On Friday, October 15, the Boyfurendo and I ventured to Shanghai to see the 2010 World Expo. We left work early, had some McDonald's for lunch, and caught the bus to Kansai Airport. The flight was only 2 hours, which went by pretty fast. We flew in an airplane painted to look like a panda.When we got to Shanghai, we took the Maglev (super fast magnetic train) to a station kind of near our hostel, then took a taxi the rest of the way. Taxis are super cheap in China, we paid $4-5 each for a 20-30 minute taxi ride, which in Japan would be ridiculously expensive. The ride was amazing as well because the whole city was lit up and every single bridge, overpass, and high rise building was covered in colored lights. It was the most impressive city I've ever seen- it absolutely puts Tokyo and Osaka to shame.
The taxi driver dropped us off at our hostel, which we couldn't find for a little while because it wasn't labeled very well. The street the hostel was on was all restaurants, and even a fish market-looking place with really awkward looking seafood.
Some kind of clear lobstery lookin' thing.......
We tried to ask some people which way to go to get to the hostel, and it turned out that every person on that particular street was incredibly rude and didn't like to help people. We finally went into a hotel and the lady wouldn't help me, but a man she was sitting next to looked at the address of the hostel and just pointed to the right so we walked that direction and eventually found it. We managed to find a place to have some dinner, and then unfortunately had no energy to do anything else, so we just went to bed to rest up for the next day.
On Saturday morning, we got up, and took the train to an underground shopping center, where we haggled for some knock-off Coach bags and a Gucci watch.
Me, celebrating the procurement of my counterfeit merchandise.
Then, we headed off to the Expo.
The theme of the 2010 Expo is "Better City, Better Life" and had a heavy focus on the environment and improving society in the future. Every country had their own awesomely designed building and inside every building was an exhibit of the culture and language of the country, as well as what that country does to help the earth and improve life for generations to come. Pretty cheesy overall, but the architecture was amazing. There were really long lines to get into many of the buildings- the most popular pavillions had lines that were over 6 hours long!- but James and I found a couple pavillions with lines that were less than 20 minutes and we went in those. We saw Algeria, Portugal, Luxembourg, and 2 of the environmental pavillions that were really interesting.
A view of some buildings in the Expo.
Across the street from the Chinese Pavillion, the largest and most popular pavillion in the Expo. That thing was HUGE!
Sweden Pavillion
The Dutch Pavillion: Happy Street, an "ideal city that has developed along a trade route; an area where all aspects of life flourish together."
Inside one of the environmental pavillions- a huge convex screen with the image of a rotating earth projected on it.
Shanghai skyline in the Expo reflecting pool
Big light display with changing colors and patterns over the reflecting pool.
We left the Expo that night, completely exhausted and with swollen feet from all the walking. The next day we got up to do some more sightseeing. We took a cab to Yuyuan Gardens, and spent a bit of time trying to find the actual entrance to the gardens. The cab had dropped us off in the middle of a bazaar-type area, with lots of shops, so everything was a bit crowded. We eventually found the entrance, and we found something else exciting that we hadn't seen in awhile.......
\(^o^)/
They didn't have Snickers or any of the good flavors, but James was able to get an Oreo cheesecake blizzard, and I got something with brownies and chocolate and deliciousness. I discovered during my trip that China likes to completely ruin Western food chains (they did some absolutely horrible things to Papa Johns that I will never forgive them for), but they did okay with Dairy Queen.
So we finally found the gardens, which was basically a big maze of crazy rock formations and old buildings around a huge koi pond.
It was very relaxing to walk around, though. The city had been stressing me out with all the rudeness and busyness and pushing around and being stared at, so it was nice to be in a relaxing place for a couple hours.
After we left the gardens, we headed east across the river to see the famous Pearl Tower. We decided to go up and see the view of the city from 300-something meters up. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until too late that there is apparently only one regular sized elevator that goes to the top, and we had to wait almost an hour to get to the top, all the while getting pushed around by impatient grandmas wearing Christmas sweaters and being stared at by spoiled teenagers acting like 3-year-olds (climing on guard rails, etc.). So fun. But the view at the top was amazing. We got to the top after dark, so we saw the whole city lit up.
Nearby buildings from the top of the Pearl Tower.
Across the river to the Bund, the famous foreign shopping/old financial district of Shanghai.
We had reservations for an acrobat show, so we waited in line again to catch the one elevator to the bottom, then caught a cab to the theater.
James took this photo of the tower in the cab on the way to the theater.
Because of the long lines in the tower, we ended up being a bit late to the show, but we were still able to see most of it. Afterwards, we had dinner at a foreigner friendly restaurant (they had nachos with pico de gallo and REAL SOUR CREAM!!!! (@.@) ), and walked on the Bund to see the skyline at night.
The next day we went back to the Bund for some more shopping before we had to head to the airport. James bought some shoes and some Wii games. I wanted some shoes, but wasn't able to find any that I wanted/ ones that fit.
Then we headed back to the airport, where I bought out the airport gift shop's supply of Skittles (I haven't seen those things in a YEAR!!), and then back to Kobe, where people actually know how to stand in lines like civilized people.
View of the Shanghai skyline from the Bund. 
