hey guys welcome to only in japan i'm luca nicora the host of this episode
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
well usually in the summer they take the hot drinks out
and just leave the cold ones
but here they're all like blue sign that's because they're cold drinks
but usually in the winter they'll have at least one row of red signing
and they're all like hot drinks like hot tea and coffee
being able to have a hot drink from a vending machine
is so nice
especially in the mornings when you're like on your way to work you're hopping out to the train there's usually some vending machines at every train station
it's so nice to be able to just like okay toss in a coin grab a hot coffee and you're on your way
so this bird sound is to indicate people that they are stairs
so it's really helpful for people that have trouble seeing but also if you're just looking at your phone or distracted then you hear
the bird sounds like oh stairs
so from what it says on the sign
the next train should be at 4:51.
it says the same on google map
yeah google maps also says the same thing
what time is it right now no it's 49.
49. so uh let's line up and we've even got some helpful lines to allow people to queue up for the train i
in big train stations where there are multiple trains stopping there's even different lines with little signage
that's going to tell you what train is going to stop
so everyone is waiting in line but not everyone is waiting for the same train
people pretty much stick to these lines it's not like you're gonna have a bunch of people crowding around the door
you you queue up where you're supposed to queue up
oh the train just arrived what time is it it
is 4:51
every time like to the minute it's always on time
all right guys well thanks for watching
hope you guys enjoyed uh this little quick adventure
so where can the audience see your stuff
well if you say hey dan joe on any social media i'm on twitter tik tok youtube
instagram
don't forget to like and subscribe and put down in the comment section what you'd like to see that's only in japan
cool see ya bye
don't forget to like and like like we said live again
why would you do that i don't know
well thanks for watching don't forget to like and subscribe
the thanks for watching don't forget to like and subscribe
i just can't speak anymore
words are hard it's okay