Reporting from World Expo 2025, Osaka

The expo is a world fair, which, as someone who loves travel and museums, I’ve wanted to go to since I heard about it, in my Guinness Book of Records pre-teen days. It’s the modern version of The World Fair, which gave us The Crystal Palace and crimes against indigenous peoples in the 18th century. In the 21st century each country can host either a pavilion, or a stand to showcase something from their country. It’s a celebration of culture, innovation and design and only happens every five years.

Expo 2025 is being hosted this year by Osaka, Japan. I had a one day pass, three weeks after opening day, which, by all accounts had been a washout, crowded unmitigated disaster. My expectations were low, but it being my final full day of three months off work: anticipation was high for a big finish to my sabbatical.

Arriving at 8 45am I was prepared for a whole day affair. Arriving onto the site the scale of it soon became clear. It was huge. It is like ten Wembley stadiums. There are pavilions for countries, convention centres for topics (women, health etc.), shops and restaurants. There is even a forest in the centre to provide some nature and calm. Surrounding the perimeter is a giant wooden structure. It’s beautifully constructed. The scale left me awestruck and I was excited to realise you could get up on top of it to walk around the site (rather than need to travel through crowds).

The day before in Osaka it had been pouring with rain but I got lucky as the day I was  at Expo it was sunny, warm and dry. There are large indoor pavilions and other smaller convention centres hosting multiple countries. The famously sun fearing Japanese carried umbrellas to shield fair skin from the rays, as a lot of the waiting and seating is outside. This might need fixing once summer arrives. The day I was there nine in ten visitors were Japanese. The Expo is geared towards a home crowd.

In January I had registered for an entrance ticket. It had cost £15, but reservations for pavilions entrance was available only later. This meant I arrived with no timed reservations for pavilions, which limited where I could go.

The very first pavilion I found myself in was UAE. They had a cool wooden structure, resembling date trees. They had installations promoting robotics and urban development with the environment in mind. It felt very safe. The aesthetics were pleasing and inviting but I wasn’t hugely impressed with the ingenuity. At least I could get in somewhere!

Next I joined the line for the Philippines. They had an amazing woven wood like structure and inside the weaving theme continued with weavers from each province having made a depiction of their land, and it was overlaid with digital projections. It was beautiful, visually appealing and to my critical mind, playing it a little safe.

They had a gift shop at the end. As I went to more pavilions I began to see food and shopping for handicrafts are big parts of the pavilions. There are many national cafes or restaurants promoting national cuisines.

I had to quickly decide how to prioritise which pavilions to visit, and which to skip for lack of time. Sometimes smaller or poorer countries had huge ‘full size’ pavilions which I wouldn’t have expected - Hungary, Serbia, Bangladesh. While others had opted for smaller convention centre stands (Nigeria) or were not there at all. I am looking at you Argentina. I later learnt plans for pavilions had to be submitted by culture ministries 2+ years ago to event organisers. Some missed the boat.

Some favourite pavilions - outside design only

Best conversations were in the small country convention centre. An older man from the Comoros islands was happy to chat and tell me about his country. He showed me print outs of the birds there, and shared a full itinerary for a 7 day holiday there (direct flights from Addis Abeba). I was given the hard sell. We also had a sweet conversation where I was trying to explain the difference between him saying “ we have tolerable Islam” vs. “ we have tolerant Islam”. He appreciated the steer and wrote some notes down.

I also spoke to a young jovial guy from Suriname! It is the Dutch part of South America. Direct flights to Amsterdam, with a hot tropical climate. They have their own pidgin language and have education in Dutch. He said Spanish is relegated to 4th language learnt. He was also keen to promote tourism and the wildlife pictures did look incredible. His Japanese colleague from Expo said she is having to learn facts about 27 countries as through the six months she is working on rotation in that space. Two countries per day. She was cramming notes in her notebook and trying to perfect the mission of promoting these countries in a sweet, typically professional Japanese way.

Other full pavilions I went to were Germany, Oman, Mozambique and Singapore. Mozambique was interesting for trying to hard to honour its craft and African culture but also proudly promoting itself as a tech leader for AI low tech agriculture and other initiatives. I wish I had spent more time there. Germany was the most funny. Firstly because it gave everyone little heads to hold on arrival to act as audio guide, and also because it was stereotypically so German. It tried to pack in way too much technical information for the crowd, and they had a huge revolving sofa at the end which people were falling asleep on. The young German guides were needing to nudge people awake.

My highlight was going to Spain and seeing my friend Bea working there. She was in my pub quiz team in Barcelona ten years ago, and works for events and museums and is at Expo for the full six months. It was super to see her in Osaka after many years, and to hear behind the scenes what it has been like and how the Spanish pavilion is flying in cultural talent (musicians, dancers, potters, acrobats) for one week at a time to promote their region. We also watched some flamenco.

I did go to the UK pavilion, but without a reservation was barred from entry. I struck up a conversation with the Japanese usher who had previously lived in Winchester. She saw my disappointment and pointed out I could attend the Welsh party in the events space, without a reservation. I was in! The hall on the inside had all the charm of a school sports hall but on the walls were some informative displays about Wales today (most popular Celtic language), and had cute origami daffodils and dragons for people to make. There was a bar with a view and the gift shop selling quintessential English wares. I reckon it was a hit.

Expo overall was a blur of amazing pavilions, gimmicky displays. I had snatches of interesting conversations, and was impressed with the organisers for putting together such a showcase.

I spend a huge amount of time watching the world fall apart on the news. tariffs , fake news, protests, land disputes and egos in suits sow huge amounts of destruction. Expo in Osaka was non political. It is a showcase of the best of humanity. Sure it papers over some real fault lines on our planet, but I can see the real benefits of having these events. It gives every attendee the opportunity to celebrate the best aspects of our common humanity, innovation and cultural vibrancy.

*Expo was a fitting final day to my sabbatical. I will try write some reflections on the whole three months, but in case I don’t the update is I am now back in London. Normal service resumes next week.