What an incredibly shameful letdown compared to World Expo 2020 Dubai.....

Japan never had any intention of making the World Expo welcoming or accommodating to "the world" - they did not host "World Expo 2025", they hosted "Japan Expo 2025". Japan solely designed this expo for the enjoyment of its own people with deliberate designs aimed at foreigner exclusion. As magnificent as the most recent World Expo in Dubai was, it's as if Japan wanted to make a mockery of World Expos by rejecting all the magic, innovation, and common sense planning and sabotaging the ability to enjoy oneself as a foreigner.

Without a doubt, 99.9% of this Expo's attendees were Asian, with practically zero pure African, European, Australian, or North/South America tourists (most of the non-Asians you saw were other pavilion employees). The government's distribution of free children's tickets made the queueing experience and crowdedness unbearable.

The myth of Japanese technological innovation was immediately dispelled with the laughably laborious, innocuous, and useless Expo 2025 app that instead redirected you to a website sign-in, required an annoying two-factor authentication, and constantly signed you out. If you are not clinically addicted to your phone, then you will be unable to enjoy the Expo to its fullest, as access is heavily restricted to about 30+ pavilions that operate on a reservations-only basis, benefitting only Japanese locals adept at the idiotic app's intricate lotteries and same-day pavilion reservations. How many non-Japanese did you ever see in line for the Netherlands, Jordan, Ireland, Kansai, Osaka Healthcare, Japan, Sumitomo, and Women's Pavilions? None.

The fact that you could buy a summer-long ticket yet have to apply online every day for permission to enter should be illegal. How is it a ticket yet not a ticket at the same time? The website was inundated with tens of thousands of users at midnight trying to make future pleas of admission, but I kept getting kicked out and sent to the end of the virtual line. Unless you were willing to stay up past midnight in bed on your phone, you had no chance of ever being approved to enter before noon, which is like stealing three hours of your summer pass every day.

There was no telling beforehand if the pavilions you wanted to visit would even be open once you got there. So many pavilions closed over an hour early (like Bahrain), cut off line-forming before 9:00 PM, were closed all day for multiple days (Egypt, European Union), had lines cut off indefinitely, or were closed for several hours for "private events". You also never knew which national day it was (there was signage everywhere indicating such in Dubai) or what special events were offered as such.

The insistence on Japanese pavilion workers to cram people body to body in queues contributed to the hellishly suffocating atmosphere, and I had to repeatedly restrain Japanese people who were cutting in line.

Their pitying of wheelchair users and baby strollers by saying they're handicapped "VIPs" who get to skip every single line along with their entire families was unacceptable and led to longer waits in the sun. How does a wheelchair or stroller make it harder to stand in line?

There were barely any garbage cans. There were barely any bathrooms. They planned a summer event with no shading in front of almost every pavilion and not enough seats under the wooden ring, leading to sitting on the ground. There was zero interest in ascending to the top of the wooden ring, as it was completely unsheltered from the sweltering heat and embarrassingly unimpressive architecturally and not even constructed from Japanese materials (it was made in Finland!).

Far too many Japanese workers were completely ignorant of any English language skills. A lot of time was wasted locating a worker who didn't have to rely on low-quality, inaccurate translating devices. Most pavilions only had Japanese-language  presentations (although you didn't learn that until after you already waited in line), meaning it was worthless to even have waited in line because you couldn't understand the Japanese-language lecture.

They circulate an inaccurate flyer for tax refunds at the help centers that claims the only refund center is outside the West Gate (see attached photos) and that you simply need to bring your purchases, receipts, and passport to receive your refund. Firstly, there is another more conveniently located tax refund center inside the park, and, secondly, after trekking all the way to the West Gate and then leaving the park, only then do you learn from a makeshift sign taped on the wall behind the counter that you can only get tax refunds from the official Expo 2025 store, not country pavilions. Such a huge waste of time and effort for nothing. Thirdly, they will sell you merchandise at the official Expo 2025 store after 9:00 PM, when it impossible to get tax refunds after that time. I asked if I could bring the receipt back the next morning, but they have no sympathy for you and say refunds can only be processed the same day.

There was blatant citizenship-based discrimination - a Japanese pavilion worker at Expo 2025 Digital Wallet Park declared me unfit to stand in line, as she said the pavilion was specifically for Japanese citizens only, even though I showed the Japanese worker I had downloaded the designated Digital Wallet app.

The drone, fireworks, and water shows were so lackluster and mild compared to USA domestic events I've witnessed that I never bothered watching for more than a minute.

The most anticipated part of a World Expo is meeting people from the different countries at their pavilions, but the Osaka World Expo featured practically Japanese-only staff at almost every single pavilion, and there were many pavilions where, if you asked to speak to a local from the country, you were told they weren't available for the rest of the day (as they already left or never arrived) or "walked away somewhere".

The decidedly unsafe departure procedures from the Expo were a 45-minute death march in the dark through an unlit labyrinth with tens of thousands of people smashed together as if the Japanese organizers were nostalgic for a modern reenactment of their World War II Baatan Death March in the Philippines. How is this a safe departure for those with limited mobility or the elderly?

So, in short, I beg you, do not support this xenophobic World Expo and instead stay healthy and ready to attend what can safely be assumed to be the best World Expo ever to come in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2030.