A woman of the Miao nationality puts a traditional headpiece on Tomiyo Yamada at the Expo Park May 1.[Xinhua]
BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhuanet) --Tomiyo Yamada and her family looked surprisingly full of life after a full morning visiting the Shanghai Expo Park. That's not unusual except when one considers that the 62-year-old Japanese woman and her family have been touring the Expo at full tilt since it opened. As of June 7, Yamada – fondly dubbed "the Expo Grandma" – and her family had been to the Expo 38 consecutive days and visited 373 pavilions or exhibits.
Yamada's husband said they had bought tickets for all 184 days of the Expo run and the family plans to experience every aspect of the exposition.
As a housewife from the city of Seto, Japan, Yamada battled illness to set a new attendance record at the 2005 Aichi World Expo by visiting it 243 times. Now she has moved her family to Shanghai to complete another "full attendance" record.
Yamada went to her first World Expo in Osaka in 1970, which left a deep impression on her. Her family bought tickets for the Expo and began visiting it regularly. They first went to the world's fair every day simply to make the best use of their tickets. However, soon Yamada began to discover the joy and fun of touring the Expo.
"One visit to the Expo is not enough at all. The more I visit, the deeper my understanding gets. I can communicate with people from all over the world within that limited area and get to know much more about other parts of the world," Yamada said. She said that a display of a model of woolly mammoth teeth attracted the interest of many Japanese visitors. Since the species supposedly died out because of the deterioration of the environment, visitors were able to understand the importance of environmental protection after contemplating the sad demise of the gigantic beast.
Tomiyo Yamada and her family looked surprisingly full of life after a full morning visiting the Shanghai Expo Park. That's not unusual except when one considers that the 62-year-old Japanese woman and her family have been touring the Expo at full tilt since it opened. As of June 7, Yamada – fondly dubbed "the Expo Grandma" – and her family had been to the Expo 38 consecutive days and visited 373 pavilions or exhibits.
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