on a track that looks like a regular train track with flattened rails. It’s very quiet and not nearly as jerky of a ride as a traditional train.
An Expo shuttle train is waiting at the station when we arrive, along with a very long line of people waiting to ride it. That means another 45 minutes of standing…….
Back to the hotel, where we collapse in our rooms. The public baths may be closed, but our rooms have Japanese bathtubs and plenty of hot water; a good soak does wonders for tired feet and legs.
I spend a little time working on my journal and drinking tea, then head for bed.
