Osaka World Expo

[aikman]

Share your experiences and tips here.

Mine are:
- Stay for the evening water/fire/light/sound show.
- Stay for the drone show.
- The site is huge. I broke my daily step count record.
- Expect to spend most of the day queueing. All big pavilions have queues. It's hard to tell how long you will spend in the queue. Some are slow, some are really slow.
- Queues are a little shorter after 7pm but there are still queues.
- My average queue time was 30 mins each but I only joined the queues which looked short. Seeing the queues outside is a massive deterrent in visiting the pavilions.
- Some pavilions are by reservation only in the app eg. Japan. Even then I still queued for 55 mins to get into the building.
- You even have to queue to get into 7-Eleven.
- The app is unnecessarily complicated. Upon entry, you can reserve a pavilion one at a time. You can't reserve another one until your current one is finished. Slots understandably fill up early. I only got two reservations for the day this way - Japan and Gundam.
- I went on a hot and sunny Saturday and it was BUSY.
- Overall at Y4,000 a ticket, it was outstanding value for 12 hours of world class entertainment.
- I'd describe the experience as a cross between Disneyland and TeamLabs.

I planned on coming back Sunday but the thought of the queues scared me. I changed my ticket to Monday to see if it will be less busy.

 

[Pushka]

I was tempted we are in Osaka next week. But the logistics and now your comment of queues isn't what I need to do. Their website and ticketing process was astoundingly complicated.

 

[Himeno]

Share your experiences and tips here.

Mine are:
- Expect to spend most of the day queueing. All big pavilions have queues. It's hard to tell how long you will spend in the queue. Some are slow, some are really slow.
- Queues are a little shorter after 7pm but there are still queues.
- My average queue time was 30 mins each but I only joined the queues which looked short. Seeing the queues outside is a massive deterrent in visiting the pavilions.
- Some pavilions are by reservation only in the app eg. Japan. Even then I still queued for 55 mins to get into the building.- The app is unnecessarily complicated. Upon entry, you can reserve a pavilion one at a time. You can't reserve another one until your current one is finished. Slots understandably fill up early. I only got two reservations for the day this way - Japan and Gundam.
- The app is unnecessarily complicated. Upon entry, you can reserve a pavilion one at a time. You can't reserve another one until your current one is finished. Slots understandably fill up early. I only got two reservations for the day this way - Japan and Gundam.

I saw someone report that they could have a number of reservations queued up somehow. Not sure how they did it (something other then the 'normal' process), but they were able to get to most of the pavilions in one day.
The expo runs until mid October. They should be easier access to things, without this reservation system, after it's been open for a few weeks.

- You even have to queue to get into 7-Eleven

Sounds normal for large events in Japan. Have to do the same for the combini around Tokyo Big Sight during Comiket and the Lawson at K Arena on concert days.

 

[Mr Bill]

I'm going to Osaka in June for a week, specifically for Expo. My intention is to purchase a multiple entry season ticket for JPY 30000 (approx $330). J class BNENRTBNE for less than $2700 with FJ. Happy to take Shinkansen to Osaka and fly back to NRT with Jetstar. All major travel for around $3000.
Looking forward to further comments re does and don'ts at Expo.

 

[ZaibNaeem11]

Share your experiences and tips here.

Mine are:
- Stay for the evening water/fire/light/sound show.
- Stay for the drone show.
- The site is huge. I broke my daily step count record.
- Expect to spend most of the day queueing. All big pavilions have queues. It's hard to tell how long you will spend in the queue. Some are slow, some are really slow.
- Queues are a little shorter after 7pm but there are still queues.
- My average queue time was 30 mins each but I only joined the queues which looked short. Seeing the queues outside is a massive deterrent in visiting the pavilions.
- Some pavilions are by reservation only in the app eg. Japan. Even then I still queued for 55 mins to get into the building.
- You even have to queue to get into 7-Eleven.
- The app is unnecessarily complicated. Upon entry, you can reserve a pavilion one at a time. You can't reserve another one until your current one is finished. Slots understandably fill up early. I only got two reservations for the day this way - Japan and Gundam.
- I went on a hot and sunny Saturday and it was BUSY.
- Overall at Y4,000 a ticket, it was outstanding value for 12 hours of world class entertainment.
- I'd describe the experience as a cross between Disneyland and TeamLabs.

I planned on coming back Sunday but the thought of the queues scared me. I changed my ticket to Monday to see if it will be less busy.

I am going there in June hopefully by then the situation will be better with the excitement a bit older and the end of the prime season. Cheers,