Before a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you if World Fairs still happened. When I thought of World Fairs, I pictured the late 1800s and early 1900s — major inventions being shown to the public for the first time. These days, with the internet, there’s no longer a need to wait for a big international event to debut something like a telephone or color television.

When we planned our Japan trip back in January, we mapped out 4 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in Kyoto, and 2 nights in Osaka. If we had known a World Fair was happening in Osaka, we definitely would have given ourselves at least one more full day here.

Nevertheless, we were able to book an evening ticket for the day we arrived, and we are so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to go to a World Fair. It was a wonderful experience! Check out Osaka Expo 2025 here; it is ongoing until mid-October 2025.

Above: arriving at the man-made Expo island and waiting for our 5 p.m. entry time.
Below: some shots of the Grand Ring, which is apparently the world’s largest wooden structure.

Our first stop was Gabon, in honor of my sister’s home country, her husband Cyrille, and my nephew Afane. Next door, inside the “Commons-C” building (one of several structures that house multiple countries under one roof), was a pavilion for our favorite European country!

We wandered around the grounds, passing a ton of awesome looking pavilions. Most we didn’t have time to enter, and some others we just didn’t take any photos. Here are a few of the pavilions we passed by.

While we didn’t go inside the Thai pavilion, we did catch a fantastic dance show outside of it.

You might be wondering: what’s actually inside the pavilions? Since I mentioned earlier that World Fairs once debuted major inventions, you might expect futuristic tech reveals. But these days, most pavilions are part interactive cultural exhibits, part national showcases, and a large helping of each country bragging about how they are pioneering AI (it was comically overstated).

We first explored the inside of the Saudi Arabia and Spain pavilions, pictured below:

And the country where we took the most photos inside? (Drum roll, please…) Indonesia!

Between Expo 2025 Osaka and our day at Universal Studios Japan (another post from today), we didn’t have much time to explore Osaka itself. However, before heading to the fair, we did wander the colorful neighborhoods around our hotel. Below: scenes from Dotonbori Street, which was such a fun area!

Lastly – we also got to go to another noteworthy market! Much like the Nishiki Market we visited in Kyoto, Osaka’s Kuromon Ichiba Market was packed with visitors (ourselves included). This time I got photos of the crazy looking mini-squids though. Enjoy!