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2025 WORLD EXPOSITION OPENED TODAY

The Osaka Expo had private opening ceremonies  yesterday afternoon, with Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba participating.  Watch the entire 2-hour show.  

Visitors guide to the 2025 Osaka Expo.

  • From April 13 to October 13.  13 is not a bad luck number in Japan.  Our 13 is their 4.
  • Theme:  Designing Future Society for Our Lives.
  • Located on Yumeshima island, where a massive new casino will be built for opening in 2030.
We leave Honolulu for Osaka in a few days.  We have already purchased tickets to go on April 18 and 20.  Costs $34/person/day.  The pavilions are free if  you win a lottery.  There are no real lines.

The World Exposition, abbreviated to Expo, is also the same as a World's Fair.
  • The very first World's Fair was held in Bohemia in 1791.  This was on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold II as king of Bohemia.
  • France traditionally held national exhibitions, culminating in the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 held in Paris.

  • However, the first real global event was the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, UK, an idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband.  
    • First exhibition of the public flush toilet.  
    • Actually, Thomas Crapper was only 15 in 1851, and is primarily known for improving this device.  Thomas Brightfield designed the first toilet that flushed....and this was way back in 1449, also in London.
    • The term World Expo first was ascribed to this gathering.
  • There are two types of international exhibitions:  World Expos and Specialized Expos.  
    • More recently World Expos now occur every 5 years.
    • Specialized Expos are smaller in scope, 3 weeks to 3 months, and not as large, usually in between the World Expo.
  • The first U.S. World Expo was held in Philadelphia, appropriately enough in 1876, a century after the country was founded.  
    • Chicago's occurred in 1893.
    • The St. Louis World's Fair came soon, in 1904 as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, another centennial anniversary.  This is the event around which Meet Me in St. Louis was filmed in 1944 with Judy Garland.
    • San Francisco had their Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal.
    • Chicago had a Century of Progress in 1934.
    • New York hosted the 1939 World's Fair at Flushing Meadows with 62 countries and 35 states.
    • Seattle's came with the Century 21 Exposition in 1962.
      • I had just graduated from Stanford University, and stopped in Seattle on my way home to Hawaii.  
      • This was my first Expo, and I went to every one since then, until Dubai's in 2020.  I that year had a reservation on an around the world cruise, with a three-day stop in that city.  However, the COVID Pandemic arrived and the cruise was cancelled, with the Expo delayed a year.  I arrived in Dubai soon after the fair was over to catch a Regent Seven Seas cruise to Singapore.
    • So after Seattle, I've been to Expos in Montreal, Osaka, Seville, Hanover, Aichi, Shanghai and Milan.
    • After Osaka this year, the next in 2030 is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  There is also a Horticultural Special Expo in Yokohama in 2027, the city from which we catch the Oceania Riviera to Vancouver after the Osaka Expo.  Hmmm....I wonder if I will be able to get to those in my expiring years.
  • I've also attended a few Specialized Expos:  San Antonio in 1968, Knoxville 1982, Tsukuba 1985, Vancouver 1986, Daejon 1993, Lisbon 1998 and Yeosu 2012.
  • Wikipedia has details on all the above, and more.
  • Some memorable iconic legacies remain:
    • Eiffel Tower:  1889.  Also Grand Palais and Petit Palais from 1900.
    • Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park:  1894.  Also Palace of Fine Arts from 1915.
    • The Parthenon in Nashville: 1897.
    • St. Louis Zoo:  1904.
    • Civic Aquarium, Milan:  1906.
    • New York City Building:  1939.  The parachute jump was moved to Coney Island.
    • The Atomium in Brussels:  1958.
    • The Space Needle, Seattle:  1962.  Also the Monorail.
    • Unisphere, New York:  1964.
    • Montreal Biosphere:  1967.
    • San Antonio Tower of the Americas:  1968.
    • Osaka Tower of the Sun:  1970.
    • Knoxville Sunsphere:  198.
    • Vancouver Skytrain, Science World and Canada Place:  1986.
    • Brisbane Skyneedle:  1988.
    • China Art Museum in Shanghai:  2010, the largest display at the Shanghai Expo, is now the largest art museum in Asia.  Also Shanghai Expo Park.
Why am I obsessed with World Expos?  That's the story of my life.  The global balance, food, entertainment, architecture....everything about the culture of the world placed in easy walking distance.  I remain passionate about everything I have attempted to do, as for example, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Laser Fusion, the Hydrogen Economy and the Blue Revolution.  The 1975 Ocean Expo on Okinawa, with Aquapolis, initiated my interest in the Blue Revolution.
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