expo 2005 photo essays
- weekly report from the World Exposition in Aichi, Japan

Week nine (May 22, 2005)

· Web sites about the Expo

This week I take the easy way out and will introduce you to some other websites about the Expo, all of with treat the subject matter from a different angle. You will find information websites, official websites, private diaries, weblogs, and photo sites in this listing - something for every taste. You may take a look at them, however, of course, you are not supposed to stop reading my site in favor of theirs - I am logging your IP, duration between clicks, everything, so beware.

· Weblogs & private web sites

Just me in Japan - weblog by Florian Strasser (German pavilion)
	Flo is one of the guides in the German pavilion and is running a weblog about his life in Japan and the Expo. He takes a lot more interesting photographs than I do so check out his party pics (which make up the bulk of his photo gallery). He also had some interesting entries about the German pavilion and his game parlor visit.

Expo 2005 diary - weblog by Naomi Fujimoto (Nagoya)
	Naomi is a local citizen who says he visits the Expo quite often ("because one should"). He also came to my working place to take a picture with me and his family. He runs an interesting weblog in English on various Expo topics. It's quite interesting to read about the Expo seen through a Japanese's eyes.

Expo 2005 Japan weblog by Christophe Bouten (Belgian pavilion)
	I found out about this weblog only recently. This is written by Christophe from the Belgian pavilion and mostly focuses on Expo-related events. Check out his Flickr.com photo gallery which is regularly updated. Update: Christophe moved to a new account and also featured an entry about my own site.. Thanks!

Apart from this, the Aichi Expo brought forth a huge number of private weblogs reporting from the exposition, some from private visitors or volunteers. As is common with internet diaries, some were abandoned in mid-term, some updated only irregularly, so it is difficult to put a good overview together. One of the most consistent and longest-running weblog seems to be the Aichi Expo weblog by WAKA, a volunteer on-site. The Toppy.net Expo weblog is very comprehensive and features lots of TV show-like photographs and pavilion ratings. Another noteworthy account is the Aichi Expo report by likethat.

As for one-time visiting reports, I found the entry of Thomas Daily's Daily Report and Yuki's account of her visit at Kissui.net rather interesting.

· Official & Photo web sites

The first site to visit is the EXPO 2005 official website. Here you will find general information about the Expo, the participating countries, the sites etc. Special events and national day festivities are also announced here. Note that the English and Japanese versions vary considerably in regards of content. The Aichi Prefecture 2005 World Exposition Bureau also has its own website with a good roundup of basic information about the Expo site, access information etc. The web site of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also quite good. And then you also have the official mascots Morizo & Kiccoro website (Japanese only though).

As always, Wikipedia has a quite good information page about the Expo. Even better, though, is the comprehensive Travel Guide to Expo 2005 by Wikitravel, which lists all kinds of useful advice for visiting the Expo. Another good overview is the Expo 2005 Aichi site by ExpoMuseum.

Even though I wasn't able to identify the contributing members, there is a The Aichi 2005 Expo Photo Pool on Flickr.com. A very comprehensive photo collection not just about the Expo, but on Japan generally can be found on Hartmut Pohling's web site Japan Photo - Ausstellungen - Expo 2005. Expo photo sites of official news services include Kyodo News Photo Service and on Yahoo! News Photos. I also found a few private photo collections by Victor Lee and on Tamenobu.com Photos.

· Next week: May events roundup