Our next hotel was in Osaka with plans to stop in Nara to see some deer. The good thing was that we didn't have to book a train but it was at this moment we realized that there is another approach to trains in Japan. We had already taken the long distance bullet train and the short distance city train but this one was in between. We walked through turnstiles like a local train but realized we needed a seat on the train to Nara. Luckily we found the right train and it wasn't leaving for 20 minutes. It was also mostly empty so we were able to easily get seats. The train was fast but not bullet train fast which gave us a chance to check out the rural scenery.
Halfway to Osaka was Nara and Callie had planned on having us stop to see the deer. They were not what I was expecting. I was expecting some sort of game farm where we pay to get in and they had deer that would bow their heads. Turns out the whole city is over run by deer, or at least a major part of the downtown. There were hundreds of deer roaming the streets and true to the internet if you have some rice crackers, and bow your head, they will bow their heads in return. The hardest part was finding the rice cracker kiosk. A few of the deer were a bit aggressive and stepped on Carter's foot while another bit his shirt but otherwise no injuries.
After the deer we got back on the train and made our way to our hotel in Osaka. We're staying right at the station which is where you get off to go to Universal studios. It was nice to only have a 2 minute walk from the train to the hotel. The room isn't as nice as our other two hotels and we laughed when we got inside. It sleeps four with a double and two singles and they were all lined up side by side with no gaps in between. This was also our first hotel that didn't have a shower room. This bathroom is more typical with tub, toilet and sink all in one room.
For the evening we had tickets to the Japan Expo 2025. This wasn't our reason for coming to Japan but it was a happy coincidence. I didn't go to Expo 86 when it was in Vancouver and I've never been to a world expo before so I wasn't sure what we would find. I don't know the full history of this one but I think it was advantageous to Japan because they appear to have built an entire island and train loop to support the event. The outer ring was made entirely of wood and I think you can go on top but it was too windy today. Most of the exhibitions indicate they will be taken down afterwards.
On top of our tickets to enter you could also enter a lottery for one the individual exhibits. Some are country based and others are part of the overall event. We managed to get tickets to Blue Ocean Dome. It's focus was sustainability and it was made of recycled plastics, carbon fiber, and paper. Since it was so light it didn't need much of a foundation. The main dome had a 3D screen that showed the Earth as you entered and then had an 'artistic' movie which was mostly sea creatures that blended together by melting from one to the other. It was best that we got an exhibit that had not talking since we wouldn't have been able to understand anyways.
Many of the countries just had small booths but Canada and others had their own building. We didn't have tickets but you can still line up to get into some of them so we got in line for Canada. We were greeted by some attendants right away and asked where we were from. When we said Canada they told us we got to go to the front of the line which was nice. Most of the people working there were from the lower mainland and are living in Japan for at least this year. The exhibit was virtual. You held tablets and pointed them at ice burgs and it showed you things on the tablet you couldn't see in real life including polar bears, CN Tower etc.
Getting out of the expo at the end of the evening was challenging but orderly. They routed us in a big circle and for a while we had no idea if we were heading to the train or not. Turns out we were and we managed to find our way to the right train. This station is brand new and bigger than any of the stations in Vancouver. I was hoping they would have people pushers to get us on the train but everyone managed to crowd onto the car on our own. Technically our hotel is just across the water from here but we had to take three trains in a U shape to get back. On to Universal Studios tomorrow.
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