The Expo ’70 Commemorative Park

Introduction

Expo '70 Commemorative Park is the former site of the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, which drew more than 64 million visitors and 76 countries. Almost every pavilion came down afterwards, and from 1972 the grounds were laid out as a roughly 260-hectare park; with fifty years of growth it now reads as woodland and lawn rather than a fairground. The 70-metre Tower of the Sun by Taro Okamoto is the one great survival: the golden face at the top stands for the future, the front Solar Face for the present and the Black Sun on the back for the past, though many visitors photograph only the front and leave. Its interior opened in 2018, revealing the 41-metre Tree of Life, but requires an online booking closed by the previous day and a separate ticket. A single JPY 450 pass covers the Natural and Cultural Gardens and the Japanese Garden: the former spreads around the tower with cosmos on Flower Hill, some 5,500 cherry trees and broad lawns; the latter is a 26-hectare strolling garden composed in four historical styles from antiquity to the modern era, taking 40 to 60 minutes to circle. The National Museum of Ethnology and the EXPO'70 Pavilion are ticketed separately. Hours are 09:30-17:00 with last entry at 16:30, closed Wednesdays but open daily through the April cherry season and all of October and November for the maple colour. It is five minutes from Banpaku-Kinen-Koen monorail station, and a left-side window seat gives the first sight of the tower rising above the trees.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info