again today we'll be talking about  traveling

and i wanted to invite my really good friend daniel jordan

to be the guide slash co-host

of this episode because he's the person who taught me how to get around japan when i first moved here

and here he is hi

hello there my name is daniel jordan

he calls me dj and sometimes if you want to find me on social media you can just say hey dan joe

and i'll come and chat with you a little bit

i've been living in japan

we actually got  here at the same time but i had lived here

uh two years previously from 2015 to 2017

so i was able to figure out a little bit of my way around

so when he moved here i was able to kind of show  him the ropes a little bit

and thanks for joining us for this video no problem it should be pretty  fun to kind of have a stroll around and

explore some new parts of osaka that i haven't seen yet

nice it's kind of one of those fun things that at least in osaka

really all around japan because  the public transport and everything is so easy

it's kind of simple to pick out a day trip and  just go somewhere

and explore a new side of japan that you haven't seen before

so today we're gonna  explore the uh the 1970s world expo it's like uh

where they had the world's fair in 1970

and  there's some different sculptures and art exhibits and some stuff there that should be pretty cool

pretty cool yeah well that's really exciting

and check this out

we're out of pancakes  how dare they

what are we going to do

we're at OSAKA-KOU train station right now

we're gonna be headed to the site of the 1970s world expo

putting on my wi-fi egg first

there's  a lot of pocket wi-fi options in japan

some train stations have wi-fi at the stations that you  would have to sign into usually you just have to sign in with your email address or something like that

yeah one thing that's cool about this thing is that it shows you all the different spots

where you would want to go on this train line

and if we wanted to go to

i don't know wherever  some somewhere else down the line like here

it would tell us exactly how much the ticket is

i think it's pretty cheap to get around

and this is even more expensive  because

the jr lines are a bit cheaper

the jr line is like the national train line  that kind of goes across the whole country

in japan the use of prepaid rechargeable  cards or ic cards are widely used

in the greater osaka region mainly the icoca card  is used

other regions have their own ic card

each of these cards can be used throughout japan  to pay for public transportations at vending  machines

shops and restaurants

you can charge them  at convenience stores or at any train stations

just fit it in so like the amount right away you  don't even have to do anything shows the value  

here i have 617 yen

which is about 6USD and 17 cents  more or less i'll just put 2000 which is about 20dollars

bills here yeah it's like the  casino you know

i got the money

now most train stations have their own  

chime

basically that sound tells you  that their train is coming this way

and then there's a different train or a different  time for the train that's going the other way

in japan every train station has these um yellow markings which i forgot the word foot braille! foot braille

because there's a huge community of  elderly and

wait for the lady to stop talking

the next stop is

so much to talk about right

you gotta make sure we know every single thing

anyways the hootrail so yeah they make sure that uh the

blind is that the right term uh

can get around  any station and around the city as well

yeah cause it's all over the sidewalks too

i've seen  this before somewhere else but not to that extent

because here in japan is everywhere everywhere

i don't know if there's a proper term for it but we're gonna call it foot braille for right now

now yeah we'll find the official terminology later

people really respect the when you're standing and  not moving you're on the right on the right side  

yeah and they leave the the space for people  that are in a hurry or that need to like run  

to the next thing

it's also a osaka thing osaka  people stand on the right side of the escalator

and then in tokyo they stand on the left side

no way or in kyoto which is on the left side as well

it's one of those weird things that  like osaka is on the right and then kyoto and tokyo are like on the left

no i don't really  know why i like to do things different here

it's nice that there's plenty of decent signage

well actually it was really daunting for me at first when i moved to japan

and i would see a lot  of signs a lot of color everywhere

really so at first i got really like overwhelmed and i was a  bit like where where do i go where do i go

but i just had to like realize and first take a breath  and calm down and realize there's always the

ROMAJI spelling or the western alphabet i  guess so you can actually find the name of every  

station everywhere so if you know where you're  going it's actually really easy to get around

Women only train cars

which I have been in by accident

couple of times

i think they're really only enforced during  

certain times of day

that's right  so really during rush hours to give

the ladies a place to be where they don't have  to feel like they're surrounded by weirdos

yeah there's signs everywhere even if you get  lost for a second you'll always find your way  

how do you get around if you don't know where  you're going though

so i use google map it's a pretty reliable source

i found it shows you the  map

classic

what's quite interesting is that they also tend to give you the crowd crowdedness uh

other information the platforms and sometimes even uh which car to get on

for for an easier  transfer

which is pretty cool

and every transfer takes usually five to ten minutes always enough time for you to get around and to change all right

no it's gotta be out here

i don't know where  we went

did we just go outside

we were too busy talking we didn't notice if there was  a sign

it's probably not the grocery store though

google maps is pretty useful here in japan

and  then what's quite incredible is that it's always the trains are always on time

it's what  i love in japan is that they just like

keep some funky looking structures at times  

which feels like you're traveling in time there's  like plenty of really old looking high schools and

i don't know what this is but  it looks really cool how is it  

it's delicious but there's no cream inside

maybe it's a bit of butter

butter maybe  sweet bun with cream

false advertisements

so every train station has bathrooms  available they're clean and free  

and what's pretty cool is that a lot of the  urinals have a little ledge so you can like  

hang your umbrella and put your bags so we don't  put them in the bowl

so hygienic

look look at that it's just like japanese pragmatism it's just

simple design i'm just gonna put that right there

i know we're on the wrong side oh no we're  on the wrong side

you did the wrong thing let's look at that thing over there

so this was made for the 1970s world's fair and  

i don't really know a whole lot about it i  know that there's some big structures that  

have like weird faces and stuff and some  kind of like art exhibits

i'm the best host

but we'll just have some b-roll and  have a voice-over of explaining what  

this park is about that's probably gonna be  smarter well you can keep on improvising about it  

expo city it's a city of exponential art

what i don't know

expositional exponential  art

you want to ride the choo-choo chain

no that's a little bit too much of a thrill  for me

nothing says english like a weird little animal or park

it's so with expositional

Expositional Art

check out the robot

what's the difference between transformers and gundam

i mean transformers were  like cars and stuff that turned into big robots

gundam is like big robots  that turn into cars?

kind of

no luca it says don't enter

i didn't see the sign

here lies luca murdered by giant robots

that's what happens when you don't read signs

something i wasn't aware but uh it's not just  an open park you have to pay to get in

but the tickets are only 260 for adults

it's actually  really cheap

power of the sun tower of the sun

welcome to expo park

the face on its belly represents the hunger  games of humanity

i wonder if the eyes can spark

like lights?

They actually follow you

they follow  you no matter where you are in the park you can

see them

you can see and they can see you

there  it is you can go home now okay they're done

what's really useful in japan is that you will  find vending machines everywhere

this one is a little bit more old school

some of them have  a way to pay even with your ikoka card

it gets really hot in the summer

and so it's just  great that you can find sports drink water all kinds of drinks

everywhere even on train  station platforms

and all of them usually have the trash next to them for the bottles as well

and  that's usually the only real place where you're going to find trash cans in japan

next to vending  machines

there's not really like rubbish bins out in the world

i heard it's because there were  some kind of terrorist attacks a while ago oh really

people dropped bombs and  trash cans i mean that would make sense

the eye of sauron

is it normal that i'm starting  to hear a voice in my head

oh have you not?

as soon as i saw that thing it was chanting in my  mind

all right i don't know who's chanting but

i'm the tower"

so at every train station you'll  find lockers which is great when you travel around and

uh you don't want to be carrying your bag  all day so you just leave it at the train station

and here they even have them at the  entrance of the park

so if you had your suitcase because you're on your way to the  airport because it's on the line over here

you can leave your suitcase walk around enjoy  the view without having to sweat all day

it's the purge starting

in this park

well that's  what you signed when you bought the tickets yep

you said it was part of the hunger games

it is it's the announcement of it

so i'm  not exactly sure where the announcement was but maybe the park is closing soon

i think that's  yeah i think that we waited too long to come here

in switzerland a bunch of kids robbed a jewelry store and then they tried to escape on  

these little paddle boats

oh through the lake to  get to france

they didn't they didn't get there

did you get the getaway car

no i got something better

paddle boats

why did we do this

in another swan boat

cops  in another swan boat

swan boat with a siren on top

some of them are not really getting  where the sun is though

yeah these are interesting

it's over there guys

i don't  think i've ever looked at a sunflower

these aren't even sunflowers because sunflowers  have like a dark center don't they

that's true i don't know what kind of flowers these  are

maybe they're in the sunflower family

yeah i'm not a flower doctor  

i don't know

they're not even flowers they're  not even flowers

those are fake

crime stamps

yeah so this center has a [ __ ] stamp check  it out

sun tower knows how to break it down

shark snake eating oh yeah because it's just the  

sneaking in the statue and then  it has like the weird like arms