All Alone at the ’05 World’s Fair

Eighty Robots Yelling “small boy after all.”


Well not quite alone, and the robots didn’t really have much to say to me…

So recently I had the privilege of attending the 2005 World Exposition, formerly known as the World’s Fair. It was a mixed experience. Some of the things I saw there were really cool, however it was really hot, I had to stand in lines forever, and it was really expensive. Now now I know what your thinking, “Stop whining you little b^tch” but seriously, these were some long ass lines. Take this pavilion for instance:





This is the Hitachi Pavilion. Basically this pavilion had two parts, first part, you have a little hand held viewing screen, and you walk through a room where you can download all this info about endangered species onto your screen. The second part was this ride, where you sit in a booth and you are shown different panoramas of landscapes. There are binoculars that you look through, and the binoculars superimpose digital images onto the landscape. It’s pretty cool, there is an owl that flies around and talks to you. You can throw bananas to Chimpanzees and stuff. It’s a lot like virtual reality, only the background is real. So this is a really cool six minute ride. So all and all the entire pavilion is about a 10 minute affair.

I stood in line for 3 and a half hours!!! No shade. No place to sit. 90 degrees out and the most humid weather I’ve ever been in. Something like 250% humidity…. maybe higher! So yeah, hell. But it was a cool ten minutes…

So yeah, basically all the cool Pavilions were the ones that took forever to get into…

There was one respite form the heat, however, the -30 degrees house. Though it cost me four bucks, I think it was well worth it. This is a building that is a giant walk in freezer, like the kind at McDonalds, except instead of boxes of French fries and hamburgers, this freezes had stuffed animals such as polar bears and penguins and stuff. This is me next to a “moose” (it’s really small for a moose). But yeah, this was cool.



Also, I guess the Japanese really like Ferris Wheels, there is a Pavilion for them:




Granted this looks cool, but I can enjoy from afar.

And finally we come to the Robots. Now, like I said before, robots are cool! but these robots just kinda sat around while people took their pictures with them. So, yeah… not quite as cool, but they are potentially kick ass. Here are some kids with a greeter Robot:


Aren’t they cute! Here is me with the same robot:




Not quite as cute… but what can you do? Then there are other greeter robots:


This robot makes me feel all funny inside… And finally, since this is Japan, we have:




The Hello Kitty Robot. I tell my kids that Hello Kitty means Konichiwa neko-chan, but they don’t believe me, they think I’m just being goofy again… well what can you do?

So all and all the Expo was cool but really long line, expensive and hot. I’d probably rather spend the $50 on a new video game, but I’m glad I went once. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle!