Nagoya Flower Hotel

Atsuta Shrine, a real Japanese treasure

by cvilla007

Some people think that there's not any good traditional Japanese culture in Nagoya. I thought so too until I visited Atsuta. You must check it out. The forest has 500-hundred year old trees. This is probably the most important Shinto shrine in Japan. Check out the website link for more info.

Global Common 1 - ASIA

by ClareyD

Highlights that we visited:
The India pavilion which was fascinating with lots of interactive things like ringing bells, playing tablas and such like. Also the curry in the food area was excellent!
The Mongolia Pavilion has a traditional dwelling called a "ger" that you can take your shoes off and pop inside to see what its like.
Sri Lanka Pavilion has a large pagoda inside, lots of people demonstrating traditional crafts and a reminder in pictures of the devastation brought to the country by the tsunami.

Other pavilions in this global common:
Saudi Arabia
Yemen
Qatar
Iran
Nepal
Central Asia
Bhutan
China
Korea
Pakistan
Bangladesh

World Expo 2005

by ClareyD

"Nature's Wisdom"

The World Expo 2005 is hosted in Japan near Nagoya in the Aichi area. The theme is Nature's Wisdom and the message is one of living together in harmony with the world.

We visited World Expo on our 14 day trip to Japan at the end of March 2005, 4 days after it opened and I would describe it as a one off experience. If you want to go you have till September 2005.

Some of the star attractions here are the preserved remains of a wooly mamouth in the Global House, a robot band in the Toyota pavillion, a robot recognises and responds to quesitons in 3 languages and pavillions from just about every country in the world that give you a taster of the many different cultures of all the countries in the world!

Sounds fantastic and it should be, but be warned when we went it was extremely busy and the queues for some of the star attractions were up to 3 hours long. However it is possible to reserve a time to visit some of the more popular pavillions.

Also see my tips on food, general advice, overview of Expo & area by area guide, getting to expo and getting around the site.