Osaka Adventure & World Expo 2025 | Lynn & Paul’s Excellent Adventure

Osaka Adventure & World Expo 2025 | Lynn & Paul’s Excellent Adventure

So, in this episode, we’re going to take you high above Osaka and we’re going to take you to the World’s Fair. Stay tuned. [Music] Lynn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure, a 4-year voyage while living on a cruise ship. We are 54 floors up over Osaka right now. Osaka, Japan. We got in this morning. It was amazing coming in port because they did this uh fireboat spraying brigade to welcome us to Osaka. Well, to Kobe. To Coobe. Yeah, technically it was a it was a port of Coobe and u Coobe is an incredible town. We didn’t get to see a whole lot of it. I did do a little bit of shopping this morning and then we took the train to Osaka and we’re at the hotel now. We’re going to be here for two nights as we go to the World Expo and we’re 51 floors up in the buffet restaurant. And we are having a mix of things. We have This is swordfish, right? We have swordfish here. We have some pork and we have some beef. Have some beef and they’ve got a whole buffet full of stuff that just looks absolutely wonderful. Right. Um, and then as you can see, the sun is beginning to set. It’s about uh 5:45 or so in the evening. And uh we’re just um two train stops away from the World Expo, which is the whole reason that we’re here in Osaka. Now, it is very hot here. How hot is it? Well, it was 91° F, but humidity is 100% and the heat index is 106. And it drained us coming out on the train. We had to take three trains technically to get here. They weren’t bad. It It took us what, maybe an hour and 15 minutes at the most. So, it wasn’t bad train ride, but just being as hot as it was, every time we get to the hotel, it does drain you. So, we’ll see how well we do at the expo tomorrow. I don’t know. Um, we’ve got two days of expo and this is about to hot. They’re having a heat wave, aren’t they? Isn’t this actually a heat wave here? U, but we’re going to do some exploring Osaka. The hotel we’re at is called the Art Hotel. Pretty cool. Very nice. Yeah, it’s very nice. We’re up on the 48th floor. 48th floor. So, we get a good view of the town. Your ears pop coming up. Yes. So, we’re going to try and do some exploring tonight, but tomorrow and the next day probably it’ll be all expo and we’ll take you to it and let you see what a world expo world’s fair is like. And uh for now, we’re going to enjoy dinner. So, we thank you for joining us on this edition. Cheers. Cheers. Well, as you can tell, I just got off the train and uh I am in a sea of humanity as I’ve made my way to the uh official Expo 2025 here in Osaka. And it is uh to say the least very crowded. I haven’t actually made it to the entrance, but you can tell by the number of people going up the elevator that there’s a lot of people here. I uh I’m pretty prepared. Lynn sent u her uh fan with me to keep me cool. It’s supposed to be a hot day, well into the ‘ 90s and Fahrenheit. And uh I’ve got my bottled water. I’ve actually got my umbrella. Not only just cuz if it rains, but in case I can’t find any shade. So, we’ll see how it goes. Now, Lynn’s not actually with me. Um, she stayed back at the hotel because it was going to be so hot today. A lot of people are very uh heat sensitive and have opted not to do uh the expo because of the heat. We’ll see how I survive, but I’m kind of scouting things out. Lynn should join me later today, probably late afternoon into the evening when maybe it’ll be a few degrees cooler. But, um, let’s go ahead and start make our way up the escalator and just kind of get a feel for, uh, what this is like. I mean, you can just see they’ve got three escalators actually going up. So, it gives you an idea of the volume of people. I’m kind of hoping they have those reversed the other way later in the day. But, uh, I’ve got my ticket. Uh, I will say the website that, uh, Japan Expo put together is not the greatest. It’s um a little lacking in in what it uh gives you access to. You think there’d be a better way of doing maybe e tickets or something like that. Um I went ahead and took my e tickets and uh they have a essentially a QR code that I guess we’ll scan when we go in or get scanned when we go in and then um at that point um hopefully that’ll be it. Hopefully I won’t need any anything else going in this number of people. We’ll see how long it takes. Okay, first glimpse of all of this. I mean, you can kind of see a little bit of the wall. This is the World’s Fair is a big ring and u uh they’ve built this wall all the way around it. It’s It’s hard to explain without seeing it, so we’ll see it soon. But they’re kind of pushing us all to the left in a as a crowd. And uh it looks like hopefully they’ve got a pretty organized way. We’re now outside. Let’s see. That says West Gate, but I know I have an East Gate pass. So, it must be this one that I’m going to. This may people You hope they have good signage. And uh so far, it’s been pretty good. Of course, we’re in Japan, so to have English even on the signs is is uh quite good. I don’t know what we do without that. I’d be using my AI translator all the time, I think. Well, we have been going down a serpentine area to uh be in line to actually go into the expo itself. Uh, as you can tell, there are a ton of people. Let me give you an idea on the ton of people that are here. [Music] I mean, you can just see a sea of umbrellas here as people are trying to move forward. It’s very tight. Uh, it’s probably a good time for me to get my umbrella out. So, I will do that. Okay, it’s uh 9:00 and they just opened the gates. Um, and we moved forward basically to get in another line. So, I think today will be a day of a lot of long lines. As you can tell, I did get the uh umbrella out. I’ve got my fan going. Uh, but there are a lot of people here, I will tell you. So, we’ll see what it’s like when we get inside and people get spread out a little more. Okay. I just got through the front gate. It was about 45 minutes in line. So, when you compound that with the heat and uh just the volume of people, uh it’s it’s quite a mission. I don’t know if it’s better. This is at the very start of the g day. They just opened the gates at uh 9:00 a.m. And I don’t know if it’s better if you wait a while to get in. I mean, naturally, you won’t have as long much time in here. Uh, if you are a person that does not like crowds, uh, the expo definitely is not a place for you, though. Uh, cuz there are a ton of people here. Now, I don’t think that I’m actually in the expo area yet. I think this is the front plaza because I still see the wall that encircled the um, expo um, still ahead of me. So, I think I still have to walk over to there. But I thought I’d find some shade, sit down for a minute, and just kind of regroup before I actually head out to any of the pavilions or any of the area there. I’ve uh got my uh water here. Going to refresh. Oh, glad I brought that. I hope they have a lot of good refill stations. I can tell it’s going to be a day for that. Um, I’ve got my umbrella and which was very that was almost essential while standing in line. So, onward. [Music] You’ll see this guy a lot. He is actually the mascot of the world expo that’s here. Sometime I’ll try and find a symbolism in this. I don’t know what it’s really about, but it’s uh it’s something we’ll see all over the place as we work toward our gates. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] So this is uh the first pavilion I’ve been to. This is for the country of Qatar and uh there’s no line here. There’s I was told that there’s a lot of it. The line we saw earlier was actually for the French pavilion. This is for the country of Qar. Of course, this is still quite amazing. They’ve got this reflecting pond all the way around it and this nice walkway. I mean, you can tell uh all of the money that these different countries have put into these exhibits. It’s uh really quite amazing. So, we’ll see what this looks like. Give us an idea of what a pavilion even looks like. But uh this one didn’t have any lines, so it was a pavilion for me. [Music] together for days. [Music] Here [Music] we go. [Music] So, I guess it gives us a little idea of what a pavilion is like. Um, it didn’t take very long to get really get through that. But, you know, what these countries are really trying to do is show how beautiful they are. I can’t remember how close we are actually going to get to Qatar on the voyage. You’ll have to check that. But uh it would be a fascinating uh country to see. I will tell you [Music] how [Music] are you from the United Arab Emirates? No. Japan. I thought you looked more Japanese. Yeah. But you’re helping with this, huh? I know. So, we had actual training in UAE at Dubai and Abu Dhabi. So we can feel what’s our culture, what’s the future and the past and everything. It’s amazing. And then we created like always sus in this pavilion to bring our past and the future. [Music] What’s the door? [Music] Okay. [Music] Come on. Amen. [Music] So, that was a little bit of the United Arab Emirates, and you can see how different the different pavilions really are. Uh, like I said, a lot of these don’t have any lines, but you can really get a good glimpse of what these countries are about. Another popular one. This is the Canadian one. I don’t think I’ll be standing in line for that one. Looks like an escalator ahead. We’ll be able to go up to the top of the wall, I think, and uh get a good overview of uh what the park looks like as a whole. [Music] [Music] Didn’t really know what to expect up here, but they’ve actually got a lot of green up here. So, it’s interesting to see. They’ve got a pathway at the top. This is all on top of this wall. And you can get a kind of a view of all the different pavilions that there are around here. But this wall completely encircles uh all of the uh expo and you can actually walk around the whole thing. I’ll probably go back down and walk amidst the uh pavilions that are here though. [Music] Terministan. We got a little bit of a line there. This is the Nordic Circle. So, it looks like a group of countries actually got together for this one. [Music] [Music] [Music] almost. [Music] This whole exhibit vibrates as you’re watching it. You can see the panels actually moving. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] So, we got James here who is working the Great Britain pavilion. Hey, James. Hello. How you doing? I’m good. And and where are you from in England? Yeah. Well, my dad’s from uh Buckinghamshire, which is like you got London there. So, around there. Okay. And my mom’s actually from Osaka. Um Oh, she Your mom’s from Osaka. My mom’s Japanese. So, are you just staying at at her place in No, I’m staying in a shared house. Oh, you are? Okay. Two other people. Interesting. Is it a pretty good job? Is it the British embassy that decides who gets to come here to represent Great Britain? Well, the group here is uh all living in hospitality. Oh, they do five pavilions in expo. Uh they do here UK, US, Canada, Kuwait. Oh, there’s one more. One more. There’s one more twist. How long have you been here? I’ve been here for 2 months and I’m doing this for like as a summer job university. Okay, good. So, when do you head back? I head back actually next week. Next week. Good. So, it’s been fun. You like Osaka? Yeah, it’s been a good run. I used to live in Tokyo. Oh, you did? But I’ve had all my family in Osaka and I’ve got to say Osaka is more It’s as a town, it’s not as beautiful, but it’s more lively. And the people the people are way nicer. It was crazy when we were in Tokyo. That was That’s a crazy big city, I’ll tell you. It’s a bit It’s too big. Yeah. You can go on a train for an hour and a half and you’d still see like massive. Well, thanks for visiting with us. Yeah. Thank you. Heat up here. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Speech. [Music] This is the WA Exposition Center, Science Exposition, connecting me and the future. See if we can go in and see that one. They gave me an English version of the program here. These all look like separate exhibits. They are science-based. Hello I can tell this is uh promoting kids to get into the sciences. Here’s one on robotics. This is an exhibit on making eggs safe for everyone. Allergy free egg product. Allergyfree egg product. Okay. And this is put on by the Hiroshima University Hiroshima University and Qi Big Mayion is Japanese company. Okay. And we we are now conducting the cooperative research joint joint research program. Okay. How are these eggs made? How are they developed? Yeah. So let me explain. There are several allergens in the air. One of the allergies and obamoid is one of the allergens. Okay. And ob remains after being heated. So this uh causes allergy reaction. Okay. So we successfully removed obam gene from the egg from the chicken. Well, from the chicken before it actually becomes an egg. Yeah, I see. Okay. So, the the egg laid from the bird the chicken do not contain OBM. So, none of the allergens work after heating. Oh, all of the allergens are removed. Okay. After heating and this process is not GMO. This is a gene editing. Oh. So um gene edit uh gene editing is different from GMO. Okay. So GMO is uh the process to insert gene from other species. However gene editing is just remove remove the gene in the chicken. I see. And this uh this uh this process happens in nature. Is it a very expensive to process to create this? Actually we are uh conducted the research and but uh maybe the cost of egg is more expensive than conventional egg but uh less than twice. Well congratulations. Thank you for sharing this with me. [Music] I’m sorry. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Of [Music] course, this place just kind of goes on forever. That’s the uh Serbian pavilion. Bangladesh. Not much of a line at the Bangladesh pavilion. Doesn’t look to be real large. Egyptian pavilion has many more people at it. Larger line there. Sagal has a pavilion here. Fairly nondescript. Not much of a line. So, it just kind of depends what pavilion you want to go to and how long you’re willing to really wait in line. Across the way there’s pavilions for Chile and Tunisia, Cambodia back there. Not too long a lines for most of those. They call this the commons area. It looks like it’s a collection of a lot of different comp countries in here. And they just sort of have individual booths. You see the one for Ethiopia head and Fiji Zimagaway [Music] Central African Republic over there. So it looks like these are just sort of middle exhibits for those that don’t have full pavilions. is the one for Fiji which we will be visiting and I believe December, late November, December. [Music] Well, Lyn’s joining me. It is the same day. It’s the evening as you could probably tell. We’re standing in front of Thailand. Not literally cuz we’re still in Osaka. Welcome, Lynn. Yeah, this is pretty amazing place. I’ve had a change of clothes cuz I got back to the hotel with you where you were at and I was I just had to shower again. So, this is a two or three shower a day location for sure. Yeah, that’s right. But, uh we are on top of the ring. We haven’t been up here yet. Well, have you explained to the there’s a a ring around that everything’s kind of contained in? Yeah. And it’s beautiful up here. A lot of grass and flowers and and uh got a great view from up here where can we can see the pavilion for Korea, for Turkey, and for Thailand. Yes. And actually the king the kingdom of Saudi Arabia over there. That’s and Australia just far distance. And I was mentioning earlier that somebody on the ship said, “Well, we don’t need to go to the World’s Fair because we live on the World’s Fair because of all the countries we go to.” Yeah. It’s kind of like we do live in a World’s Fair just just because of all of that. But uh but this is kind of nice. So I haven’t been in a pavilion yet, so I don’t know what to experience when we go in. Yeah. Now, tomorrow morning, we have tickets to Future City, right? But tonight, we’re going to try to see it or see if we can get in instead of tomorrow morning because it’s so hot during the day. And I showed everybody the crowds that we had getting in. 45 minutes to get in. Um, and it’s just people. It’s a sea of people. So, I’d really rather You avoided that. You were the wise one, I think. But I’d like to avoid that, too. Well, I knew after last night going in uh into the city to the tower that it was much cooler even though it’s still the temperature still is only dropped about 4° or Celsius or whatever. Um it’s it’s not that intense sun beating down on you, so it feels cooler. Plus, tonight there’s a breeze. Oh, it’s very comfortable right now. I figured the evening is when you need to come to this place, not during the day when it when the heat index is 106. It officially closes down at 9, though. Is that it? I think that we So, you have a few hours. We’ve got maybe 3 hours. Three hours left. Three or four. Yeah. So, we’ll take advantage of it. See what we can see. Hopefully, some of the lines are less and we’ll let you know. But, it’s a great experience. I’m glad you can experience the 2025 world expo with us. I’m looking forward to going inside of some of these, seeing what uh they’re displaying, what their uh genre is. I I assume they’re explaining what their country is about. They represent their country and their beliefs. Their beliefs and innovations and all of that, right? Yep. They’re showing it’s a showcase for their country. So, good. Well, onward. Onward, Lynn. We are not in Osaka. We are not at the World Expo 2025. We made a detour. We had a great time at the expo, did we not? It was fun. It was really cool. It was amazing. I mean, you got to see probably 10% of it. I maybe got to see 50% of it. Yes. I wimp I wimped out. We did go to Future City. Future City was okay. it. You know, a lot of what they show in Future City from somebody that really likes uh technology, a lot of it’s already taking place. So, I don’t know how much future versus how much present, but that’s kind of the way technology is. The uh it was much cooler in the evening. I think it did pay definitely to go to the evenings uh in the evening. We ran into uh one friend from the ship and he’s still going to do four more days at the World Fair. And if if um I mean it is pretty hot here. So it’s August and so um it is it is very hot here in Japan. So if you are if you if you are going to stay a few days and you don’t have to have to have to see everything. I would head over to the park about 5:00. Yeah. You have until 9, right? Cuz the park closes at 9:00 and you can see the water shows and the fireworks shows and all the stuff that park. much cooler. Now, getting out was a different story. Well, we waited till 9:00. That was a mistake. And just uh getting on the subway, it took a good half hour, probably took through the light. It took almost an hour. Did it? Yeah, it was a long time. But where are we today? We took a detour. We did. We’re in N, the a beautiful mountain town here in uh just what about 20 30 minutes from Osaka. Wasn’t far. Here comes a little deer. Show your cracker. We got crackers. These were 200 yen. Come on over here, little deer. Come on. Oh, look at this. Yes, ladies. Got some here. Come here. We show too much. We’ll get surrounded by these. Oh, this is a little shy one here. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Don’t eat the leaves. Well, I guess that’s probably what you eat in nature. There you go. Hi. We don’t have anymore. We got to share. Hi. The Nara is a place where the deer run wild. You You might have seen it on social media. Yeah. Because that’s where you saw it. Yeah. It’s where I saw it originally. It’s a popular place. Come on over here. Come on. Be part of the show. You want to be part of the show? Come here. Is this sweet? I mean, they are such sweet, gentle animals. Except when you’re walking around, they know you have crackers. They’ll bite you on the butt. They were biting. You were pulling on my dress, biting at my purse. Are you part of the show? Welcome. Glad you can join us today. Here, I’ll give you another little Oh, you got another little cracker. Now, you don’t The thing is you Sorry, baby. It fell on the ground. You don’t want to show this too much. There’s a big buck coming this way. Oh, see, look. Here’s Yeah. Oh, there is there is a big buck here that he is super aggressive. But you’re just a friendly guy, aren’t you? He budded me. me in the back. Almost knocked me over. They know you got crackers. This is the crackers that they get from the vendors around here. These are approved crackers for the um for the deer here. You said that this is goes against all what you’ve been taught growing up in the Rocky Mountains. This goes against all feed the wild animals. We do not interact with the wildlife. And so this this feels really wrong for me, you know. But it it’s but it’s very much you can see they’re very used to people. Oh yeah. Do not really seriously I do not interact with wildlife in in other parts of other but if you are in N come to N Park. This is fascinating. This is fun. I mean you can see all of the people interacting with the deer. Um, and it it’s, you know, it’s definitely a good environment. I don’t know why the deer don’t go out in traffic, but they don’t. I guess they know the food is here. Uh, but this is kind of the way we’re going to be ending our trip here to the whole area. We’ve gotten to spend a little time in Kobe. Very little time, mainly shopping. Uh, we didn’t get to go, so hopefully we’re going to do that next time. Coyoto, I think, is a destination to itself, so we’re looking forward to coming back. Coyoto. Got to spend a lot of time in um in Osaka. Osaka. And uh and so this was we thought this would be a nice little tranquil a little It’s definitely a little cooler here. Yeah. Than uh being in in town. And um and then we’ll make our way back on the train about 2:00. 14 minutes. Yeah. About 2:00 we’ll head back to the ship. We have to be there by 5. It’s only another hour, hour and a half at the most. Oh, is it at the most? Yeah. So we’re in good shape. So, I think that um overall uh come and visit. Uh I think it’s a great place. It’s been like many of the towns that we’ve been in so far. Um the people are wonderful. Uh everybody is I I cannot tell you. I was really afraid it was going to be hard to figure things out. Yeah, it it really isn’t. If you’re patient and have a translator, dear friend, everybody’s really, really helpful. We had a late nice lady help us last night. We we appeared, obviously, we appeared to be lost. Yes. That tickled. That tickled. I don’t have any. He wants to go home with you to the ship, I think. Come home. and um and so um they’ve been really friendly. So it’s so the people are helpful, friendly. Um and it’s it’s pretty easy. Hi there. It’s pretty easy to get around and uh and and and enjoy yourself. You can very well much enjoy yourself. You could have easily spent two more days just in Osaka. Oh, but we got to do what we wanted to. We love the hotel we stayed at, so that worked out well. head back to the ship. We’ve got uh I think four more ports in Japan before we go to South Korea. We do one port in South Korea and then actually come back and spend a little more time in Japan. Some of the islands, more of the islands. So, we’ll keep you updated. Boy, we really appreciate you being part of this adventure. Hopefully, you are enjoying it, telling your friends. Um the number of people that are subscribing to our channel is really growing and we really appreciate that. Do give us a like if you would if you’re watching us on YouTube. Give us a little like and if you haven’t subscribed, take a moment to subscribe. Uh but we hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Lyn and Paul’s excellent. Oh no, one more cracker. This for you. Lucky dog. Special for you. Ducky. Lucky deer. Lucky deer. And they are called deer. So yeah, they are deer. I don’t know what type of deer they are, but they’re very deer. They’re got beautiful spots. But thank you so much. I hope that um we’re we’re giving you good information. Hoping we’re not boring you to death. Um hope you enjoy the adventure. That’s what it’s about. About exploring things that um maybe you wouldn’t think about doing. Yeah, we’re trying to take the world to you and encourage you if you can travel. If you can’t travel, we hope you’re enjoying our experiences just through what we’re doing. So, we will see you on the next edition of Lyn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure. Bye. [Music]

🌏 Welcome back to Lynn & Paul’s Excellent Adventure, our 4-year global journey living aboard a cruise ship!

In this episode, we arrive in Kobe and Osaka, Japan, where we witness an unforgettable fireboat welcome before heading high above the city for breathtaking skyline views. From there, Paul braves the World Expo 2025 in Osaka — a massive global showcase of culture, technology, and innovation. With pavilions from around the world, crowds, heat, and unforgettable exhibits, it’s an adventure like no other.

We also take a detour to Nara, where the famous friendly deer roam freely through town. Join us as we feed the deer, explore the parks, and reflect on the beauty and culture of Japan.

✨ Whether you love travel vlogs, cruising, or cultural adventures, this episode has it all: city life, global events, and serene nature.

👍 Don’t forget to like, comment, and share if you enjoy the journey!
🔔 Subscribe to follow along as we sail across Japan, South Korea, and beyond!

We’re Lynn and Paul — travel vloggers documenting our life aboard a cruise ship while exploring destinations around the world. Our channel features cruise ship tours, daily life onboard, city guides, food adventures, and behind-the-scenes looks at global travel.