Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Anticipating a boom of local tourists to Japan for the 2005 World Exposition, travel agencies in Shanghai are rushing to launch Japan-bound tours this spring, today's Shanghai Morning Post reported.
The expo will run from March 25 to September in the city of Seto, Nagatute-cho and Tokyo of Aichi county of Japan.  The start season coincides with Japan's traditional flower seeing period for sakura blossoms.
Key local leading travel firms, such as Shanghai Youth Travel International and Shanghai China Youth Travel Service (CYTS), have opened Japan tours catering for the expo and flower seeing.
But they noted tourists should make earlier bookings for the spring tour plans, because spring is a busy travel season in Japan for sakura flower seeing.  Hotels and tickets will get short supplied, they said.
A group of 48 tourists from local privately run architectural design firms will leave the city on March 24 and embark on a trip there, according to its organizer Shanghai Jinjiang International Travel Co Ltd.  Besides visiting the expo, the tourists will view the natural views there and participate the flower seeing throngs.
Like them, flocks of local tourists, who will be involved in the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, are expected to participate in the Aichi Expo to help their preparations for the local event. The Japan expo is the only one ahead of the Shanghai expo.