THE AICHI EXPO

STUDENTS' COMMENTS:

On 29th April, we went to "Aichi Banpaku" as a school trip.There were lots of groups, families, puples and tourists though it was like a summer day.It seemed hard to line and wait for the turn for long time in the sun.It must be boring as well. So I didn't line. Instead of making lines,
I took some picuter with the staffs. They were all kind and pretty. The dresses they wore were interesting, too. Of course I took a picture with "MORIZO".He was so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But he didn't talk...I've never heard his voise.
Like this way I spent the day with Maoko&Hakuto,Maoko suggested to us to go to Ireland one.I enjoyed it.And then, we went to U.K.'s Italy's and so on..l.We could go into Japanese Pavilions.But Iliked to go there.I enjoyed all the day.
(d18)


Aichi expo was great!!! We could see the world in Aichi! There were lots of countries and I'm sure every one loved them! Also there were lots of foreigner. Some of them came there for the true and the others came for their jobs. Most of them spoke Japanese bet some of them couldn't. Even if they don't speak Japanese we could speak English so that wasn't problem!
There were too many people and we couldn't see things well but still it was great!
We had to wait to get in to each building. Sometimes we had to wait for 2 hours!

Also there was lots of students as well. They came there from all over Japan. I thought I was really lucky because Aichi is not so far from Hamamatsu and we could come back just for one day!!! I think this is great!!! But actually I wanted stay over there with my friends. If i could do that it's gonna be fantastic!!!!

Anyway Aichi expo was great and really interesting i guess everyone should go there there and see it! There will be more and more busy!!!!
(BKL)


On 27th of April, the whole school went to “Aichi EXPO”. We left schoolat about eight o’clock. It took us about half and an hour to get there.When I got out from the bus, I couldn’t believe that it was still April.It was soooooooo hot!!!! It was almost like summer! I could feel my skinwas getting burned.Whatever, we had to walk about fifteen minutes to EXPO from the parking.When we stopped near the entrance, each of us got the admission ticket fromteacher and after that, we could go anywhere freely with friends. I hadexpected that there would be so many people, but there were more peoplethan my expectation, so I was quite surprised.First of all, we went to “The Earth Tower”, the biggest kaleidoscope inthe world. We went in to the line and waited for about fifty minutes. Well,usually fifty minutes seems long, but we were talking, so I didn’t thinkthat it was that long. Anyway, finally we went in to the tower. We lookedup the top. It was a huge kaleidoscope. It was so amazing. It was sobeautiful. It really touched my heart. I really liked here.After “The Earth Tower”, we walked again to “Wonder Wheel”. This wasan exciting one, too. I rode on this with Rie. It was so amazing. We couldsee the power of imagination combined with the dream of unfetteredmobility. From ancient to contemporary times, this has been an essentialelement in the evolving drama of human activity. This journey travels fromprehistory to the present day and into the future, focusing on eight stagesin the pursuit of the human of ever-expanding mobility. This was quite niceattraction, I think.Next, we went to “Italy Pavilion”. It was okay though. When I saw thecar covered with chocolate, I was sooooooooo surprised, and the smell wasso good. That was the most impressive one at this pavilion.Finally, we went to buy some souvenirs. I bought cookies to my family, andtwo towel handkerchiefs (one for my sister and one for myself), and a clearfile for my sister.Then, we went back to our bus, and came back to school. I got so tired, soI was sleeping whole the way to school. I was so tired, but I had club today….. I got tired more and more. I can’t tell how I got tired this day. ButI really enjoyed “Aichi EXPO”. Because we didn’t have enough time, wecouldn’t see all the pavilions, so I want to go again.
(doubleY)


it was a sunny and hot day, so i took off my jacket,,,
on 26th, i promised with mayuka that lte us catch same train in the morning.however, iu missed it which was coming 6:52 in the iwata sta..i texted and said to her that i was sorry i couldn't take a same train...she texted back to me and said that not to be in a hurry, you've got prenty of time, so you would be fine to catch next train.

anyway, i want aroung with mana, yui.t, and ayano.we went to lots of foreign country's houses, and i've got lots of stamps which are vietnam, indonesia, bruinei darussalam, thailand, kingdom of saudi arabia, qatar, new zealand, kingdom of bhutan, uzbekistan, tajikistan, yemen, iran, kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, and usa.we went into "yumemiru-yama".it was very interested rather than enjoynable.we fascinated the performance which included and performed about environment and scienence.oh, i have a funny,,,no, disgusted thing.when i wanted to wash my hands before eating lunch, i wanted to find a toilet for washing them.i couldn't qiute find it, so i walked around and around, finally, i found it where was quite far from a bench which we had sat down.and then, when we finished eating lunch and starting to walk, i found a toilet which wa nearby a bench,,,i rather think i should have have been and walked around nearby it,,,how silly i was! can you imagine it??
we wanted to go and enter popular houses, but, waiting time was so long, so we gave up, instead, we went to lots of places.it was pretty good, i think.
(nkji)


I went to EXPO in Nagoya on my school trip 27 April. All the students and most of the teachers of my school went there with eighteen buses (I’m not sure but I think they were eighteen). We had a very hot day but we had to wear our school uniform so it was quite hard for us to stay cool, not sweaty. But it was a lovely day as well. We were very happy because it didn’t rain at all.
It wasn’t my first trip to the EXPO because I went there with my friends from England in Spring Holidays. My first impression of EXPO was that the place was huge and it was full of people. And this time, I felt the same impression again. There weren’t only the other High School students like us, but also there were so many old people and Primary School students.
One of my shocking incidents was the High School students and the Junior High School students looked much older than us, UMINOHOSHI students. They were wearing their school uniforms but they weren’t wearing the uniforms properly and most of the girls were wearing make up. I’m not saying that I didn’t like it because what they wore were their choices. I’d just like to say that I found the difference between students in Nagoya and in Hamamatsu. I thought Hamamatsu was a big city but there are more cities bigger than that.
By the way, the pavilions I visited in EXPO were the Italian Pavilion, the Pacific Islands Pavilion, the Central American Pavilion, the Bulgarian Pavilion and so on. My friends and I tried to find a Brazilian Pavilion because my friends were in charge of Brazil in our class exhibition of our school festival, Beritas Plaza but there wasn’t one so we went to the Central American Pavilion in stead. We were able to see various kinds of plants that we could’ve not seen if we hadn’t been to the America so that was interesting.
I was in charge of Italy so we went to the Italian Pavilion and there were a lot of interesting things. We found the car made of chocolate! The car was the same size of a normal car of Fiat, the Italian car brand and amazingly we could smell it being covered with chocolate because it was real! A guide explained to us about the chocolate car and Fiat, and the place called Torino where Fiat’s main company was in. Have you heard the football team called “Juventus”? The team is based there! I knew the team but I didn’t know it was based on Torino. I thought Juventus was the name of a place! The guide also told us a big news; Torino and Nagoya are becoming sister cities next year. How exciting is that. Now I really want to be a resident of Nagoya! Anyway, I learned a lot of things from the Italian Pavilion and the guide was very cheerful and friendly to us.
The other pavilions were also very interesting. I think that was because we could’ve not seen or even known various things about various countries in our daily lives. We learn a lot about the U.S.A and the major countries in Europe at school but not much about minor or small countries in South America or in Europe or in Asia or in Africa. So going to EXPO and visiting various countries’ pavilions is a good opportunity for not only getting knowledge of the countries but also feeling different cultures. There are a lot of foreign guides and they are all friendly so it’s amazing! That was why I enjoyed the day in EXPO so much.
(flick)


First we went to Global Common 6. There is 12 countries of Southeast Asia like Vitnam, Indonesia, Thai land etc... I thought Banpaku is very large place and we can't see all pavilion. Next we went to Corporate pavilion zone. Many corporations like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Hitachi were participate in Banpaku, We wanted to go JAVA Wonder Wheel Pavilion, but there were many people in line to go in. So we gave up to see it. Then we walked around the Corporate pavilion zone. Every pavilion formed a long line and many people were waiting. After all we went to Mountain of Dreams. It was science water show. This show was 3D, so we wear glasses. I thought this show is good educate for kids. And then we went to Global Common 1. There is 14 countries of Asia for example Korea, China, Iran, Nepal, Yemen etc... I had fun in Yemen pavilion. I took a picture with Yemeni. Sometime I was confused about difference of each countries, but I think I got understand it little bit. Then we went to Global Common 2. There is 8 countries of south north America. We went to American pavilion. We waited for 15minute to go inside. We saw a picture projected to a big screen. They talked about Benjamin Franklin who was famous politician in America, and they talked about "Nature's Wisdom". I want to see that show one more time. It made me think about relation of nature and future.
We had only 5 hour to stay in Banpaku. So we didn't have much time to see all pavilion. My dad said that he went to Osaka Banpaku 35years ago, he said he had fun to see a moon's stone, and he want to see how difference Aichi Banpaku is. So I thought Banpaku is very fun place for any age. Meybe I will impress same feel as my dad after next Banpaku set up in Japan. I had very good time in Banpaku.
(gonbe)


I went to EXPO 2005 AICHI JAPAN. It was my first experience. I knew EXPO 1970 OSAKA and The tower of sun, but I didn't know what EXPO is. I found a little of it.
At first, I wanted to go to the pavilion of TOYOTA and HITACHI, but I couldn't go there because of crowd. In other place, there are many people and procession. I was so displeased at that. And few bench to sit and eat made me annoying. It was very discomfort.
But, the pavilion of nation was so interesting. I went to the United States, Mexico, Middle America and Northern Europe's pavilion. Especially, Middle America's pavilion exhibited a lot of historical materials. I shot these material to use our display. The huge meteorite was so big and the ornament which made of gold was beautiful.
Thie EXPO had good side and bad side. I didn't go to the pavilion which I wanted to go. I want to go there again.
(Koh)


There were lots of people at the EXPO .When I came back to home , my mother told me that
a radio announcer had said " There were about eighty nine thousand people at Aichi EXPO
today . " The weather was so wonderful . I even felt hot .
At first , we ( Yurie,Yukiko,Rie and Mayuka ) went to see a huge kaleidoscope .While waiting ,
we talked a lot , so I didn't feel it was hard .Anyway ,I was hot .
A huge kaleidoscope was so_so .I prefer smaller one (ordinary one) to the huge kaleidoscope,
but I wanted to know how to make the huge kaleidoscope . As you know , we have to turn
a kaleidoscope , when we want to see it . However , of course we can't move the bulding ,
but the pattern of the huge kaleidoscope changed .
After that we rode wonder wheel and saw some vehicle designs for the future created by
Japese students .Those were really unique . It was just unfotunate , we could not see main
Pavilion like robots and mammoth .
(incredible)


The international exposition in Osaka had been held before I have been born,
so I was looking forward to go to the international exposition in Nagoya.
(The mascot charactor, Morizo and Kikkoro are very cute.)
The weather is perfect for the excursion, if anything, it was too hot !!
I want to see "the mammoth", "the thousand year - clock" and "the tower
of the earth".
The clock, called "the thousand year - clock", was made in the last days of
the Tokugawa shogunate, about 150 years ago.
The clock has several superiority.
It can indicate the lunar calender and the solar calender at the same time.
And, in the lunar calender, the summer time and the winter time are adjusted
automatically.
Each function perfectly synchronize !!
I was very surprised that the man, Hisashige Tanaka who was called Edison of
Japan, made the clock without complex machine about 150 years ago.
So, I do want to see the clock.
But, the area was very very laege and there were many many guest.
So, I couldn't find out the clock.
It's my great disappointment.
I went to the global common of Asia, America and Southeast Asia.
The pavilion of U.S. leaved some impressions on my mind.
The research of Franklin Benjamin was very interesting.
I have never been abroad, so, the excursion was good experience to know
many culture of other countries and to learn to take a broad view of things.
(yuzu)


there is my emotion of the expo 2days ago.in a word, it was fantastic!!!!!!!i was really looking forward to going to irish pavilionand i went there as soon as i arrived at nagakute, whichwas the BAMPAKU KAIJO(....actually, i went to the giftshop first so the irish pavilion was the second place iwent.) i found it great because there were a lot of thingsi saw in ireland and they reminded me of my irish life!!!in particular, i was moved by somehigh(?)-crosses(high-cross is irish and a type of cross)they were not real ones but they looked just like them!! iwas really impressed!!after i went to the expo, i started to miss irelandagain!! i wish ireland were near japan and i could gothere whenever i want. but i will try to go there as soonas possible and until then, i will keep in contact withthe people i miss, i'd like to see!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Question123)


yesterday,it was a very good weather,but it was hot. we went to EXPO JAPAN, AI CHIKYUHAKU! it took about 2hours by bus.there were a lot of people there and croweded. because they queued to get ticket of these pavilions. as soon as we arrived the gate, we unfolded the map and dicided where we'll go.
at first, we went to "Taiyou no tou(sun's tower)". there is a very big kaleidoscope which is the biggest in the world. because of a good weather,kaleidoscope was shining! it was very beautiful. before we see it,we queued 50minutes.
after that,we had a lunch on the bench. it was a early lunch. after lunch, we went to "Tenransha(Ferris Wheel). we queued 80minutes. but we talked all the time,i didn't feel that waiting time was so long. it was just hot. the ferris wheel is not common. we can ride as see video. it is very enjoyable and interest. everyone can enjoy!! i want to ride again.
after riding,we went to "Global Common". there are many countries pavilions. we saw Italy and Spain. we wanted to see Germany,we couldn't. Germany was the most popularin the global spot,yesterday. if we wanted to see the spot,wa have to wait over 2hours. so we gave up...so,we walked around. and we ate ice screm. i ate strawbwrry one. and we bought some souvenirs at the shop. i bought for my family. the shop was so crowded,too.
we left there at 3:00. i want to be there more times, all day long!!! we needed more times. i want to go EXPO more 2times. next time,i'llsee other pavilions. especially,"TOYOTA" and "Mammoth Laboratory". we had a very very good time. so i'm so happy.
(kamekame)


I went to Korean pavilion at first, and we visited American pavilion, African pavilion and so on, I thought African pavilion was very nice and it was worth visiting there. American was pretty nice, it was full of mechanical things and I quite enjoyed that. Korean was nice as well but I didn?ft really see the point of the things they?fd chosen. Inside was very dark and all the women were wearing the traditional Korean clothes ?gch?fima-chogori.?h They all looked really nice. There were quite a lot of small TV which were showing Korea, there were lots of things but I kind of thought that it didn?ft really have the attraction to make us see the all the things.
I really enjoyed the African, there was a lots of things came from Africa (according to the writing, ?git is came from Africa.?h)
I enjoyed the shopping in there, I didn?ft buy anything but it was good window shopping.
I also drunk the African coffee and it was really strong but it was ok.
I enjoyed the Bannpaku very much. I want to go there again with my family next time.(with my grand mum as well and ask her to buy something for me.)
(Ayaka)


On 27th of April,I went to the expo in Aichi. When I knew there would be a expo first, I did not expect it to be such a great one at all.
As you know, it is very attractuve and beautiful. It is a place where we can learn a lot of things at the same time.Like how we should coexist with cars, cultures of other countries and the possibility of Japanese high technology. But unfoftunately, only 5 hours were not enough to be satisfied to visit it.It was too busy and wide to move smoothly So, I'm going to go there again. (If I have time) But I am very delighted that we vave such a wonderful thing near where i live. I want it visited by millions of people.
I thought it is great that making something all together. A lot of people suppport it in many ways from children to grow-ups. Even from foreigner. I hope this would be a lead for the world peace.
I took a lot of pictures of everyone.I have got them developped already. I have got lots of them of my friends sleeping face actually. On our way to school,almost of my class mates were exausted and sleeping. I'll be show it to them. I wonder they might get angry. But I think it should be fun. Because they are so cute!! They were just like angels even though they are very very noisy all the time. Somehow I was not tired at all.
Anyway today, I had so much fun!! I would love to visit there again.
(Miffy)


We went to the Aichi Expo by bus.It took two hours.When I arrived there,Iwas very surprised,because it was very large and there were manypeople.First of all I left for bottom of the Expo to enter the companypavilions. We found very popular pavililns "Toyota"and "Hitachi".There wereso many people that we could'nt go in. We decide that we enter the "MitsuiToshiba pavilion".We had to wait for two hours.We were waiting our turn. Itwas our turn to enter this pavilion after a just one hour.This pavilion canexperience image system appearing ourself on the screen.Fist we took apicture of my face and the scanner took tihs face in. We went to the nextroom. There was a big screen and the film was showed.We appeared on thescreen as cast.It was hard to find myself. When I found myself on thescreen,I laughed.I felt is that really me?We enjoyed it and admired great technique. I think these technique willdevelop more in the futher.Next we ate lunch and went to the global common zone.There were manycountry's pavilions.I'm interested in foreign country so I was happy. Weenter the Egypt,Belgium and of course Ireland. We could see differentcultures and history in each country. It was very useful for me.Aichi Expo had many interesting attraction.We could'nt go around all onlyone day.I was very tired,but I will go there again with my family.Next timeI want to see tower of the earth and I hope I can see the character"Kikkoro" and "Morizo"....
(Paul)


we went to Expo in Aichi the day before yesterday. it has a lot of fun,and i enjoyed.BUT there was very very very clowded,so we had to wait long time when we went in al pavilions,and in addition, it was very hot that day,you know...
at first, i went to 'daichi no tou'(=the earth tower). it takes 50 minutes to enter the pavilion. it was very hard for me to wait,but when we went in the room, and saw the kaleidoscope, it was very beautiful!!!! i lost my word... i have never seen such a wonderful and big kaleidoscope. it was amazing!!!!
next,we went to the Ferris wheel,and we waited 80 minutes..... but in the box, we were excited!!! what a beautiful view! if you go to Expo again, i recommend you to go to this wheel!!
im sorry i cant write anymore.... because in fact. i could not enjoy some pavilions very much... and i dont like waiting something, and in addition, i hate clowded places...hehe...
(L4DYL)

... AND A FEW WORDS FROM THE TEACHER:

I counted 400 coaches already in the parking lot when we arrived yesterday morning at 9.30, with new coaches arriving at a rate of about half a dozen every ten minutes. Each coach holds an average of about 40-50 people so that will give you some idea of the various groups (mostly students) that are coming in on a daily, hourly basis.

In addition to this there are packed trains running into the Expo station from Nagoya every 5-6 minutes, not to mention people who arrive by private transport. Numbers in Japan have to be seen to be believed.

The organisation of all these hordes of people is typically efficient, which is what one comes to expect in Japan. Nothing is left to chance and new arrivals are streamed and sorted by a benevolent version of Bergen-Belsen in which scores of uniformed staff arrange parking of buses and the progression of milling crowds towards the entrance gates.

In spite of the huge numbers, our school group of about 600 encountered very little delay.

Once inside, the sprawling size of the exposition grounds strikes you immediately. There are a minimum of three transportation systems in operation (possibly five) apart from the option of simply hoofing it.

Many nations of the world are represented in separate or shared pavilions (Oceania, the Caucasus, West Africa, the Baltic States, parts of South America, several others: Chad hasn't shown up yet so the other Africans use their booth as a coffee break area; the Ecuadorians are late, too, having recently thrown out their president). The pavilions are grouped in geographic clusters -- Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas -- and so on. Some of these national pavilions are thoughtfully designed and informative whereas others, frankly, are a waste of time and money.

The Irish pavilion was pretty cool -- literally so, since they had provided black curtains at the entrance and the air-conditioned interior had reduced light and a rather relaxing greeny-blue ambience. Considering the brazen blazing sun of late April in Japan this was a definite plus. The chief exhibit was a display of truly enormous high crosses arranged in a central circular chamber with a separate surrounding corridor wrapped around it. The walk-around corridor had brilliant graphics with Japanese (no English) explanations and some pretty chancy scaled-down versions of the Cross of Cong and the Ardagh Chalice, plus the Book of Kells. Any Irish person would know straight away they were fake ( a bit small, hmmm?) so I don't understand why we couldn't have made actual-size better fakes.

One brilliant idea was to set up a bank of reclining seats in a semi-circular alcove along one of the outer walls of the corridor. The wide video screen was up on the inclined ceiling. That was a stroke of genius. Everybody wanted to see what was going on, but there were only 20 seats. People waited for those seats. You could almost hear the sigh of relief as people sank into these comfortable seats and took a little break from the pandemonium and the heat outside. Whatever showed up on the video they were certainly well-disposed to watch it. And it was a good video, a lot of shots of Ireland from the air, with some great music which was ruined because you couldn't really hear it.

Overall, the most popular sites are the technical ones run by the major Japanese corporations. Why does this come as no surprise? These exhibits and multi-media shows were designed to impress and they certainly do. Japan, after all, is the host and 90% of the visitors are Japanese -- and possible future customers!! The queues were long and the projected waiting time, from 90 minutes to two hours, prevented me from visiting any of these places. I am sure they are fantastic and impressive -- and a great advertisement for the companies involved!

I took the overhead cable car from one side of the exposition grounds to the other. That was fun. It was a floating five-minute ride over the whole shebang with thousands of people below. It cost Y600 -- 4 Euros, $5.60 -- and this is one of the problems I have with the Expo. Why is it so expensive? The prices for everything, from simple transport to food, is extortionate. There are even rules prohibiting the introduction of certain kinds of food and drink which can be bought more cheaply outside.

Overall I was impressed, largely by the intelligent layout of the grounds and by the efficient (but rather overpowering) nature of the organising principles behind the way people were moved in and shunted about. At the same time, I was glad I didn't have to pay for travel and entrance fees (it was a school excursion) in addition to the money I spent on food, a couple of drinks, and transport within the site. It could be a very expensive day for an average family. Without wishing to appear overly critical, I gathered the impression that the Aichi Expo was designed for a mass public with access to a huge amount of disposable cash -- a public that enjoyed a bit of spectacle but didn't have to think very much about what it was seeing. Why not? This is the winning combination in Japan.