Odeuropa goes Asia! In the last week of April, 2025, three members of the Odeuropa team (Raphael Troncy, Cecilia Bembibre, and Inger Leemans), travelled to Japan to present the project on the World Expo in Osaka. We were very honoured by the selection of Odeuropa to be featured in the European Union pavilion. We were excited (and a bit scared) to meet the AI-powered ‘Odeuropa avatar’ (especially me, since my image and voice were being used for the avatar). And we made use of the opportunity to visit some Japanese smellmarks and other landmarks for olfactory culture in Tokyo and Kyoto.
Presenting Heritage Scents at the Expo
The expo, constructed on an island in Osaka, was at the last stop of the train. And even though it was early in the morning, the trains were completely packed, and the station swarming with people, who really started to run towards the pavilions as soon as the expo opened.
The European pavilion is themed Nurturing Tomorrow, showcasing initiatives that bring to life sustainability, connectivity, inclusivity, and security. Every day it received over 5000 visitors. We only were there for two days, but we feel we truly changed the pavilion into a heritage smellscape.
We gave four nose-on lectures, both for visitors and for invited parties, such as cosmetics and fragrance companies, and academic researchers. We also conducted a smellwalk around the expo. Amongst the heritage scents, generously supported by IFF, we distributed: frankincense, myrrh, pomander, gloves, Amsterdam canal, and (not to everyone’s liking and to the greater good of EU’s smellscape): the smell of hell. Cecilia Bembibre presented Cistus Labdanum in front of the Spanish pavilion, to commemorate this valued, but also threatened heritage scent from Andalusia.
As the expo turned out to be far too crowded for smellwalks, we decided to organize “show, tell and smell” sessions in the EU pavilion. This turned out to be a great success and many visitors lined up to smell with us. This way we could also get more easily into conversation with visitors about Japanese smell culture. When asked about significant scents and smellscapes, people talked about parks, blossoms, seashores, incense burning rituals, and also about the smell of tatami: Japanese floor mats which come close to the nose in the evening when people lay their heads to rest close to the floor.
The Odeuropa team was enriched with the presence of Yiwei Chen, of the South China Agricultural University, an expert in Chinese incense rituals and the smellscapes of Chinese traditional gardens. Yiwei presented a collection of scents she created for the famous Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions.
A special thanks to our translators! They truly invested in studying European smell culture and Japanese /English scent vocabularies – a steep learning curve.
Facing the Avatar…
To highlight three European research projects, the EU invited the German company Goava to develop three avatars of the PIs of the research projects, to be staged at large screens in the pavilion. The avatars are trained by AI to present the projects and answer questions in English and Japanese. The Odeuropa avatar also presents four heritage scents, which people can smell through colored scent cubes. It is quite confronting to see people interact with a live version of ‘yourself’, which speaks a language you do not master (Japanese), and speaks English with a perfect accent (whereas my Dutch-English is quite coarse).
Also, ‘my’ avatar has little sense of humor, even when ‘she’ says hilarious things such as – in response to question “How do you feel?”: “I’m feeling fantastic, thanks for asking! I am an avatar. I don’t get tired or bored, so I’m always ready to explore the world of historical smells!”. It was also truly funny to see people react to the fact that the ‘real’ version all of a sudden was standing next to the avatar – a great photo opportunity. After the expo, the avatar will be stored online, so it can keep on providing answers about Odeuropa project. This might come in handy with the press questions that still come in 🙂
On the hunt for smellmarks
Our trip to Japan also provided a unique opportunity to visit some of the ‘100 most significant cultural smellmarks of Japan‘ and other olfactory landmarks. We went smellwalking through parks, gardens, along incense-fumed shrines, and participated in tea ceremonies.
We were honoured to be invited for a tour through the fragrance heaven Kunjyukan – a splendid place where visitors can learn about and engage with the traditions of Japanese incense. We got a sniff behind the scenes of traditional incense making of Shoyeido, and ‘listened to scents’ with the president of the company, Mr. Masataka Hata, who also schooled us in the history of Japanese incense making and rituals (if you do not have the chance to visit the company: order Mr. Hata’s beautiful and insightful Koh Senshu: A Cultural History of Japan as Seen Through Incense). For the first time in our lives, we smelled Kyara – an extremely rare and precious agarwood.
In Tokyo, we visited the Green Terrace of the Aroma Environment Association of Japan (AEAJ). This Aroma Lab is a true heritage scent library, where we could sniff through a whole catalogue of essential oils, all well documented. Hinoki, Hiba, Plai, Kuromoji Linear…our smell diaries were filled with exciting new experiences for our noses.
And that concluded our sensory overloaded, but too short, journey through Japan. We learned a lot about Japanese smell heritage – knowledge which we take back home now. We are also looking forward to bank upon the new contacts we made for future research collaborations!
