The daylight made me wake up as early as 4.15 a.m. Turning around to sleep again, I finally woke up at 5.25 a.m. We had to meet Mr. and Mrs. Toyoda at 6.30, therefore we left for Tokiwadai Station at 6.10. It took only ten minutes for us to walk to the station. Mr. and Mrs. Toyoda arrived at the station punctually. We took train to Ikebukuro and reached there at 6.45. From Ikebukuro, we transferred to another train to Tokyo. When we arrived at Tokyo Station, it was only 7.10. There were more than 30 minutes for us to catch the bullet train.

Mr. and Mrs. Toyoda bought breakfast for us at Tokyo Station. The bullet train would take two hours to reach Nagoya. We would take our breakfast onboard.

Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

We took the 7.46 a.m. Super Express 209 Bullet Train. The train arrived at Shinagawa Station at 7.54. After stopping at that station, the train traveled directly to Nagoya. After stopping at Nagoya, that train would continue the journey to Kyoto and Shin Osaka.

Many people took their breakfast onboard. The train moved very fast, but it was smooth and steady. The windows of the train were well designed, so that we did not feel the high-speed and did not feel groggy when we looked out of the windows.

Mrs. Toyoda showed us the Mount Fuji when we were passing by. When there was a good weather, we could also see the Mount Fuji from the apartment where we stayed. But after staying for these few days, we could only see the cloudy sky and not Mount Fuji.

Many passengers were asleep after taking their breakfast. Solomon was chatting with me. After a while, we felt asleep too.

Swarming in to the Expo 2005 Aichi Japan

We arrived at the Nagoya Station at 9.26 a.m. It took less than two hours for us to travel from Tokyo Station to Nagoya Station by bullet train.

We took the Expo Shuttle from Nagoya Station to Bampaku-yakusa Station. The journey took about 40 minutes. We then switched to Linimo to Bampaku Kaijo Station. There were only two stations and took us about 3 minutes. It was very crowded at Bampaku Kaijo Station. There were many station workers controlling the crowd. The Japanese visitors were queuing up in very good manner. In order to clear the crowd off the exit of the Linimo, the workers tried to get the visitors to keep very close to each other. It might be the Japanese culture that nobody complaint or take the opportunity to molest others.

It took us about half an hour to reach the entrance. All visitors were not allowed to bring in any bottle drink. The workers asked us whether we would like to drink the water and left the bottle there. After that, the checking of our bags was very thorough just like boarding the airplane. After ensuring that we did not carry any dangerous articles, we finally enter the Expo sites.

We intended to visit the Japan Pavilion Nagakute, but we were told that the long queue of visitors would take two hours to clear, then we went to the Aichi Pavilion. The queue at Aichi Pavilion was as long as the Japan Pavilion. We decided to visit the Singapore Pavilion.

At the Singapore Pavilion

We also had to wait to enter the Singapore Pavilion, but it did not take too long.

Before entering the Pavilion, we were given an umbrella each. I thought it was a souvenir. But we were asked to open and use the umbrella when we entered. The first place we visited was a documentary on Singapore. When watching the shower on the screen, the rain fell and everybody screamed. After that, we continued our visit. When an Indian worker collected the umbrella from us, Mrs. Toyoda told him that we were from Singapore. He then took a few souvenir pins out from his pocket and gave to us.

The design of the display was very unique, but it did not attract us. It was because there were too many items displayed, we could not focus on any item at all. We had to stop for a while as there was a TV Station filming the Pavilion at that time.

We took our unique Singapore lunch in the Pavilion. While talking to the few waiters, we were very happy as we met our fellow Singaporean overseas.

It was 1 p.m. after we had taken our lunch. We went down to the ground level. Before leaving, we met a Pavilion worker. She was very happy to know that we were from Singapore. She was Shi Mei. She gave us some souvenirs. We told her that our friends Mr. and Mrs. Toyoda invited us to Tokyo and brought us to the Expo. She then asked us to wait for a while. She soon returned and gave some special souvenir pins to Mr. and Mrs. Toyoda. Mrs. Toyoda was too happy to receive them, as she like to collect souvenir pins.

The Mammoth Pavilion

Mr. Toyoda was the 2004 President for the Rotary Club of Tokyo Asuka. Rotary Club also took part in the Expo. Mr. Toyoda brought us to the Rotary Club Pavilion. When we reached the Pavilion, there was a meeting going on. We took a few pictures outside the Pavilion and continue our visit to other Pavilions.

At the JR Central Pavilion, we enjoyed a state-of-art 3D imaging system that showed a dynamic presentation of Superconducting Maglev's 500km/h speed and the very train setting the world speed record. The internal design of the train was just like that of the airplane.

We missed the show time of the Mammoth Pavilion in the morning. We went to the Mammoth Pavilion to catch up with the 3 p.m. show. Oh! It was a long queue again. It seemed like there were queues outside every pavilion. As the Mammoth Pavilion was very special, we decided to follow the queue and wait.

Some visitors were well prepared. They brought the foldable chairs. They did not need to stand and wait. Some visitors were chatting with other visitors, so that it would not be boring while waiting for their turn to enter the pavilion.

Some Japanese were very happy to know that we were from Singapore. They felt great that we were visiting the Expo that was thousand miles away from home. They were also surprised and admired when Mrs. Toyoda told them that Mr. Toyoda and me were 25-year-old friends. During that few weeks, the relationship of China and Japan was quite tense. A minority of Japanese was also not happy with Singapore as our leaders gave some opinions and advice to the Japanese leaders. As our ancestors were Chinese and we were from Singapore, it was rather nice to see the good old friends between Japan and Singapore meeting each other at that sensitive period. It was highly commendable to have the long lasting, understanding and getting along well friendship.

At 3.20 p.m., our group of about seven to eight hundreds visitors entered the Pavilion. We first viewed a documentary. The giant screen was very, very amusing.

Then, we were led to the auto walkway to see the remains of the mammoth when passing through the showcase. Nobody could stop at the auto walkway. We had to pay great attention at that few minutes when we were in front of the showcase.

We Were On the Newspaper

The Asahi Shimbun set up a booth in the Expo. We were invited to take a picture and send our greetings to friends. Our picture was printed on the special edition of Asahi Shimbun newspaper. At certain time, our greetings were be projected to the huge screen at the field. We were also given a password that we could log on to the Internet to see the greetings. We got the newspaper, but could not afford to wait for the greetings projected to the huge screen.