" - Winnie the Pooh
Planes, Trains and MagLevs (aka, World Expo - Aichi)
Behold the power of travel agents. They are wonderful here in Japan. They get you good prices and make wonderful things happen - like last minute trips to the World Expo...
The circumstances probably weren't ideal, but they worked out beautifully. We took a late flight to Nagoya and stayed in the airport that night. Now, when I say "in" the airport, I mean it. Our hotel was connected to the arrival lounge. It was very easy for some weary folk to get in and get settled.
The next morning, we woke up, checked out, and walked across the lobby to the train station. We got our tickets to a central station (not Nagoya station, but one stop shy) that would allow us to hop to the World Expo express train. We ditched the luggage in a locker. The express train was CRAZY crowded and we ended up standing for most of the ride. It was pretty long, too. We got to the expo and decided to wait 30 minutes for the mag lev train instead of 30 minutes for the bus. The 30 minutes was closer to 60, but we got to take a 6 minute ride on a mag lev. It was very quiet and pretty smooth - much nicer than a normal train ride where you have to hold on for dear life to not fall into the other passengers.
When we got to the Expo, Chrys worked on sun screen while I bought our tickets. Then, we headed for the line to get in - UGH! That was the longest line all day, I think. Maybe it was the anticipation of what we could see, but not get to. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the fact that Ryanne was screaming until she passed out from exhaustion. I would have killed for a lightweight sling at that point, but instead I had her stretched out in my arms. Silly me.
Once through security (bag search, metal detector, xray), we stopped just to look around. There were people everywhere. It's probably the largest crowd we've encountered yet. We pulled out our maps and decided to walk towards Toyota's pavilion. They had the robot show that we had been told was a don't miss - as if we would with an "obot" obsessed daughter.
It was pretty easy to find and pretty close the entrance. We were in the process of trying to figure out when and where we'd have to be to get tickets when someone walked up to us and asked if we spoke English. He introduced himself and showed us his Toyota badge. He asked if we'd seen his show. We said we were very interested, but hadn't gotten tickets. He asked us to follow him. We ended up seated (poorly, but seated) in the show that started about 5 minutes after we walked in the door.
It was... Amazing! They had walking robots which is something that I have a fascination with, thanks to Chrys. They played horns. Chrys thinks it wasn't really them playing; I believe they are capable, but agree that it might have been recorded for the show. They also had some rolling robots that played horns and drums. They played "When the Saints Go Marching In," which was somewhat bittersweet for me in the aftermath of Katrina. Then, there were the acrobats on ropes from the ceiling, and the concept cars. Oh, the concept cars. They are mostly upright for slow motion and recline as your speed increases. The light ropes on the sides allow for color customization. They were beautiful. Then the walker that you ride. They brought out only one and...whoa. I just wish we could have ridden it - well, that Chrys and Roo could so I could take pictures. Roo was mightily impressed with it all and we had a chorus of "ooos" at appropriate times. Mostly, she sat there staring and taking it all in. She didn't get bored, remarkably, and it was a 30 minute show. (I think. I lost track of time, myself.)
After leaving that, we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. We hadn't expected to see the one thing on our "must hit" list within 10 minutes of entering the park. Given that, we wandered. We had an "American" lunch outside their pavilion, but the line was too long to go in. We went to the kids play area where there were more robots for Roo to touch and pose with. She had a great time with that. We visited a couple of the country pavilions that had short lines - Norway (where they showcased daily life of 4 citizens, a Stokke Kinder Zeat, the Baby Bjorn, and a few other random items), Ireland (pictures, big Celtic cross replicas and a band of Japanese playing Celtic music), Cuba (just Chrys and Roo went in, but he said it was beaches and Latin music), and others that I don't remember. Mostly, we walked around, amazed at the size of the thing, and avoiding the 6 hour lines at the Hitachi pavilion. Part of me wishes we could have seen more, but I still don't know what we would have seen so I'm ok being ignorant. I did go back and wait in the line to get in to buy souvenirs for various people. There wasn't a line to get in, but it was very crowded so you grabbed what you could when you saw it. Going back for something was pretty out of the question. The line to check out was over 30 minutes and my poor feet didn't like that much at the end of the long day.
When we left, we took the bus back to the train station. The train took us back to our luggage and then to Nagoya station. We caught a cab to our hotel for that night - the Westin Nagoya Castle. The view was amazing. More on day two in another post.
The circumstances probably weren't ideal, but they worked out beautifully. We took a late flight to Nagoya and stayed in the airport that night. Now, when I say "in" the airport, I mean it. Our hotel was connected to the arrival lounge. It was very easy for some weary folk to get in and get settled.
The next morning, we woke up, checked out, and walked across the lobby to the train station. We got our tickets to a central station (not Nagoya station, but one stop shy) that would allow us to hop to the World Expo express train. We ditched the luggage in a locker. The express train was CRAZY crowded and we ended up standing for most of the ride. It was pretty long, too. We got to the expo and decided to wait 30 minutes for the mag lev train instead of 30 minutes for the bus. The 30 minutes was closer to 60, but we got to take a 6 minute ride on a mag lev. It was very quiet and pretty smooth - much nicer than a normal train ride where you have to hold on for dear life to not fall into the other passengers.
When we got to the Expo, Chrys worked on sun screen while I bought our tickets. Then, we headed for the line to get in - UGH! That was the longest line all day, I think. Maybe it was the anticipation of what we could see, but not get to. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the fact that Ryanne was screaming until she passed out from exhaustion. I would have killed for a lightweight sling at that point, but instead I had her stretched out in my arms. Silly me.
Once through security (bag search, metal detector, xray), we stopped just to look around. There were people everywhere. It's probably the largest crowd we've encountered yet. We pulled out our maps and decided to walk towards Toyota's pavilion. They had the robot show that we had been told was a don't miss - as if we would with an "obot" obsessed daughter.
It was pretty easy to find and pretty close the entrance. We were in the process of trying to figure out when and where we'd have to be to get tickets when someone walked up to us and asked if we spoke English. He introduced himself and showed us his Toyota badge. He asked if we'd seen his show. We said we were very interested, but hadn't gotten tickets. He asked us to follow him. We ended up seated (poorly, but seated) in the show that started about 5 minutes after we walked in the door.
It was... Amazing! They had walking robots which is something that I have a fascination with, thanks to Chrys. They played horns. Chrys thinks it wasn't really them playing; I believe they are capable, but agree that it might have been recorded for the show. They also had some rolling robots that played horns and drums. They played "When the Saints Go Marching In," which was somewhat bittersweet for me in the aftermath of Katrina. Then, there were the acrobats on ropes from the ceiling, and the concept cars. Oh, the concept cars. They are mostly upright for slow motion and recline as your speed increases. The light ropes on the sides allow for color customization. They were beautiful. Then the walker that you ride. They brought out only one and...whoa. I just wish we could have ridden it - well, that Chrys and Roo could so I could take pictures. Roo was mightily impressed with it all and we had a chorus of "ooos" at appropriate times. Mostly, she sat there staring and taking it all in. She didn't get bored, remarkably, and it was a 30 minute show. (I think. I lost track of time, myself.)
After leaving that, we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. We hadn't expected to see the one thing on our "must hit" list within 10 minutes of entering the park. Given that, we wandered. We had an "American" lunch outside their pavilion, but the line was too long to go in. We went to the kids play area where there were more robots for Roo to touch and pose with. She had a great time with that. We visited a couple of the country pavilions that had short lines - Norway (where they showcased daily life of 4 citizens, a Stokke Kinder Zeat, the Baby Bjorn, and a few other random items), Ireland (pictures, big Celtic cross replicas and a band of Japanese playing Celtic music), Cuba (just Chrys and Roo went in, but he said it was beaches and Latin music), and others that I don't remember. Mostly, we walked around, amazed at the size of the thing, and avoiding the 6 hour lines at the Hitachi pavilion. Part of me wishes we could have seen more, but I still don't know what we would have seen so I'm ok being ignorant. I did go back and wait in the line to get in to buy souvenirs for various people. There wasn't a line to get in, but it was very crowded so you grabbed what you could when you saw it. Going back for something was pretty out of the question. The line to check out was over 30 minutes and my poor feet didn't like that much at the end of the long day.
When we left, we took the bus back to the train station. The train took us back to our luggage and then to Nagoya station. We caught a cab to our hotel for that night - the Westin Nagoya Castle. The view was amazing. More on day two in another post.
posted by Wynnie | 17:14
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