The day before we went to @expo2025japan, we made a pilgrimage to @expo70park and the @tower_of_the_sun_museum_shop in particular. I’ll post a Reel from inside of the Tower in a bit.
Despite the heat, this place was full of visitors and was truly worth the effort; even though it was a little out of the way, it had Seattle City Center post-Expo vibes – a real destination, not just a curio.
My favorite part was, of course, the Tower of the Sun itself, a truly iconic piece of art that we saw echoes of elsewhere in our travels. The Tower has three faces: the Golden Mask (future), the Face of the Sun (present), and the Black Sun (past), and contains an artwork within an artwork that you’ll have to watch my Reel to see.
The Tower was constructed as part of the Theme Pavilion in the Expo’s Symbol Zone, along with the Tower of the Mother, the Tower of Youth, and the Big Roof. Expo 70 itself was built around the theme of “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” a postwar vision that sought to reconcile rapid technological advancement with human dignity, environmental awareness, and global unity. You can see that interplay in the Tower’s primordial organicism.
Its temporal symbolism was also reflected in the Theme Pavillion’s layout: the underground level explored the Mystery of Life (past), the ground level celebrated Modern Energy (present), and the aerial level imagined Future Space (future). The Tower of the Sun, which was at the core of the Theme Pavilion, signified the dignity, everlasting progress, and advancement of mankind as the main symbol of the entire Expo. During the Expo, it rose through the Big Roof and welcomed visitors to the site. In many ways, though, this surreal monument didn’t just echo the Expo’s theme—it challenged it. While the Expo leaned into techno-utopianism, the Tower injected a counterpoint: true progress must honor the roots of life, the chaos of existence, and the spiritual pulse beneath the machine.
And today, only the Tower remains.
The inside of the Tower of the Sun is like a surreal cathedral. Designed by avant-garde artist Tarō Okamoto for Osaka’s #Expo70, the already impressive structure contains the towering “Tree of Life,” a 41-meter sculpture that spirals upward, depicting the evolution of life and lifeforms. Okamoto described it as the “bloodstream” of the tower—a metaphor for vitality, transformation, and the interconnectedness of all living things
The biomorphic figures of dinosaurs and apes look a little dated and kitsch to our jaded eyes—you can absolutely tell this was made in the late-60s—but the overall effect is quite magical. I couldn’t stop grinning the whole way up to the top.