00:01
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
万博の混雑
So, I just got back from 万博.
Oh, yeah.
I went to 万博.
From Osaka and 万博.
That's right.
Oh, good, good, good.
How was life?
So, I'll give you a rating.
My experience of 万博.
Okay, okay, okay.
Out of 5, alright?
Out of 5, I gave it a 2 star.
Yes, and I'll tell you why.
Okay, I'll tell you why.
So, 万博, very crowded.
Oh, was it?
Probably more crowded than when you went there.
I guess so.
Because...
Because we're on vacation.
Yeah.
The news said that the 来週末市 kept on going higher and higher.
So, probably more than...
I guess so.
More crowded than when you went there.
Okay.
They said there were some pavilions that didn't have a lot of people.
Yeah.
Didn't have... didn't light up.
Yeah.
None of them.
None of those.
Wow.
At least...
Okay.
At least an hour or an hour and a half for any pavilion.
Really?
Any pavilion, yes.
Oh, my god.
But luckily...
Okay.
予約システムの挑戦
You know, 万博 has this system where you can reserve pavilions.
Yes.
However, that is 抽選.
Okay, okay.
You have to win your tickets.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So, you have five slots.
Okay.
Right?
第一、二、三、四、五。
Okay.
It's like you've got five cars?
Yes, you have five cars.
Okay, okay.
Yeah.
And then you turn that in seven days prior to your 日曜日.
Yeah, yeah.
That's one.
Okay.
And then you have the second chance where you get to 前日。
あ、違うか。
前日か。
三日前。
三日前。
早物勝ちスロット。
Okay, okay, okay.
And then 当日。
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then you can reserve one.
Right, right, right, right.
And then when you go there, you can reserve another one.
Yeah.
Just once, right?
Okay.
So, the five, the seven days prior 第五まで選べるつ。
Yeah.
I did not win any of them.
I lost all.
Is that that bad?
You lost everything?
Okay, okay.
Yes, I lost everything.
Okay, okay, okay.
Right?
But you got two chances.
Okay, that's okay.
I still have two more chances.
Yeah.
三日前。
Okay.
早物勝ち。
My fault, but I forgot.
Oh, yeah.
And I went there.
I was supposed to go midnight.
Okay, okay.
Like, on the clock.
Like, I wanted to go immediately when it started.
Okay.
But I forgot.
And I went there an hour later.
Yeah, okay.
There went 1 a.m.
Uh-huh.
Still early, though, I would say.
Yeah.
Right?
I mean, everything was filled.
Oh, no.
Everything was filled.
Oh, it's okay.
It's okay.
You can still win this.
You still have, yeah.
You can still win this.
当日、一個予約できる。
Every time.
Right, right.
I went there.
I told you, too, right?
Yeah.
Everything was filled.
There was no, none of them was open.
And ultimately, throughout the whole day, I was not able to reserve any pavilion.
No.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah, I had to line up for everyone.
At least, like, an hour for, like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
Wow.
Okay.
Well, I reserved the lunch.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I reserved the lunch.
Oh, good.
Great to hear that.
Okay.
Right.
入場の遅れ
So, well, so my ticket started from 12 o'clock.
Okay.
I think there's the 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock tickets.
I chose the 12 o'clock ticket because I was, I came from Tokyo.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
I had to, I needed time for Shinkansen.
Yeah.
Right.
I got there 1150.
Okay.
Okay.
Right?
Ten minutes before.
Mm-hmm.
I entered the site at 1, 110 or something.
It took me almost an hour.
Oh, yeah.
Even more than an hour.
Yeah.
An hour or so to enter the...
You mean the lines?
Yeah, the line was huge.
Took more than an hour to get inside?
Yes, it did.
And there was no, it was completely outside.
No ceiling.
Yeah, yeah.
No air con.
It's just in front of the gates, right?
That's right.
万博旅行の混雑
The outside.
Right.
During that one hour of line, line-ups.
Yeah.
I would say 50% of my taidoku was gone.
People were just fucking sweating their ass off.
Every one of them.
Oh, no.
Every single one of them was just sweating their ass off.
Fucking tired.
Thank God I had a water bottle.
That was a lifesaver.
But...
Oh, no.
I drank all the water bottle I had.
Even before that.
Yeah, before going in.
So, I reserved lunch at 2.
So, I had an hour before lunch.
Thank God it wasn't like 1.
I know.
Thank God.
Right?
Thank God.
I had an hour.
Okay, okay.
食事体験
So, I didn't have enough time to line up for anything.
I see.
True.
So, I just walked around for an hour.
And then I ate.
Yeah.
And I reserved a food court.
Okay, okay.
It was a reservable food court.
Okay, it's like a food court.
The place where you got kudashi and everything?
They didn't have kudashi.
They had...
Was it like outside?
It was not outside.
It was inside.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't know the place.
Yeah.
Right.
So, it was a food court.
And the food court...
So, I went there with my wife.
And the food court...
Just imagine a normal...
I don't know.
Like a square table.
Okay.
Two-seater square table in a fast food restaurant.
I see.
You can imagine with that.
It's like this wide.
Yeah, like the ones you have in McDonald's.
That's right.
Like a wide little...
Yeah, like rectangular...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That sounds like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
Imagine that all over the place.
Okay, okay.
And then every one of them had a...
It's a twin table.
I see.
Yeah.
So, it's a table of four in every section.
Okay, okay.
And...
Right.
It was me and my wife.
Yeah.
So, we reserved a place.
Right.
Just apart from each other.
Not apart from...
Like facing front.
Yeah, before two.
Yeah.
That...
I thought we were going to get the table.
But there was an ojisan sitting right next to my seat.
So, it was weird.
It was me and my wife and this random ojisan just table-sharing the fuck.
It was weird.
It was really, really weird.
So, you guys were like three?
Yeah.
I don't know what happened.
But it was three.
Oh.
Yeah.
And we reserved the seat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How does that...
Like, he also reserved his seat.
Right.
Obviously.
Yeah.
And then...
I guess it wasn't blocked out.
Like, I guess you had to like...
Oh.
You can't block out the full like four tables.
Four tables.
You can only do one seat at a time.
Right.
So, it's not like a block of four.
So, right.
That's weird.
Okay.
Okay.
That's weird.
That was weird.
Wow.
Okay.
And I had my lunch later.
Okay.
Good lunch.
Okay.
Good.
I would say it was good lunch.
Great to hear that.
Yeah.
What did you have?
It was a katsu don.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, I mean, good katsu don, I guess.
I know what you're trying to say.
Well, I mean, yeah.
It's banpaku and just...
I know what you want to say.
All right.
All right.
But, you know, it was...
My energy was almost drained.
Right.
And there was...
It was limited in what I could actually eat.
Like, it wasn't like sushi.
It was more like I really need to get my energy up.
Yeah.
You know.
You needed power.
I needed...
Yes.
I needed...
Right.
Power.
And then katsu don was it.
Yeah.
I guess it was good katsu don, yeah.
Yeah, it was good katsu don.
The katsu don was good.
Great.
Great.
Yeah.
The rice was really hot, though.
I've never seen a rice that hot.
My katsu don's rice was even hotter than, like, fresh out of the rice cooker.
It was like...
I don't know how they did it, but that rice was fucking hot.
I don't know how they did it, but it fucking burnt my mouth.
But that's okay.
未来的なミニチュア都市の体験
It was good.
The katsu don was good.
Great to hear that.
The sauce was good.
Oh, good.
I loved it.
Good.
And then I had an ice cream after that.
Okay, okay.
After enjoying the lunch with the ojisan.
Yeah, with the ojisan.
Yes, yes.
That's good.
Okay.
And then go outside.
Yeah.
And we were like, how the fuck do we want to navigate this?
I mean, like, should we, like, choose a pavilion
and then just line up?
You know some of the popular pavilions, like Sumitomo-kan or Kueto-kan?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We researched that beforehand.
It was really like, do you want to go for those
or do you just want to go for the ones that we randomly found
that had a lower waiting time?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We were kind of, like, trying to strategize over what to do.
Yeah, and decide that.
Yeah.
But right after we got out, there was this Iida group holding.
Okay, okay.
This pavilion.
And it was like, it seemed like there wasn't much of a waiting time.
Oh, good.
I think it was actually like 40 minutes or so.
Oh, nice.
Not bad, I guess.
Yeah, we lined up.
We went inside.
That was good.
I liked it.
Oh, good, good.
It was a miniature city.
You know, it was like, humans were this big
and they built the whole city out of this miniature shit.
Okay.
And it was like a futuristic, you know.
We imagined this type of city.
Like, you know, it was all like, you know, sustainable.
Okay, it's the future.
I see, I see.
It was all like, you know, very, like, efficient, futuristic city.
I see.
We got to see the panorama and the whole miniature.
Yeah, it was good, it was good.
It was like, it was future.
I liked it.
Yeah, you like those.
I like cities.
I like cities.
The technologies and everything.
Yeah.
Good.
Um, after that, um, what did I do?
Right, I went to, um, I hadn't reserved dinner yet.
Okay.
So.
I see.
I was thinking Kurazuchi.
Okay.
No, not Kurazuchi, Sushiro.
Sushiro.
Yeah, Sushiro did not have a reserving spot.
It was just, you go there, you get your seiriken.
Oh, just like the usual.
Yeah, just like the usual.
Right, so I thought we had a shot.
Yeah, yeah.
It's still lunchtime, so if we.
True.
Yeah, and you can look at how many people are waiting.
Okay.
From the app.
It was like 320 something people waiting.
Group waiting.
It's like, so if we.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got our tickets now.
True.
After lunch, maybe it's, maybe it'll fit the dinner time.
Right, right, right.
We went there.
But, uh, oh, seiriken shuudou desu was.
Oh.
Yeah, I don't know.
So we couldn't, we had to give up the seiriken shuudou.
Okay, okay.
So, okay.
That's okay.
We, after that.
Well, where do we go?
人気の住友館訪問
Sumitomo-Kan.
The popular Sumitomo-Kan.
Okay.
The most popular one.
Okay, why don't we just line up?
We'll just be prepared to line up for like an hour or two.
Yeah.
That's okay.
Still, it's the famous one.
Let's go to Sumitomo-Kan.
It looks fun.
Yeah, we went to Sumitomo-Kan, and it was, um, unusual seigen.
Okay.
There were too many people in line.
They had to stop.
Oh.
So, and they wouldn't allow us to wait around the line.
So you couldn't even...
You can't even line up.
Yeah.
Because there were too many people in line already.
Okay, okay.
So...
How, how do you do then?
Like you just...
Yeah, you have to be lucky.
You can't stay there.
So you have to go to another place and then come back.
And if they're not doing the line up kisei, then you can line up.
You can line up, but if they're doing the line up kisei,
well, then you can't wait there.
So you just have to go, yeah.
Ah, nah.
So...
You can't be waiting for the waiting.
That's right.
You cannot do that.
So, um...
Okay.
Right.
And then there was this parade.
Mm-hmm.
This Indian parade that was, uh, yeah, like, it's like electrical parade.
You know, in Disney, they have the electrical parade.
It's like that, but like the Indian version.
Oh, in the park.
Well, it wasn't shiny, but it was just dancing and singing.
With the music.
Yeah, that was great.
Like, we saw that, like, you know, the parade.
It's just, you know, it's everywhere.
There's no reservation.
Yeah.
So we just saw that.
It's like five minutes or so, but we saw that.
It's great.
悪天候と避難
And then after that, um, it was a huge storm.
This is not, yeah, this is not Banpaku's fault,
but this, uh, rakurai, like shuchuteki rakurai.
There was an announcement of, like, if anybody is outside, please go inside.
Oh, no!
Okay.
It was, uh, rakurai chuuhou mitai na.
Oh, God.
Okay.
After this day.
Okay.
So, you know Commons?
Commons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right?
Commons is a huge hall.
Right.
Where it's not dedicated to just one country,
but it's a collection of smaller countries.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Called the Commons.
Yeah.
That, it was open.
Okay.
And people started going inside that.
Because the other places, you know, there's reservations full of people.
You can't go in.
So people went to the Commons.
Ooh, okay.
Right?
And we went there as well.
Yeah.
Went to the Commons.
Because you can't be outside.
You cannot be outside.
It's dangerous to be outside.
Okay.
Okay.
And staff were like, please go inside.
Please go inside.
Right?
Started raining heavily.
Oh.
Started thundering heavily.
And, right.
So, we went inside.
Okay.
Okay, we can just look at the pavilions at the Commons.
Yeah, of course.
Right?
Of course.
Right.
But since so many people just came to the Commons all at once.
Yeah.
It was packed.
We could not move.
Okay.
Could not move.
God.
Could not move.
Yeah.
Luckily, we found this corner where we just stood.
Right?
Without being pushed by anybody.
God.
It's not the place where you can sit down.
Yeah.
You can just.
Right.
We started sitting.
People around us all started sitting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the staff came.
And we're like, safety protocol.
We cannot sit down.
We have to evacuate.
We cannot have people sitting.
So, I'm sorry, but please stand up everybody.
And then we all stood up.
Just stood there.
Doing nothing.
Yeah, because we couldn't move.
Until the Rakurai Chuiho went away.
We did that until it went away.
It's like an hour and a half.
We just stood there.
God.
Okay.
Okay.
パナマのパビリオン
And then, one of the country in the Commons is Panama.
Okay, okay.
And it was line-up-able.
Yeah, okay.
And it was close to where we were standing.
Okay.
Yeah.
First of all, you have to line for the Commons.
That's right.
Because it was packed.
Okay.
Yeah.
I see, yeah.
So, we lined up for the Panama.
And that was like a five-minute video.
That was it.
Yeah, it was like a five-minute video.
We saw a five-minute video.
Yeah, okay.
And that was it.
Okay.
All right.
We left.
After that, we tried to go for other Commons.
Yeah, yeah.
That was...
Well, we kind of knew that the other ones were like, you know, like Kuwait.
Kuwait.
Okay.
France and Austria.
Those other popular countries.
Okay, okay.
We kind of half knew that we're going to have to give it up.
Okay, okay.
But like...
Oh, I see.
Yeah, well, let's just enjoy the architecture.
Yeah.
Let's just enjoy the architecture and just walk through all these pavilions.
And if it was open, we'll just line up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, we did enjoy all the architecture.
Okay, okay.
Great.
Okay.
Right?
All these buildings.
Really good-looking, you know.
Yeah.
Right.
And, yeah, like what we expected, Austria, Kuwait, those were all unusual to say.
We couldn't even line up.
We didn't even have a chance.
Wow.
Yeah.
You couldn't even line up.
待ち時間とリングの発見
Yeah.
One of the country, I think it was...
Korea.
I forgot.
One of the countries, country that I know, it was line-upable.
And we lined up.
But after 30 minutes of lining up, the staff came and it was like...
What?
I can't do it anymore.
We had to leave.
What?
They weren't even prepared for this much line-up, so...
I see.
Yeah.
I wouldn't blame them.
I guess it was too much for them.
Okay, okay, okay.
After 30 minutes of lining, we had to leave.
We couldn't look at it.
Okay.
So, we were like, okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
Why don't we walk around the ring?
Yeah.
There's a huge wooden ring.
Yes.
Beautiful ring.
That's the symbol.
Right?
Yeah.
And that was beautiful.
Yes.
That was beautiful.
I walked around the ring.
You climbed?
Yes, I climbed the ring.
Good, good, good.
We climbed the ring.
We went halfway.
And then, after halfway, the water show?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Water show.
We were like, okay.
How about we go for the water show?
Yeah.
Let's get a seat at the water show.
Because the water show is done at the Wotafuronto.
Yes.
水のショーと座席のトラブル
Is the name of the area.
Yes, yes, yes.
And right before we got on the escalator to climb the ring, it was the waterfront.
The elevator, escalator was right next to the waterfront.
Okay, okay.
The waterfront didn't have that much people.
And it was like three hours before the show started.
Right?
There was not many people.
Good.
Right?
So it was like, oh, okay.
So three hours before the show, not many people.
Okay, okay, got it.
And then we climbed up halfway.
Okay, let's be ready.
Let's go early.
Yeah.
And then wait to sit down.
We're already like tired enough.
Yeah.
Let's just sit at the waterfront.
Yes.
And wait for the show to start.
Yes.
And have a good view.
Yes, finally.
Finally.
We got this one, at least one moment.
That's right.
That's right.
And we walked back and actually found a decent seat.
Good.
It was a decent seat at the waterfront.
Good.
Right?
We sat down.
I found a Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
Okay.
I'm going to get it.
I got it.
It was good.
It was good Haagen-Dazs.
Yeah.
Yes.
And we sat down for about two hours.
Okay.
Right?
Okay.
The view was beautiful.
You know, it was dawn.
Good, good, good.
The light was, you know, how it hit the ring and how it hit the water.
Yeah, yeah.
It was beautiful.
Nice.
And also, you guys are sitting.
That's right.
We're sitting.
We're standing.
That's right.
That's great.
And the heat is getting easier and easier.
Good, good, good.
Lovely.
And the show started.
Yes.
The show started.
However.
Okay.
Apparently, the place we sat down was a little bit too far off the side.
Okay.
We could not understand what the hell was going on.
No.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
It's a projection mapping.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It looks very different from when you look at it from the center.
Yeah, I guess so.
And then from the side.
It's very different.
It's not even comprehensible what's going on.
Sure.
Right.
Okay.
You didn't even understand the story or, like, the guy made it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, what was it like?
The guy, main guy?
So, the audio we could hear.
We were close to the speakers, so we had a very clear audio.
Okay.
But, almost no visuals.
It had a lot of flashes.
Yes.
It had a lot of laser beams.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But.
Presumably, building up to a beautiful picture.
Mm-hmm.
But it was not comprehensible from where we sat down.
Just random lights and lasers.
That's right, random lasers.
And then, immediately followed by a firework.
Oh yes.
That's right.
That was good.
Yes!
Finally!
体験の感想
Finally!
Yes!
It was close to the uchiage spot.
Good!
The sound, you know, it vibrated.
Oh yes.
That was great.
Good.
Highly satisfactory.
Highly satisfying.
Finally!
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
And then the drone show, right?
After the drone show.
I think it was one of the most, like, one of the main, like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right?
I think it started from 9.
Yes.
I did not know that.
Oh.
I knew that the train was going to be fucked up.
Yes, yes.
Remember, we talked about hiring a taxi.
Yes.
I did hire a taxi.
Okay.
Oh, good.
Right.
But I realized that it was...
I hired from 9.
Oh, no.
Okay.
God.
Okay.
I tried to change the time.
Maybe 10.
Yeah.
I'll be perfect.
But it was the go-wapuri.
Okay.
The taxi driver told me, the slot is already filled.
So I could not move my 9 o'clock car.
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
So...
Just...
Yeah, right.
When it started, we got on the taxi.
That's right.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
And...
But, like, comfy in a taxi?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was, like, non-stop, like, joke of, like, how terrible the experience was.
So it was, like, we didn't get, like, in a bad mood or anything.
I see.
You know, it was all a joke of, like, laughing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
So, right.
As a trip with wife, great.
Good, good, good, good.
But, like, if I were to rate the experience itself...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
...to, like, if I enjoyed the banpaku or not, if I enjoyed what they had to serve or not...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
...I would give it a 2.
Oh, yeah, obviously.
I'd give it a 2.
Because, basically, what you just experienced was, what, like, katsudon, 5-minute video, and fireworks.
You're right.
That's it.
Beautiful construction.
Beautiful...
Yeah, construction.
Beautiful building.
Buildings.
Yeah, it's, like, it's very kind even you rate them 2.
It can be, like, 1 or, like, even...
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, it's like a comedy show.
I know.
It's like a konto.
I know, right?
I know.
And in taxi, we were, like, you know, my wife's friend was also...
One of her friend was also in banpaku.
Oh, on that day?
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
And that friend was...
Posted a story, right?
Of, like...
And she wrote the story.
It was, like,
Banpaku tanoshisugite!
Mata ashita mo ikuwa!
Oh.
Yeah.
Well, I...
I mean, I guess they were able to win all the chusen, I guess.
I don't know.
We assume that.
Okay, okay.
We just assume that.
Oh, so she, or he, or I don't know, actually enjoyed that?
Yeah, yeah.
The friend and...
Yeah, the friend and the story said that she loved it.
Okay.
It wasn't a joke or things like that?
No, no, no.
Honestly...
Actually loved it.
Oh.
Actually loved it, yeah.
Okay, okay.
So, I think it's a matter of, like, can you win the chusen or not?
I think that's fairly...
True, true, true.
But the thing is, you cannot even enter for that chusen unless you buy the ticket first, right?
Yes.
Yes.
It's very likely that you'd buy the ticket and win zero chusen.
True.
And that's...
True.
That's very much possible, so...
I love the part where the sudden, like, rainstorm came and just...
Yeah.
Everybody just had to get inside and...
And also you had to, like, stand out.
Yeah, or just sit there.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, how can it be better than that?
I know.
At least we were healthy, you know?
At least we were healthy.
I mean...
ストレスと家族の状況
But I saw so many families and couples just fighting because of, like, so much stress and everything.
Yeah.
And that was sad, you know?
One dad lashed out.
It was a dad, mother, and a son.
And the dad was like...
And the son was like,
I don't know what to do, guys.
Oh, no.
Dad!
And the mother was, like, pissed too, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So she was, like, fucking, she wasn't saying anything, just looking down.
旅行の思い出
Oh, no.
And the son was just like,
I don't know what to do, guys.
That was so sad.
That was so sad I had to see that.
Yeah.
Oh, no.
That's so much drama.
I know.
So much drama.
Yeah.
So...
Great to hear that you guys enjoyed the whole experience.
Yeah, we were able to turn it into a joke, and that was...
Good, good, good.
I guess that was good.
Yeah.
As a memory, I would say...
Yes, a memory.
You guys won't forget that day, I guess.
Absolutely.
That's right.
Right, so...
Okay.
Thanks for sitting, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
