RANKED! Osaka Expo Top 100 Pavilions – 2025 Japan Travel 大阪万博 パビリオン ランキング
Hi everyone, David here! Welcome back to
the channel. Thanks for coming back for another video or welcome if it’s your first one. Thanks
for joining us! What a time to join us though if this is your first one because we’re at
the end of the Expo season now.The Expo itself is I think about two weeks away from finishing.
And as you might have gathered from my many many Expo diary videos – I think 10 in
total – I have actually been to every pavilion now, more or less. So, I thought a good way to
kind of cap off this season would be to do a big old ranking and show you what I thought was
the most impressive pavilion out of all of them. I’ve just about managed to get it to a
top 100. Some of them you might think, maybe they’re together or maybe you should split
them up. But, OK, this is the list I landed on. 100’s a nice number. I think I’ve been to
everything I could feasibly go to. There’s a few little odds and ends here and there. For
example, the Monster Hunter, which is part of the Osaka Healthcare which I have been to, and
part of the Live Earth Journey Signature Pavilion. I haven’t managed to get there yet to one
of the shows, but yeah, more or less I’ve seen everything. So, I think I’m in a good position to
tell you what I thought. Excuse me, I’m excited. So, that’s what I’m doing today. I’ll start
from 100 and go all the way to the end. Now, one thing I do want to say is that by and large,
I have enjoyed everything at the Expo. Of course, there have been lots of challenges on the
way. Getting reservations for most of them has been the biggest challenge. There’s
been a lot of roadblocks and its popularity was making things more difficult,
which is of course a good thing for the Expo, but not good for me. Like I said,
we’re in the last two weeks of the Expo now. The availability for tickets has gone through
the gone through the floor now. I think everyone’s coming. They’re trying to trade in their tickets
and it’s too late for some of them. everything is full. So I’m actually going to go there
after this recording in a few hours. So I’m dreading to see what I’m going to
see there. I haven’t actually been there for 2 months if you can believe that, because firstly
I went back to England. I got sick and I’ve been doing these Kansai pavilion stamp rally things.
So, I’ve been keeping busy and the Perfume concert last week, too. So, finally, I’m making
my glorious return. Hopefully I’m not going to have to wait too long. It’s been chucking
down with rain today. So, let’s see. Right, I’m going to try not to blather on for too long
about this. So, let me let me show you everything about the Expo. I’m going to try
and keep it short. So, please like this video, subscribe to the channel, share this video to
anyone, you know, and also leave a comment or a question, anything like that. Please be
try to be respectful though because these are just my opinions. I’m not saying something is bad. This is just what I feel. This is from my experience. You might have had a different experience. That’s all good. Let’s talk about it, we all have different experiences. That’s fine. I’m
getting bit defensive about the internet now! So, I’m going to hop over. Well, we’re already
in the PowerPoint space. So, let’s take a look at the… well, I don’t want to say the bottom 10,
but that’s where we are really. My least impressive of the bunch was the Nordic Circle.
I love the Nordic countries. I’ve been to all of them. I was expecting to see so much kind of
Nordic Scandinavian character, but unfortunately the Nordic Circle didn’t really provide that.
It’s mostly a fairly small museum of bits of paper and photos. So yeah, never mind.
Best Practices in the Future Village. Yeah, just kind of an information station. So
nothing exciting. Mitsubishi was our first corporate one. I was a bit disappointed. What
a huge company Mitsubishi is. And they basically made a kind of mini cinema for kids, talking
about evolution. Yeah. that wasn’t one for me. Also then we’ve got the International
Organizations. This includes the ASEAN Union, we’ve got the Expo museum there. Some of
the nuclear power bodies as well. Yeah, it was kind of kind of interesting. Nice to see
the old Expo archive footage as well. And now Turkiye. Again a big company big country, lots
of money, lots of budget, but they didn’t really do much with it. The entrance was kind of cool.
They have a big crescent moon with the world in it. But mostly it was just like
a restaurant and a gift shop. So I don’t think I really learned much about Turkiye in the end.
Now I have to be careful because I think some countries obviously don’t have the same budget as others. So I’m not trying to… it’s hard to kind of compare them. But how much excitement did I get from them? That’s all I’m going to judge based on. What were the good vibes?
Senegal and Bangladesh and Mozambique at 92, they were all kind of interesting. You
could see a little bit of their world, but mostly it was just kind of like a museum
display, a little bit of like a bigger version of the Commons ones. So it felt like a little
bit of a missed opportunity to do something. Mozambique had a nice video upstairs though. I did see that. The Robot Mobility station, 93. Yeah that was kind of cool too. You get to see some
interesting machines. Tunisia. I think I scored it down a little bit because there was such a
long line because they let so few people in at once. So, they really could have managed
that a bit better. Inside was fairly ordinary. We’ve got the projection rooms. We
had a lot of projection rooms at the Expo and a little bit of a peep into the world of
Tunisia at the end. So, yeah, not bad. None of these are bad, but some of
them are a bit more underwhelming, let’s say. OK, so let’s go to our next page. Next 10. We’ve
got Earth at Night, which is rather misleading. I thought it was kind of a space theme, but
it was just like a black lacquerware globe, which was kind of cool by itself, but
it wasn’t really what I was hoping for. Yeah, nice arts and crafts in there, but yeah…
Team Expo 2025 program – this is one of the… guest speakers came in to
the Future Village to talk about things that I didn’t really have anything to grab on to there.
I spoke to some of the local university students though. Egypt had a very long line although
they did manage this a bit better by the time I got there. Another projection room. Egypt is
such a cool country. I wish they could have done a bit more. Algeria too. Again,
very nice projection room, very immersive and they did a bit more with the interior.
I think so that was a bit nicer than some of the others. Romania was a nice pavilion
but again, mismanagement, I think, of the line. I had to wait about 40 minutes because
I think each group takes about 20 minutes and going in there’s a lot more space. You
could have fit a lot more people in there and it wasn’t really worth 40 minutes wait let’s say.
My friend said it looks like a Starbucks as well which I can’t really get out of my head
now. India, again nice, very nicely decorated, although it focused more in industry, which was
perhaps not as exciting for me. Then we’ve got the Yoshimoto pavilion. I have still have
no idea what this was. There’s a giant leek and some weird parody arcade machines. I don’t
know why people were reserving this because there was nothing inside really. Although the outside area was really cool. There’s always something interesting going on there. The
Netherlands and Austria, I think they both kind of had a lot of hype behind them, but it didn’t
really pay off that much. So the Netherlands, everything was pretty much in Japanese, too.
I don’t know if they were… I heard there were English tours as well, but I don’t know. I didn’t
understand that. They’re very strict about the reservations, too. So I just felt a bit
underwhelmed, really. I felt like most of it was just queueing up for the final
presentation. Austria too, that’s probably one of the coolest buildings, but inside it just
kind of relied on AI. Composing the future using AI is a bit of a depressing thought for one
of the cultural centres of classical music. Azerbaijan, another really cool building. The
outside, the twirling girls, inside there wasn’t really that much to it. It was kind of
reminded me of the Brunei Pavilion in the Commons. Not really much there, although
I did have a nice chat with one of the ladies in the little museum bit at the end, but yeah,
not much to see there. OK, next 10. Let’s go to our first couple of Signature Pavilions. We’ve
got the Live Earth Journey, which was kind of interesting for kids. It was very interactive and
talked about the dawn of life in Earth. I guess that’s why they got that story.
This was the Anima section. Yeah, it was a bit incomprehensible, I’d say, but it was kind of fun.
The other sections, there was an outdoor section you don’t need a reservation for. That
was kind of interesting to wander around if you’d got a bit of time. The Dialogue Theater,
also a bit impenetrable for British people, English speakers because everything was
in Japanese, the big kind of presentation. They do give you a QR code or they chased
after me and said “Oh use the QR code for subtitles”, but you’re not allowed to use the phones in there. So I felt a bit awkward trying to use it and actually the subtitles didn’t work
at all. So never mind. The building is beautiful though. Definitely walk around the building.
I think you can do that without reservation. OK, then we’ve got a few other odds and ends
really. Excuse me. We’ve got the ORA, the Osaka Restaurants Association Gaishoku Utage,
which is a not quite a food court, but it’s a kind of food display area. There arelessons upstairs.
You can make some noodles or Okonomiyaki. I didn’t get a chance to do that because of
course the reservations were gone. Future Life Experience had the JAXA pavilion which was cool. We can see some projection shows about the space agency. Junior SDG’s camp was fun
too because they had the super heavy stamp. They had a Nazotoki game as well which I like.
Then let’s go on to our Commons pavilions. Common’s F, I think is the small one with only
three countries in it. That’s kind of interesting. Of course, there’s not much content
there because it’s so small. And the Kazakhstan one had an incredibly long line for the
the tour, which I don’t think was completely necessary. You couldn’t even walk around the
the pavilion part without the tour. So, I’m glad I got in there early. Then we’ve got Angola,
one of the ones late to the party. Yeah, kind of fun. A nice building. Good
storytelling in the start, but there wasn’t really much else to it. But
kind of fun. Looks like they’ve got some nice events there too. Qatar – apart from the
mosquito-laden outdoor water feature, that was kind of interesting. I liked the
the decor inside. The interior was good but focused mostly on beach geography, which was
perhaps not maybe the most engaging part but kind of nice. And then finally, the EU,
which had kind of an interesting tropical vibe. I liked some of the weird interactive
activities like touching the plants to select menus on the screen, and that was kind of cool.
And we’d got an interesting food van outside, although I didn’t get to eat anything from that.
OK, how we doing for time? That’s not too bad. And we’ve got the Baltic Pavilion right
next door. This is Lithuania and Latvia’s joint pavilion. Unfortunately, Estonia didn’t
join the party. That’s a shame. Yeah, kind of interesting. It was sort of Baltic
vibes. It had a very foresty feel to it. Although most of the building or most
of the pavilion was just kind of flat walls with like information sheets on them. Yeah,
they did try some interesting exhibits there. So that was cool. And there was some kind of live
link up as well. I’m not really sure how that worked. Then United Nations, that was kind of
fun too. They had really good English support there. I really appreciated that. It was kind
of interesting to walk around there and see the movie as well inside. Commons-A,
This is the first of our big Commons pavilions. I was looking
down the list of countries and none of them really stuck in my memory that much apart from
the St. Kitts & Nevis’ creepy robot. But the Commons pavilions are really good to interact with people from other countries if they’re not sitting there kind miserable on their
phones, which was happening quite a lot. Then we’ve got a collection of Vietnam,
Chile, and Cambodia. All kind of fit in the same category of mid-size pavilions. Not really that
much to show apart from objects and exports and things like that. Interesting
in itself and I liked the immersive feeling of all of those. Vietnam had a little
performance in the middle of it. That focused less on the immersive environment but
Chile and Cambodia had a kind of central art feature and then projection walls which…
I don’t know, for such a fairly simple idea it was quite effective. I think it was quite good and
Cambodia had the nice sort of pyramid as well. Are these pyramids if they’re not smooth? Is that
a ziggurat? I’m not sure. I don’t know. Maybe a ziggurat has a flat top. I don’t know. I think I
need to study a history book. Then we’ve got Turkmenistan. The one with the biggest light
bill, I think, at the end of this. Very flashy and very interesting. It did feel a little
bit propaganda heavy. Our glorious leader was interesting. I did actually see the glorious
leader on the second day. That was on the Turkmenistan National Day. So now I can say
I’ve seen the prime minister of Turkmenistan, president maybe. Bahrain, actually next
door to Turkmenistan I think. That’s kind of an interesting building too. Apparently
based on a boat which I didn’t really see but yeah good except in the summer when it was
not air conditioned at all. There were some really interesting smells that you could smell in
the little samples. I wish I hadn’t done all of those, but they did put a lot of thought
into interactivity, which was good. Peru, it’s kind of an upgrade from the
projection room ones. Kind of a level-up of Vietnam’s one, I think. So, lots of Machu
Picchu and nice vibes. I’m going to start using the words “nice vibes” a lot, I think, because
that’s what gave me a nice impression of the country, of the pavilion. Then we’ve
got Commons B as well. One of the big ones as well. I think this is the one that had
Pakistan and Nigeria I think. Is that right? No, I’m not sure now. Anyway, it had something
nice in there. Oh, Zimbabwe! I think they had Zimbabwe with the virtual reality. So that pushed
it over the edge from the other Commons ones. OK, there we go. No. 60, South Korea.
Interesting in itself. The technology was really cool. The pavilion itself was
a bit incoherent. I didn’t really know what connected the three rooms. I didn’t feel like
that was very well explained, if it was connected at all. Just kind of felt like an anthology of
three separate pavilions almost. But yeah, interesting! The Electric Power pavilion,
that was also good. Very interactive. I think more aimed towards kids. You didn’t really get
enough time inside to sample that many things, because they could have either added fewer
people so you had a chance to do more things, or give us some more bit more time.
So I felt a bit like “Oh that’s all?” Nepal finally made it at the end of July.
That was kind of fun. It kind of feels like I don’t know, a small city market square.
So there’s a little food court around the middle, and lots of Nepalese arts inside. Commons D. That’s the one with Pakistan and Nigeria. They were the ones that were kind of impactful. So
that was cool to interact with those. We’ve got Brazil, too, which I managed to get into late
night. Interesting. Some people didn’t really like the inflatables, but I thought they were
kind of cool. Inflatable little monsters. And then the projection rooms. And, I don’t know.
I felt a lot of Brazilian colour, let’s say, in that one. So, that was cool. I think this is our last
Commons Pavilion, Commons-C. I almost didn’t want to put this at the top because
this was kind of a projection mapping box room bonanza. But there were some kind of
nice ones, too. They had Ukraine. They had Croatia, which was kind of fun. I talked to the
girls there. And yeah, more immersive than some of them. Although you do have to
line up a bit longer because it takes time. Tech world the Taiwanese pseudonym. I was
really excited for this but I felt a little bit disappointed. It was kind of interesting, that
iPad forest thing they did at the start was cool. But again there wasn’t really much English
support there which was surprising for Taiwan. Not even much Chinese support to be honest,
for the Taiwanese visitors. So yeah, I did get a nice bag though, so I’ll give them
a few points there. Australia again, nice vibes, but not a lot of content. I felt the little jungle
was kind of interesting. And then the projection mapping room reminded me
of Moana. But that was it really, so a little bit of style over substance I thought. Speaking
of which, Better Co-being, another one of the Signature Pavilions. Very beautiful,
a nice open garden, interesting design. I had no idea what was going on. There were
too many apps and items to juggle with, especially when you’ve got a parasol and trying
to record it. So I feel like I missed out some of the meaning. I did get a nice
bag of there as well. So, thank you for that. Dynamic Equilibrium of Life, kind of an esoteric
demonstration presentation about the meaning of life, altruism and so on. The central
thing was kind of cool though, the little LED forest was really effective to do 3D LEDs
So that was yeah interesting. A bit short though. I felt a little bit like… that was my first
Signature Pavilion to feel like “Oh OK, what was that about?” OK Let’s move on to the top 50.
My home country, the United Kingdom, is there. A little bit, I don’t want to say disappointed,
they do some interesting things right. It looks very flash, very interesting. The decor was
interesting. The mascot I wasn’t really into, and I felt that the content, the presentation
was a little bit lacking. They kept talking about ideas without actually talking about any
ideas. So it was a little bit speculative. Portugal and Ireland both kind of again
a nice vibe place. Not a huge amount in there but it kind of gave me a feel of the country’s nature.
So Portugal is a very kind of coastal country, so they had a lot about the sea and also the
connection with Japan. And also Ireland had a lot of traditional arts and crafts, they had the
little mini nature zone and also the big immersive panorama theatre which had
nice quiet vibes, let’s say quiet vibes after the chaos of the Expo. International
Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement. That was pretty simple as well, it’s a bit like the
United Nations but the video they showed was really moving as well. So I think that’s all
they really needed to show to be impactful, so I was kind of impressed. Czechia – again, not
really that much. It’s kind of peaceful. It’s like going to an art museum. The building
has got a nice design to it, although I just kind of felt like I was looking at art all the
whole time. I didn’t really feel that much Czech identity from it. I don’t know. I didn’t
really learn anything from Czechia. The roof garden was good though. I mean it had
you know, a nice atmosphere. And then the cool theatre in the middle was good. Canada.
I was kind of expecting a lot from them, but it was interesting. They kind of banked
it all on the iPad gimmick. So you’re holding this really heavy iPad thing and doing kind of
augmented reality stuff with these big icebergs, and turning into scenes of Canadian civilization,
which was a kind of interesting idea. Oman: that again was an impressive structure. The outside garden was really cool and the etched glass effects they did on the walls
were really good. Although at the end, the main feature was just a very long projection room
thing which you really need to stand in the middle of. I was on the edge so it all felt a bit
stretched. Jordan, everyone’s making a big fuss about the sand which was interesting.
I’d forgotten about it when I actually entered. Yeah, it was good, but little bit of a scramble,
I wish they could have had a little bit more space for changing because you have to take your
shoes and socks off and put them away. So, a little bit disorganized, but yeah, interesting.
And a nice kind of immersive place to go into, not just a projection mapping movie, but also
the sand itself from Jordan. Panasonic, the world of Nomo. Again a little bit aimed
towards kids I think, but very interactive and I kind of enjoyed interacting with everything and
you had a chance to do everything as well. You had ample opportunity to do all the activities
yourself. So that was nice. More good vibes from Thailand. They had some good dancers outside. They always had nice energy. I actually liked the design of the pavilion although
people have complained that it was kind of a cost cutting job but I liked it. And then again
there’s a little video which was cool. They tried to get you to interact, and the kitchen …you can
get kitchen smells all the way through the rest of the presentation, the exhibition. So that was
quite nice actually. I liked the smell of that! So yeah, good vibes from Thailand. Let’s go
to the UAE, which is a nice refuge if you want to escape the hot summer because almost
zero waiting time, because it’s so big and people don’t really stay in there that long I guess.
Yeah, again a nice aesthetic as well. The kind of … what are they? Kind of wicker? Not
wicker but man-made natural fibre pillars. Even some woven rockets as well! It was kind of
cool mixing the traditional and the modern. And very friendly staff. I got to see the big
firefighting drone as well which was pretty good. So yeah, I enjoyed that one. Future city:
definitely a quantity of things to do there. That’s a huge place, you can spend – I think I
spent about 2 or 3 hours in there doing trying to do all the different exhibitions. Interactive things,
interactive presentations with the voting for someone about how to change the future.
That was kind of fun. And all the different companies made their little mini stands. It
was a bit like a Commons but for Japanese tech companies. So that was interesting. Serbia,
again, very interactive. It’s kind of cool. I didn’t really learn much about Serbia, apart
from they’re going to be the new host of the next Expo. But yeah, very interactive and,
interesting exhibitions, too. Good for kids. The Philippines, some people said it was
a little bit lacking in content, but I thought it was kind of fun for what it was. You get to
see, what’s the word? Embroidery or like woven artworks from all the different regions of
the Philippines. There’s that, I don’t know, virtual not virtual reality, augmented reality.
I don’t know. It films you and you can see yourself on the screen and it superimposes
things on you. It’s makes you out of flowers or something and you’re a little flower person.
That was cool. And you get a little AI picture as well, which made me look really fat.
And I got a free massage as well. If you got there really early, you might be able to snap up one
of the tickets for the free massage. Malta: I have to be nice because I know lot of people who are working there. It was nice though, the entrance was really cool. I liked
the exterior, the inside. There’s not really much inside apart from like a couple of exhibits.
And then the main is another immersive projection room, but it was really nicely done.
I could feel the Europe out of it. Anyway, I could feel the Mediterranean love. We’ve
got Colombia next. Again, interactive. They had a nice aesthetic. They really knew what they
wanted to show. Kind of jungle feelings, jungle aesthetic, jungle animals. And you can touch
all of the different things out of Colombia, including some kind of weird snotty thing.
Coffee beans, special sand, all that stuff. Spain, again, beautiful exterior. I think that’s one of my favourite exterior looks, especially at night, it lights up, too. And very colourful, which
is what I expect from Spain. A lot of block colouring, monochromatic. So, you get
to see part of their marine history and communication with Japan. And then you get to see some of their famous sites too and a bit of a tourism play, too. Signature Pavilion,
Playground of Life, the Jellyfish Pavilion. Again, very good for kids, especially without a
reservation. The top level you can go without reservation. Underground, there’s a kind
of interesting, what’s the word? Sensory Deprivation show where you have to close your
eyes and imagine you’re in the rainforest. Then there’s a live band in the next section
with interesting circular screens around the whole place so you kind of really
get into the rhythm of things. That was a unique experience. I think that’s the Signature Pavilion
where I could really feel someone’s vision for designing a space. Then the Women’s Pavilion,
very interesting, a very classy kind cool and calm area. Especially like I said, the Expo
is pretty crazy and people are everywhere, but I felt like I could calm down and focus
on the matter. I wasn’t being rushed. I didn’t have to wait that long either. The audio
guide was great. There’s even a chance to revisit because there are different routes you
can take. So yeah, I really enjoyed that one. And the architecture was good.
The roof garden was really pretty. Iida group & Osaka Metropolitan University’s
collaboration was really cool. The building was cool. They had shelter over the lines.
Thank you! It wasn’t difficult to get in and there’s a huge diorama inside which was interesting. I wish people had just spent more more time watching that than hunting for Myaku
Myaku, because they just kind of got in the way really and couldn’t really see the wood for
the trees. But interesting technology for the future. Right. Top 30! Belgium focused
mostly on their healthcare credentials which was good. Again a very technological pavilion
lots of screens big screen showing their… I don’t know, was that AI art? I’m not sure, digital art,
and what they want to do with gene therapy and all sorts of things in the future. And you
got a free Biscoff as well if you were lucky, and the waffles were OK too.
Singapore was also very good. I love the look of the thing, the giant ball. And inside
was very artistic, kind of a paper jungle, which was good. Upstairs you can write your
wish down for the future and send it up into the top planetarium zone, which was
kind of a fun idea. Malaysia, I think mostly just like content wise, it was very impressive.
There’s a lot you can see in there. There’s a huge restaurant and shop on the ground floor. They have performances outside. The people were friendly in the exhibitions. I felt like I could really learn a lot about modern-day Malaysia. Poland, very nice, very nature-
based and, kind of cool and calm. Again, I like the building. They focused on trying
to feel nature, the sounds of nature, the looks of nature. Monaco too kind
of focused on nature. I just realized those two flags are upside down. That looked like
a small pavilion, but actually there’s quite a lot of stuff there. Very interactive in the
first building and you can see the sights of Monaco. And then there was the marine life
zone too with the interesting colour-coded sea life displays which was really interesting.
I was kind of impressed by Monaco. It’s just a nice well thought-out and well-delivered
concept. Then we have Gundam Next Future which is the Bandai Namco pavilion. Of course
everyone’s taking a picture with the giant Gundam outside which you can just go and see.
Speaking as a person who knows about Gundam and has seen a couple of the films but otherwise
don’t really know much. I could still enjoy it. I could enjoy the little projection show.
And it was really cool what they did it with the real outside of a spaceship and then the
screens on the other side of that, so it felt a bit more like not just a flat screen. So I
don’t know, it was very effective I think. Then the Gas Pavilion Obake Wonderland with the
AR goggles. Don’t worry if you get carsick using VR because this is not the same as that.
You’re standing in one place, you’re not moving around. Turn around if you get to use the
goggles because it was really fun. And you get to send fireballs towards boss characters.
That was really fun. The rest of it was just explaining the future of gas power. So that
was sort of interesting. Luxembourg, yeah, very nice. I don’t really know that much about
Luxembourg, but I could feel different parts of their culture, their multicultural society,
what they’re working on technology-wise, a bit of an actual look into Luxembourg.
There are some interesting exhibits, too. There was a big net you could sit on and the little
enclosed cafe area was really nice as well. So, yeah, good. And they managed to
separate itself from the craziness of the outside. It was a huge line though! Uzbekistan,
again a very striking building. Nice display, very cool and calm. The twist with the elevator
was really interesting as well. If you haven’t been there, I won’t say what it is, but there
are kind of immersive projection rooms, too. And the roof was really nice, too. You can
just kind of chill out up there. Switzerland. that was interesting, too. We had a lot of
interactivity. Again, interactivity is what engages everyone, I think. So, that
gives you more of an impression what you did instead of just reading posters. I think the
AI milkmaid thing was a little bit strange, but I think sometimes Switzerland can be a bit
little bit strange. So, that was good. OK, moving on to the top 20. Oh dear, I’m very dry.
Talking too much. The Blue Ocean Dome. Bit of a bummer, but it was very effectively done.
The huge water feature, the water mechanism thing at the start was really mesmerizing
I was sitting there looking at that for ages! Excuse me! And then the big presentation
at the end, very effective and moving, and the sound was really cool. I wish they could
have blocked some of the sound out from outside a bit more, but definitely check out
the Blue Ocean Dome if you get a chance. Now, I’ve been talking about nice vibes. Indonesia,
I’m sure, wins the award for nice vibes because the staff are famously very friendly and
getting people to come in when there’s no reservations. And inside is surprisingly dense. It
looks like a very small building because you see it point-on. But, there’s a lot to see
in there. You see the jungle, there are some traditional items. There’s the shadow puppets
as well, which was really cool. So, yeah, I enjoyed Indonesia. Osaka Healthcare. Goodness me, there was a lot in there. I think I spent about three or four hours in there trying every little
activity I could. Yeah, very interesting. You get to see yourself in 25 years. They scan you,
They check all your hair health and your eyes and all that stuff, your teeth, and imagine
what you’ll look like in 25 years. Apparently, I’ve got brown eyes in the future, but anyway,
that was kind of fun. And yeah, because that’s the Osaka pavilion basically, they have
a lot of performances outside. They’ve got the Monster Hunter thing in a separate annex.
And lots of content there. Saudi Arabia, too I guess I could put Germany in there, too.
I think they really had a concept of what they wanted to make. Saudi Arabia had kind of
desert vibes of the buildings, the palm trees, everything inside. And everything feels
like you’re sneaking into little hidden rooms everywhere, which was a nice
nice feeling. And Germany, very welcoming, let’s say. I liked the squishy little headphone
thing you held on to, that talked to you. You scan it on things and you listen to it. Loads
of interesting displays. You can spend quite a long time in there reading all of the information
about the sustainable city of the future. There’s some nice outdoor entertainment, too.
They’ve got a garden on the roof. So, yeah I enjoyed Germany. I like Germany. Bulgaria,
a late addition to my list. One of the last ones. I know some people were a bit disappointed
with it, but I got really nice support from the staff there that helped me to go in there without
having to line up so long because there’s an English tour. Inside was kind of cool
as well. I like the sofas, instead of just having a big screen, they had lots of little
bubble screens. So, it just kind of gave it a nice twist where some of the other pavilions
just went straight on. So there we go. And I like their yogurt too. We’ve got the Host Now, Japan.
Yeah a cool building, really interesting. I really really liked the link up with Kansai airport.
I liked the collaborations with Hello Kitty and was it Astro Boy? No, Astro Boy is not the one.
Doraemon’s in there somewhere. Yeah, it was just touching on Japanese culture.
But yeah, interesting displays. I feel like, I don’t know, I think perhaps some of the
other pavilions like the Kansai pavilion covered what you can do in Japan more. So Japan kind
of focused on technology and sustainability. So, I mean, algae, I don’t know how far you can
go with that topic and be engaging, but they definitely took it as far as they could
with it. So, yeah, I enjoyed the Japan pavilion. Another Signature Pavilion now, Earth Mart,
showing our relationship with food. Very interesting displays, lots of things to look at
and a little bit interactive, too. I was just really interested in everything they
were writing about, how much consumption we we do in the world. But different countries
have different things they eat. I don’t know, it kind of widened my understanding of food in
the world and yeah, classy. Good job! I really liked the part imagining food of the
future or food design of the future. That was really interesting. Then we’ve got the Sumitomo
Pavilion, one of the corporate ones. That was really cool, too. The Forest of
the Unknown. You had the lantern, you could go and interact with lots of different
things. That was fun, very immersive. And, the kind of ballet dance projection thing
at the end as well was really good, with a real ballet dancer. Excuse me. That was really
interesting. I think it really, I don’t know, it just took me out of the chaos of the Expo,
I think. So, that was… they always get good points for that! Rounding off,
just outside the top 10 is the United States. A lot of bang for your buck, let’s say. I was
very happy. They really helped me out, the staff to tell me when the English tour was. And I
got to see the space program stuff. I’m a bit of a space kid, so that was really fun
for me. I really enjoyed the flash-bang of everything. There’s an interesting song, showing
all of the excitement of living in America just before the second Trump administration.
So there we go. That’s up to the top 10. So let’s get cracking on the top 10! So starting
off, let’s go to the Pasona Natureverse. This is another corporate one focusing on healthcare
and nature, and again SDGs. You get to see a display about the history of
the world. You get to see Astro Boy’s story. You get to see a real actual artificial heart.
It’s kind of a small size one but it beats. You can see some cells that they’ve created
too which is really interesting, kind of unique. I think that’s one of the things people will take
away, one of the memories, what unique things did you see? That’ll be one of them. And the
dynamic projection… not projection, LCD box show was really cool. The boxes were
moving around and stretching and shrinking. I’ve never seen anything like that. That was really,
really cool! Then we’ve got France at No. 9. Again, very elegant. they obviously put a lot
of effort into the building and they had a lot of different rooms to look around, focusing
on fashion, history and design and just you could feel the Frenchness from it all.
There was that room with the ballet dancers or dancers anyway, the three dancers. And the
little hidden garden and all that stuff. It was pretty interesting! So yeah, France was worth
the wait. although I didn’t have to wait that long. Number 8, I put Hungary. That was a bit of
a surprise really. I knew it would be some folk dance display, but I didn’t expect it to be
so engaging. We were all in this very dark room with very subtle lighting that was changing
throughout the performance where there was one woman singing live in the middle and
doing a bit of dancing as well. I don’t know, it felt like a very unique experience that I’ve
never had before. I came home very impressed by Hungary. Then, oh, the infamous Null, Null 2,
NuruNuru, I don’t know what to call it anymore. The Signature Pavilion that was on everyone’s
lips and not in everybody’s reservations because they were like hen’s teeth to get one of those.
I did finally manage it. I guess it could be accused of style over substance a little bit, but
it was very stylish. It was a very immersive, pretty intense room with a lot of technology and
a kind of oppressive electronic soundtrack to it as well. I kind of understood the story by the
end. I had to read up the website and everything, I feel like it maybe overstretched itself
technology-wise because some of the things had broken down outside, like the 3D scanner.
But you do get to see it twice just to let it sink in. Once as a participant and once as a spectator,
which was really interesting. There was a translation as well while we were waiting
for the next group to come in, but it was cut off. The English part was cut off so I don’t know. So
that was interesting. Very interesting design too. Speaking of which, the Chinese pavilion was
very cool. Pretty much a straight up museum of ancient artifacts and seasonal
changes in China. But they used technology to really spice things up. They did
kind of 3D images on glass so you can really check some information about the thing you’re
looking at, get information in all languages and the huge – was it a screen or a
projection? I’m not sure – showing the seasons of China, that was really interesting. Upstairs
the daily life, one day in the life of China China was really immersive and interesting.
We got moon rocks as well which was cool, a very content-rich decently put-together
pavilion, so good on China. Robots as well! Kuwait was fifth for me. Again, very
interactive. Everything was good, I don’t think there are any misses really. I think all
of the interactive activities were fun. You could play with the sand. They had
the immersive projection room, but on a ball this time, but they had some weather
effects in there too. And the final planetarium ceiling display thing was really impressive
and really beautiful. So, I enjoyed that a lot. Fourth, again, the one on everyone’s
lips was Italy and the Holy See, a joint pavilion with Italy and the Vatican.
The lines for that were incredible. They were, I don’t know, four, five, I’ve heard 7 hours long.
You could get reservations through a separate app, but only really at the start of the exhibition.
I did manage to get there on a lucky rainy evening when people had started to go home.
So I was very impressed inside. The staff were very friendly. I had a really nice chat with
some guy there who was explaining everything. He really knew what he was talking about. You get to see original art, huge bits of original art, the sculptures, the paintings. There’s a real
Caravaggio. You get to see real Leonardo da Vinci notes. The roof garden was interesting.
They just really put a lot of effort into the Italian pavilion. So that was really cool. OK, number 3.
Well, I’m a bit of biased here, but we’ve got the NTT Pavilion. This is one of the first
ones I visited. I think maybe my second pavilion. Of course, I went in there for Perfume, who
did a special performance in 3D. They actually did the performance in the pavilion, I think,
and then recorded it with various cameras, so you can get a 3D performance on the same
stage, which was really fun. The other stuff was interesting. The history of communication. They
had the other interesting part which was the the body warping thing. They take pictures
of you and then they mess around with them and they animate them, which was a little
bit crazy but it was fun. A ittle bit like a diet version of Null2 I think. So I really
ant to go see that again, especially now Perfume announced their hiatus. I want to see
that one more time. Now, number two, I chose the Kansai pavilion, which might seem a
bit strange because I live in Kansai. But maybe that’s part of why I enjoyed it so much! I felt
like I’ve been doing a lot of stuff this year and I’ve been keeping a bit too busy. I felt like
the Kansai pavilion really reintroduced me to what makes me excited about Kansai, which was really a happy feeling for me. You get to see all the different prefectures including…I’ll finally
stop going on about this but they do include a few prefectures that are not technically Kansai
like Fukui, Tottori and Tokushima but whatever. Their displays were interesting as well.
All the prefectures had some interesting different approaches to their shows like Mie
had a really nice interactive museum. Hyogo had a video, like a special short film.
In Tottori, you’re searching for things in the sand. There’s real sand in there and they do some
projections on there. Shiga had a very interesting light show with bubbles. Kyoto were
focusing on their food. Yeah, all kinds of things really.The only thing I didn’t really
understand, why was Nara not there? That’s one of the big Kansai prefectures! But anyway…
And finally, Future of Life is my number one! You probably guessed it by now, the Signature
Pavilion, the one with the androids, was really interesting. I think that might have been my
first Signature Pavilion to get. I wasn’t really sure what the Signatures would be like and I was
really impressed. That made me want to see all the other ones. Basically, an idea of how we
could be eventually uploaded into Androids when we die, and the moral implications of that or
ethical implications or what it means to be a human. And it was focused around
a really interesting story of a nice old lady getting ready for the end. So yeah,
it was really moving to be honest and I still haven’t forgotten my experience there,
even though that was one of my first pavilions. So yeah, definitely thumbs up to the Future of
Life pavilion. I recommend it. If anyone gets a chance to go there, do it! There we go!
That’s my top 100 pavilions. Thanks for staying all the way to the end of this one.
What do you think about it? Do you agree? Which ones did you like the most? Like I said,
please be respectful. This is my opinion! I am interested to hear your opinion, too.
I know people had different budgets, people had different concepts, so this is just
my feelings about it. I’m hoping I get to see that top three one more time when I’m
going back to the Expo. I’m going in a couple of hours, so fingers crossed for me so
I can do that and maybe tick off a few of those loose ends as well. So there we go. That’s the
end of my presentation today. Thank you for listening to my TED talk! I hope you enjoyed it!
Please like this video. Please subscribe to the channel. Leave a comment or a question. Share this channel to anyone else. I think this is going to be one of my last Expo videos,
because it’s finishing, I might do a little kind of roundup thing at the end. And I do want
to do a little archive video, which might not be a main video, of just all of the pavilions,
footage of all of them just for the future, like a little time capsule. I might put that
out midweek or something just so it’s not one of my main videos. It might take me a little
while to put all that together and I need to clear some space off my hard drive to fit everything
in, but I’ll do it at some point! But yeah, thank you very much. I hope you’ve enjoyed my Expo videos. There’s loads of them on here. So, check out the Expo playlist as well. But that’s
enough. Take care and see you again. Bye-bye!
The 2025 World Expo opened in Osaka’s new Yumeshima Island in April 2025, I was there in its opening week to enjoy around 200 pavilions from every corner of the world. The Expo is now almost over, and I managed to enter all the pavilions, thanks to several visits with the season pass and a lot of patience with the reservation system…
So now, with the ink drying on my stamp passport, I will rank all of them! I had to massage things a bit to make it a clean 100, but I think it checks out. (By the way, each Commons pavilion is treated as one pavilion – it was impossible to rank every small booth!)
PLEASE note that this is my personal opinion, you are totally free to disagree with me, but please do it respectfully. My friends and I all disagree on our favourites, so it’s a purely subjective ranking.
I also don’t mean to offend anyone involved with the creation of these pavilions – honestly I think every pavilion was impressive in one way or another, but some of them resonated more with me than others. It didn’t need a huge budget, either!
If you found this useful, I would really appreciate a Super Like, this took SO much time and effort to visit all the pavilions! By the way, I am planning to do a sort of archive of all the pavilions for the future, so subscribe and click the bell icon so you don’t miss that!
Thank you all for your support so far – it’s only just beginning, I hope, so please continue to support me in my fourth year. I appreciate all my subscribers, and my next goal is to get my annual viewing time up so I can grow my channel more in 2025. I think it’s possible! Please like, subscribe, comment and share! Thank you!
#osakaexpo #expo2025 #worldexpo2025 #worldexpo #kansai #japan #travelinjapan #sightseeing #expo #myakumyaku #大阪関西万博 #大阪万博 #大阪万博2025 #signaturepavilion
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