Thursday, April 28, 2005
Waiting at the entrance gate to Expo
This is the first of 4 days we spent at Expo. This was actually the smallest crowd at opening time (9:30AM). The wait is primarily due to the "security checks" being done prior to entering the Expo Grounds.
More on the so-called security checks later.
More on the so-called security checks later.
Line-up for Global House
This is one of the very visible line-ups for some of the pavilions at Expo. To prevent people from cutting the line, they prevented people from going down certain stairways.
Canada Pavilion
This is the exterior of the Canada Pavilion. It's rather colorful and obvious that this is the Canada Pavilion. Inside the pavilion itself, there is a visual presentation of various aspects of Canada. It was an okay display.
Cherry Blossoms
Finally back from Japan. Unfortunately, I did not get to enter as many entries as I had hoped. Also, since so many photos were taken, it will take some time to organize. Today, I've started to upload a few for now.
At some point I will consolidate ALL the photos somehow. That will be another project.
At some point I will consolidate ALL the photos somehow. That will be another project.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Saturday at the Expo
Well, we decided to take a chance and go visit the Expo on a Saturday. It turns out that as far as the crowds on the trains were concerned, it didn't seem as bad as it was on Thursday. However, when we got to the Expo site, it looked like there were many more people than on Thursday!!
We want to check out the show that Canada will be putting on Tuesday for their National Day. So we stopped by the pavilion to ask. They confirmed that the big show with Alanis doing a full set will be at around 6PM. There will be no reservations for the Expo Dome so it's first-come First-served. Lovely. I guess this will be a test our patience for waiting in lines. :-p
We made another attempt to see if we can visit Global House. No luck. I just checked now if there were any space available for Global House on Tuesday and it looks like there is. I don't know if I want to make a reservation just yet. Maybe we will try for the last day we visit Expo.
Other than that we got to visit a few more pavilions. Decdied to swing by the gift shop at the beginning for some swag. The crowds are HORRENDOUS towards the end of the day (i.e., lines waiting to get *INTO* the store!). One thing you have to give the Japanese credit here for... the ability to manage such huge crowds. The other thing is just how incredibly patient they are waiting in line! I guess when you live in such crowded environments, you just get used to it.
Oooh!! Got to have my picture taken with Miffy. :-)
We want to check out the show that Canada will be putting on Tuesday for their National Day. So we stopped by the pavilion to ask. They confirmed that the big show with Alanis doing a full set will be at around 6PM. There will be no reservations for the Expo Dome so it's first-come First-served. Lovely. I guess this will be a test our patience for waiting in lines. :-p
We made another attempt to see if we can visit Global House. No luck. I just checked now if there were any space available for Global House on Tuesday and it looks like there is. I don't know if I want to make a reservation just yet. Maybe we will try for the last day we visit Expo.
Other than that we got to visit a few more pavilions. Decdied to swing by the gift shop at the beginning for some swag. The crowds are HORRENDOUS towards the end of the day (i.e., lines waiting to get *INTO* the store!). One thing you have to give the Japanese credit here for... the ability to manage such huge crowds. The other thing is just how incredibly patient they are waiting in line! I guess when you live in such crowded environments, you just get used to it.
Oooh!! Got to have my picture taken with Miffy. :-)
Friday, April 01, 2005
Kyoto
Well, after a slightly bumpy ride out of IAD, we finally made it to Japan. We overnight in Tokyo after a quick dinner of kuri raisu. The next day we took the shinkansen to Kyoto. Since check-in was only at around 4PM, we checked out one of the large temples nearby.
The next day we decided to hit the World Expo in Aichi. After taking two trains and enduring some VERY long line-ups (pictures to come), we managed to finally enter the Expo grounds sometime a little after 10AM. We hung around there until about 5PM and barely made a dent on the grounds (I think we only covered one of the Global Commons), so that wasn't even 1/4 of the place! Good thing we bought enough tickets for 4 days!
Anyway, today we took a break and went over to the Gion. We got tickets for the Miyako Odori spring dance. We also got lucky and encountered a few Maikos in the street. Dave politely asked two to pose for a picture and they obliged. :-) The dance we went to was very nice and entertaining. Unfortunately, the battery for Dave's camera died. We figured that we might try to catch the dance again and take more pictures. The tickets we got were only 1900 yen (second class seats, but not that bad really). Afterwards, we started to walk back. We thought we could try to find a camera store where we can get Dave an extra battery. After wandering around the Teramichi-dori shopping area, we decided to head back. Unfortunately, we headed in the wrong direction! We realized this when we came to a rather large and busy intersection and Dave noticed Nijo Castle! Whoah! We were really of course! So we decided to just take the subway back. :-)
Tonight we do some laundry. Tomorrow, we hope to head back to the Expo site. Just tried to see if their reservation system was up, but it was down. So we can't reserve placed to enter some of the pavilions. I guess we have no choice but to take our chances tomorrow. The weather this weekend is also iffy on Sunday. I think we can still go to the Toji Shrine flea market sunday, but if they're closed, then I am going back to bed! ;-)
Later!
The next day we decided to hit the World Expo in Aichi. After taking two trains and enduring some VERY long line-ups (pictures to come), we managed to finally enter the Expo grounds sometime a little after 10AM. We hung around there until about 5PM and barely made a dent on the grounds (I think we only covered one of the Global Commons), so that wasn't even 1/4 of the place! Good thing we bought enough tickets for 4 days!
Anyway, today we took a break and went over to the Gion. We got tickets for the Miyako Odori spring dance. We also got lucky and encountered a few Maikos in the street. Dave politely asked two to pose for a picture and they obliged. :-) The dance we went to was very nice and entertaining. Unfortunately, the battery for Dave's camera died. We figured that we might try to catch the dance again and take more pictures. The tickets we got were only 1900 yen (second class seats, but not that bad really). Afterwards, we started to walk back. We thought we could try to find a camera store where we can get Dave an extra battery. After wandering around the Teramichi-dori shopping area, we decided to head back. Unfortunately, we headed in the wrong direction! We realized this when we came to a rather large and busy intersection and Dave noticed Nijo Castle! Whoah! We were really of course! So we decided to just take the subway back. :-)
Tonight we do some laundry. Tomorrow, we hope to head back to the Expo site. Just tried to see if their reservation system was up, but it was down. So we can't reserve placed to enter some of the pavilions. I guess we have no choice but to take our chances tomorrow. The weather this weekend is also iffy on Sunday. I think we can still go to the Toji Shrine flea market sunday, but if they're closed, then I am going back to bed! ;-)
Later!
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