Our Visit to the Osaka Expo 2025
Our Visit to the Osaka Expo 2025
As we were curious for this once-in-a-few-decades event, we went on a weekend family trip to Osaka to visit the Osaka Expo 2025 and enjoy some other fun highlights that this bustling city has to offer. Here is what our 2 night/3 day trip looked like!
Arrival Night in Osaka
For convenience, as we were traveling with a toddler and a teen, we took the airplane out of Haneda to get to Itami airport so we didn’t have to spend hours seated in one place. We took a taxi to our rented apartment in Tengachaya, dumped our luggage there, and had our first Osaka-style meal: kushi at a pork-speacialized restaurant. As it was going to be an early morning the next day, we went to the apartment right after dinner.
Day 2: Universal Studios Japan and Discovering Dotonbori
The next day we headed straight to USJ, one of the largest and most beautiful amusement parks in Japan and a must-visit if you love theme parks and we arrived at 10 AM. Here is what we learned from our visit:
-> you have to book priority tickets for restricted area Super Mario World early, we tried booking them the night before and they were all sold out. They have a lottery for timed entry tickets on the day itself as well, but we didn’t win as there were likely many others who tried the same thing
-> if you can, you should avoid coming on a weekend day or national holiday to beat the largest crowds
-> Single rider lines for the win! Although it is more fun to ride together, lining up in the single rider lines can save hours of wait time. We were able to ride 4 of the best thrill rides in a short period of time because we went with the single rider lines
-> On busy days, for lunch you should book one of the sit-down restaurants a few days ahead of time. They were all booked up on the day of and you can’t line up so you have to eat snacks from the smaller spots which also have long lines. We beat the lines by eating a big brunch at Mos Burger just before we entered USJ, it opens early
-> the rides are amazing, the Harry Potter ride is thrilling and beautiful, and the roller coasters are fast and exciting
Dotonbori
We left the park at 15.00 to head to Dotonbori to sample some of Osaka’s best street food. After some of the best takoyaki we had ever had with various flavors we went on to enjoy kushikatsu, fried meat on a stick that tasted delicious. We then headed to the pier for a boat tour of the canal which was a fun way to see the hustle and bustle of the area that almost doesn’t feel Japanese as it is so colorful and stimulating.
Then we went for some more fried snacks and a few veggies for a bit of a healthy feeling in a sit-down restaurant, and we finished our gastronomic discovery of Osaka with some very delicious fresh cheesecake from Rikuro’s. Tired but satisfied we went back to the apartment to get a good rest before the next full day!
If you are only in Osaka for a short period of time and you want to hit the ground running and make sure to get all the best delicacies in, book one of our guides for an Osaka food tour! We found Dotonbori an amazing warren of little food shops and it was definitely hard to know where to begin and make sure to get the best quality and not miss out on some of the more hard-to-find snacks. You will be taken by an Osaka veteran who knows just where to go, so you can just tuck in while listening to stories about life in this interesting city and country.
Osaka Expo 2025
We managed to get entry for the 10 AM slot, the more popular 9 AM slot was already full when we booked our Osaka Expo tickets. We were able to see 2 more popular pavilions as we were able to line up for one and get a reservation for the other one, and to be honest, we had hoped to be able to see a bit more. Here are some tips for you to get more out of your Expo experience than we did:
-> Book your tickets at least 2 months ahead of time so you can participate in the first lottery to get a reservation for one of the more popular exhibitions. The difference in the exhibitions’ quality is huge and you will definitely want to see at least 3 or 4 of the better ones. Some of the best ones are Italy, Azerbaijan, France and the Signature Pavilions
-> Try to reserve the 9 AM entry slot as soon as you can, and arrive around 8.30 AM to gain faster access. We came on the busiest day up to then, due to it being a Sunday and the start of summer, and we had to wait in the heat for more than one hour before being able to get in
-> Prepare for the (hot) weather, bring a sun umbrella and a hat with you
-> Here is what we enjoyed; the Indonesian pavilion and the Future of Life pavilion (one of the signature pavilions done by a famous Japanese artist), the little natural area in the middle, the kids enjoyed the playgrounds, the walkway above the terrain that goes all the way around, and the architecture of some of the pavilions, lunch in the Thai pavilion
-> Try to come on a weekday. If you are able to stay for the whole day and early evening that is strongly recommended, it calms down a bit after around 4 PM
