Expo 2005 occupied two sites in Aichi Prefecture: a main venue spread across forested land in the city of Nagakute and a smaller satellite area near the ceramics town of Seto, connected to the main grounds by gondola. The organizers took an unusual approach for a world's fair -- rather than clearing the landscape to build a spectacle, they designed around the existing forest. Pavilions used recyclable and reclaimed materials wherever possible, and transportation within the grounds relied on environmentally friendly systems including fuel cell hybrid buses and an intelligent multimode transit system. Getting to the Expo itself was part of the experience: visitors rode the Nagoya subway to Fujigaoka station, then transferred to the newly constructed Linimo, a magnetic levitation railway that glided silently through the suburbs to the Expo gates. The Linimo remains in operation today, a lasting piece of infrastructure born from a temporary event.

The attractions ranged from cutting-edge corporate showcases to heartfelt tributes to Japanese pop culture. Honda unveiled ASIMO, its humanoid robot, to gasping crowds. Toyota debuted its Partner Robots. The USA Pavilion featured a 3D presentation bringing Benjamin Franklin to life for his 300th birthday. But the attraction that would prove most enduring was tucked inside the Forest Experience Zone: a meticulous recreation of the house from Hayao Miyazaki's beloved 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro. Called "Satsuki and Mei's House" after the film's young protagonists, the structure was built with the care of a film set and the warmth of a family home. Visitors could walk through the rooms, peer into cupboards, and feel the Miyazaki magic made tangible. When the Expo ended, this single house refused to disappear. It reopened to the public in July 2006 and became the seed from which an entire theme park would eventually grow.

The Expo's organizers estimated 15 million visitors over its 185-day run. The final count was 22,049,544 -- a surplus of seven million that turned projected losses into a profit exceeding 10 billion yen. The total cost of staging the event was approximately 340 billion yen, or roughly $3.3 billion, a figure that covered everything from pavilion construction to the Linimo rail line. The 122 participating countries made Expo 2005 one of the most internationally diverse world's fairs in decades. Japan's corporate giants -- Toyota, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Toshiba -- each built elaborate pavilions, while the Federation of Electric Power Companies created the "Wonder Circus" and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association presented the "Wonder Wheel." Composer Yoshiki wrote the official theme song, "I'll Be Your Love," performed at the opening ceremony by Okinawan-American singer Dahlia. Pop star Ayumi Hamasaki also performed on opening day.

Japan has a tradition of hosting world expositions -- Osaka in 1970, Okinawa in 1975, Tsukuba in 1985, Osaka again in 1990 -- but Expo 2005 left behind something none of those predecessors did. The Nagakute site was transformed into the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park, commonly called Moricoro Park after the Expo mascots. The forested grounds that organizers had worked so hard to preserve remained intact, now threaded with walking paths and dotted with remnants of the fair. The Satsuki and Mei house continued drawing visitors year after year, and in 2017, Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki announced that the park would become the home of Ghibli Park -- a theme park built around the worlds of Miyazaki's films. When Ghibli Park opened in November 2022, it did so on land that the Expo had deliberately protected, turning a world's fair built on the philosophy of environmental harmony into a permanent celebration of imagination rooted in nature.

Expo 2005 also catalyzed major infrastructure improvements for the region. Chubu Centrair International Airport, built on a man-made island in Ise Bay, opened in February 2005 specifically to handle the anticipated surge of international visitors. The Linimo maglev line gave Nagakute a modern transit connection it retains to this day. The city of Toyota, already famous as the headquarters of the automaker, hosted related events that reinforced the region's identity as a center of technological innovation. Two decades later, the Expo's theme of nature's wisdom feels more relevant than ever. The forested park east of Nagoya still hums with visitors, though now they come less for pavilions and robots and more for the animated worlds of Totoro, Kiki, and Princess Mononoke -- worlds that could only exist in a place where someone once decided the trees were worth keeping.