00:00:02 John Daub: Greetings! Welcome to the top of the Osaka Expo 2025. This is on the top of the Grand Ring here. You can see if you look down there, the mascot, Myaku-Myaku. Everyone likes to take their picture in front of him. Or it. And over there, just to the right of it, you have the big Gundam. Japan's self-defense, should it ever fall in war. Or the Gundam mobile suits will be here to protect the homeland. That's right there. This is the west exit or entrance.

00:00:34 John Daub: I was here last month and made an episode on it and I was quite disappointed with my experience. This is the west exit, just so you know. I was quite disappointed with my experience here at the Banpaku (Expo). And I thought I would give it a second chance here. And this is the second chance. And I have to say, I'm equally as disappointed as I was the first time. I think for everybody it's going to be their own experience. The first time, I was just blown away by this ring.

00:01:12 John Daub: Now this is the most impressive thing of the entire Expo to me. Because you're walking around the entire place in a circle looking inside of all of these pavilions. A lot of the countries, as you can see, the wooden ring all around it. A lot of the countries have their own pavilions. Many countries are of different size. But this ring just unifies it all. And you can walk around it. You can see on the side here, there's the ring. You get up to the top of an escalator or the stairs under the side here. But that, the Guinness World Records largest wooden architectural structure, is impressive. And that to me is just the coolest thing.

00:02:02 John Daub: On each side, the east exit and the west exit, you can kind of merge up and get a bird's eye view from the top here. Or you can just walk around the main fairway, I guess you could call it. And there's an escalator right here that'll get you up to the top. And that escalator is also really impressive. It's beautiful to see. My take was like the old with the new. This really neat escalator with this wooden structure that reminds me perhaps of like an old Edo castle. Or Kiyomizudera (temple) made of all that wood in Kyoto. Kind of reminds me of that experience there with an escalator. So it's kind of this unique, I think it is really unique.

00:03:02 John Daub: The reason why I'm actually here is because over the last month I've been telling people I'm going to sign up for the postcard club and I'm going to send it here from the expo. And I did. I traveled for you guys. I traveled all across Japan from Tokyo to Osaka to the expo. I got here and I sent these off at 10:50 a.m. All those are going out to you guys. Yours is in there if you ordered it. So it's coming right from the expo. It's having one of the custom post stamps canceled. The post office will stamp the postcard. And has a very special expo stamp. You can only get it here at the expo. I like to do little things like that. So shout out to my Patreon supporters. Thanks guys for paying the Shinkansen. I asked for like 25 people. Because that would pay for the Shinkansen. And I'm going to trip into the expo. So thank you all for that. It's kind of cool. Because when you get that postcard in the mail, you will have been here in a way. Also watching this live stream.

00:04:34 John Daub: I want to show you now the west entrance and exit. I have some big advice for you if you're coming here. When you go online to the app to get your ticket, you're going to have a choice between east and west entrance. This is the west entrance. Do not come here unless it's like your only chance. It's your only option. The reason why is because you have to take a shuttle bus. And if you're coming at, if you have an early morning time, 8 or 9 a.m., make sure you get a shuttle bus reservation. There's so many darn reservations you got to get. Lottery tickets, reservations. It's really a headache. This just adds like two more steps to your visit here. And if you don't have a reservation, you have to wait like I did for 30 minutes until 9:45. And then I could get on the shuttle bus without a reservation. And the rest of the day they do it without the reservation. It's an 18 minute shuttle bus ride here. Or on the east side you could take Sakurajima subway station on the Chuo line. That is so much easier. But the shuttle bus from the JR Sakurajima station to the west exit is not the best. But it's also the least crowded as a result of it. My advice for 90% of you: try to avoid the west and go to the east. Because it's connected with the subway and it's just easier.

00:06:26 John Daub: There's no reason to come at 8 or 9 a.m. Unless you like waiting in line. You're going to have to wait in line anyways. I can't understand why you would come too early. It's probably better to stay late. Everybody seems to start going home around 3 or 3:30 or 4 o'clock. And it starts to lighten up. And at night it's even more beautiful. And there's far fewer people here. Unless you've got an annual pass. Most people got here early and they leave early. Which opens it up for everybody at night. And I've been noticing this trend here. If you come at night, you've got a lot more relaxing experience.

00:07:15 John Daub: So here's the shuttle, JR. You have to walk across the street. And they guide you over and they say go this way. You have to pay an extra 350 yen. Just right there at the gate over there. Just keep that in mind. It's an extra cost which is more than the subway. So it just makes a lot of sense to take the subway. The shuttle bus moves pretty fast. But it took me from walking through here about 12 minutes to get on the shuttle bus. Which is quite a bit of time. Then when you get on the shuttle bus, you're going to go past this building. And that building right up there, that is not Universal Studios Japan. That funky building there is the trash incinerator of Osaka. One of the coolest buildings. I remember Kevin, Riley and I when we were riding the subway once. We were making fun of tourists asking us if that was Universal Studios Japan. We would say yes. And then we would laugh at each other like children. Even though we're well above the age of 12. But that is a trash incinerator. And that's the chimney for the smoke I guess. Or whatever comes out. It's got a lot of industrial filters. But like Osaka, they make it really, really comedic.

00:08:36 John Daub: Here's a Google Maps of it. So you can see from the sky. It does not look like a trash incineration plant. It's just really cool. Like something Salvador Dali made or something. So just a little shout out. A little inside information that you got from watching this. Be on the lookout for that there.

00:09:03 John Daub: This is the, for the west side. I think this is the main attraction. It's that big Gundam statue that you can see from up here. It is pretty cool. This is the entrance, the west entrance into there. On the east side there's some other attractions. There's post office on both sides by the way. But that was a big attraction. After I sent these postcards out to everybody, that took about five minutes. There's like nobody inside the post office. I went to my country's pavilion. I said if I'm going to go to any pavilions, I better see my own country, right? It's right next to the [Franzburg?]. For the tours in English, I only had to wait 30 minutes. But the wait time was like three hours for the Japanese one. But you have to know to look for the English one. And they'll tell you, they said wait here at 11:30 and the English one will start at 12. There's nobody there. So I just waited about a couple of minutes. And 30 minutes later I was on this tour. The American pavilion is pretty cool inside.

00:10:10 John Daub: There's this experience where you are inside of a rocket launch test thing. I think Artemis maybe it is. Things are moving so fast. They do this countdown. You're in the middle of this. It's much better with the 360 camera because you get a full, full immersion here. I could have done the Japanese but why would I? I'm not going to wait 2 and a half hours for this. It's my country. I don't actually pay the taxes here, right? I pay taxes in Japan but that's pretty cool, right? With the audio and the experience with the lights and everything it is a very cool experience in the US pavilion. And it takes you to the international space station and then the moon. And you know I think a lot of people they forget, especially Americans, how great America really is. We went to the moon, man. No other country can say that they've done that. Even though it was 50, 60 years ago. We landed people on the moon. It's pretty extraordinary some of the accomplishments that we were able to do as a country.

00:11:32 John Daub: That was cool to see in the pavilion. All of that including all the beautiful spots that they showed of America. They showed clips of all these, you know, Louisiana, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Maine, all these places. And of course Dodger Stadium with Shohei Ohtani. That might have been the big attraction for the Japanese. Hitting a home run and like this panorama video but very cool experience inside the American pavilion. And with the ending was pretty sweet here. So they have like in the 1970 expo they had this is it the same lunar rocks? These are lunar rocks from the moon. And they had these lunar rocks on display at the 1970 expo. And I guess they brought it back for the 2025 expo. Come on America. You got to get back to the moon man. We got to get back to the moon. And then but in the videos they had America going to Mars and stuff. So we're really going to need Mr. Musk and some star power to get there. If we're thinking in our lifetimes, right? But that would be really cool to get to Mars.

00:12:41 John Daub: But for me, I think that this is the only one I really wanted to go into. Some of the ones in Africa are pretty cool too. They have in the common pavilion and there's no wait line for a lot of those. Which is also real nice. The Canadian one looked like it was made out of a block of ice. And there you go. We're on the outside. There's the American flag and the wooden ring there. The grand ring. It's a pretty big event. Here's what the ring looks like with a lot of pavilions. Inside each country had to pay their own way. Some of them decided not to be here at all. I think Mexico was one that pulled out. The common ones, countries could just have a little booth inside there. I think that was kind of cool. Like Jamaica had the Jamaican bobsled from the Winter Olympics there. I guess that was their claim to fame. That was kind of cool.

00:13:51 John Daub: My answer is kind of no. And yes. I think if you're here in Japan, you've got to come once. You have to make that determination for yourself. Whether or not this is something that's worth visiting or not. It's something that's very historic. So that's what makes it very special. We look back at the expos in the past. 1970 was such a big one for Japan because of the era that we were in. The Japanese miracle. The economic miracle. Where a lot of innovation, business manufacturing, a lot of people going to the cities to work in offices. Japan was on the move. It was a real bustling time. And that expo was a defining moment in many ways for Japan.

00:15:00 John Daub: You look at how crowded it is. You can see some of the ground but you also see people waiting in line. So there's a lot of lines. The saving thing with this is they bring some of the experiences out. Malaysia truly Asia. That's their catch phrase. That's so catchy. Credit to them for coming up with something. They've had that for a long time. But they bring out their pavilion outside and do performances on a stage where everybody can watch it. And I thought that was really cool. See there's the escalator going up and down again. There's the Serbian pavilion which is quite large. But I think everybody has to make their own impression.

00:16:01 John Daub: So while I'm talking I'll take some of your questions. But we're going to walk along the top of the grand ring here. And then right there I can take you underneath there and you can see inside of the wooden part of the grand ring here. That's one of the coolest experiences here. This is what the experience was like last month when I walked underneath here. This in itself is...when it's raining or it's just too sunny and you need a break from the sun, a lot of people just come under here. You can walk around the entire event underneath the largest wooden architectural structure made by man in the world. There's the certificates from Guinness a couple of places which is really cool to see. But we ate our...when Kanae Daub was here last month, my wife, we ate our bentos, boxed lunches from here.

00:17:43 John Daub: The store for goods and things like that is really crowded. Just basically you're going to be waiting in line a lot. So I think maybe the experience more is the ring and walking around. I thought that was in itself a really cool experience here. This is underneath the ring here with the 360 camera from before. And you know, they're going to turn this into a casino when the expo is done. So hey, for high rollers, you're still going to be able to see this stuff, I believe. Yeah, Mohamed, you got that right. You're definitely going to need a map here. It's easy to get lost, but if you mark off, when you find a pavilion, if you mark it off, you'll never get lost. So then you remember where you are. And then you'll be able to navigate pretty good in here.

00:19:04 John Daub: Osaka proved casinos to be built here starting, I guess, soon. But this is the spot. What's cool is you can get lost in that jungle in the middle of the pavilion, and I like that they did that. They made a green area there. And then you're looking at the top of the pavilions, which will become a history. They're going to tear down all these pavilions when they, all the pavilions go away and they reuse the spot for something else. Right now we have these purple flowers that have come out. I'm sure somebody with a green thumb is going to point that out. But it looks really beautiful. And right there is the bridge that you come over with the shuttle bus, and the trash incinerator tower. Which many people get confused for Universal Studios Japan.

00:20:01 John Daub: I'm not feeling that good either. I'm a little sick. I was like, alright, I gotta send the postcards. I promised everybody this is the last day because they might not arrive until next month. So I had to come. I probably should be home sleeping. I kind of had a really bad runny nose. You wear the mask on the shinkansen. You do what you gotta do. I feel okay. But I don't know. I think I caught something on the plane coming back from Guam or something. There's something going around. I think actually I caught it on the way going to Guam to be honest with you. Everybody was coughing. Everybody from Guam discovering new viruses from tourists traveling the world. But it's beautiful up here. Again, my number one attraction, the ring. The grand ring.

00:21:07 John Daub: My second one I guess would be the Gundam statue and going to the convenience stores and seeing how they do the... Did you take the test? Which test? Whatever test it is. I probably did pretty good. I probably didn't do very good. If I don't know what it is, I didn't study. It does look really cool. See all the people coming in from the west side. Yeah, there's a lot of people coughing and sneezing on the bus as well. The grand ring is meh in my opinion. Good views but that's about it. Like I think the pavilions are meh. You might as well go to Universal Studios. There's no roller coasters here. There's nothing that really makes you go, oh wow. You know?

00:22:02 John Daub: And you can't even get into some of the pavilions because you need to win a lottery to get in. And so I think that's the downside to it. The best thing is the ring and just walking around. And if you like walking... Like I like Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. I like just walking around more than I like riding the rides, okay? So that's what it comes down to. If you like just walking around theme parks a place that's historical that's not going to be here, you'd be part of an exclusive member of the Osaka Expo 2025. This is the place. But it's not the revolutionary type of event that 1970 Expo was.

00:23:03 John Daub: The admission on the weekdays is 6,000 yen or about, what is that, 40 dollars? Under 40 dollars. So it's not that bad if you're coming with US dollars. Again, come by subway. Don't come by JR. The shuttle bus is painful unless you're coming after 11. It's another 18 minutes and 350 yen. The subway is subway, you know. It's just so much faster and the east is the way to go, not the west. That's my final advice to you. That's my first advice. But the postcards are sent and they're on the way. And I'm going to go film some places in Osaka and then I'm getting out of here and I'm going home. To sleep in my bed.

00:23:46 John Daub: 6 a.m.! I left at 6:09. I arrived at Osaka station at 8:28. I got on the train and made it to Sakurajima at 9:22. I couldn't get on the shuttle bus until 9:45 and then I made it to the expo inside at 10:25. So it took... And if you leave early, that also is less crowded on the public transportation. It still took over four hours from Tokyo to get into the door at the expo. So there's a noteworthy piece of information. It might have been about 10 minutes faster had I left. But the east entrance is almost always fully booked for 9 and 10 o'clock entrances. 8, 9, 10 entrance time is almost always fully booked because it is the most convenient and the less painful one. You're basically going to have to wait here.

00:24:49 John Daub: Just to sum this all up, if you like walking around, it's kind of a cool experience to spend a few hours in here. Walk through the center, walk around the loop, look inside the wooden pavilion, the grand ring, maybe have a snack. You know, go into one or two pavilions if there's not a line. You gotta maybe go into your country's pavilion. I think it's a pretty cool experience. But if you want to see a lot of stuff, you're going to need more than one day if you actually want to go into the pavilions. If you just want to get a taste of the experience, you can come here at 11 a.m. when the crowds are gone at the entrance. Relax, come in here relaxed, kind of lounge, walk around and wait for the night that goes out and you probably have the place all to yourself around 5 or 6 o'clock.

00:25:40 John Daub: Leave your experience, a comment of your experience at the expo down below so everybody can read it and get some value out of it. I really do appreciate the feedback it helps everybody else. But that's been my experience. Is it worth it? I live here yes and no. Will I be back again? I don't know. I might be back. But I highly doubt it, but I could be. Because it's, I don't know. It's a big event in Japan. I kind of like being here, but I don't care about the pavilions. It's not a, without the flying taxis, there's nothing really newsworthy to me. Except sending the postcards to you guys so you can feel like you were here too, which is kind of cool.

00:26:21 John Daub: By the way, I'm going to try to send the postcards for July on the top of Mt. Fuji. So you're going to get a Mt. Fuji postcard in July. So, might be a reason to sign up to the postcard club. That helps make me travel and do crazy things like send the postcards from Osaka. That was my main mission today and it was accomplished. Alright, I'm going home. See you from the top of the expo where I have a signal down there. Not so good. But it's really cool. I mean, yeah, walking around and looking at the stuff. Maybe you'll discover something that I didn't here. Matane.