なんばパークス | Namba Parks

昔、そこには大阪球場があって、南海ホークスのホームスタジアムだった。母親によると、新聞屋からもらったチケットで西城秀樹のコンサートに僕と姉を連れて行ったらしいけれど、僕は幼すぎたので全く覚えていない。小学生の頃、一度だけアイススケートをしに大阪球場の地下のリンクへ行ったのだけ覚えている。ホークスも福岡に移り、大阪球場内は一時期住宅展示場になっていた。

その跡地が一大ショッピングモールになったのはいつのことだか日本にいないので知らないが、２年前にヤマダ電機に行った際、そこがなんばパークスなる複合商業ビルだと知った。

今回の帰省の際に一番訪れた場所だったかもしれない。近くで働く友人と待ち合わせたり、子供を連れた友人と会う際、その友人が選んだ場所もここだった。上から下まで見たのはその子連れの友人と会った時だった。

このビルは屋上緑化を目的に建てられたんだろう。緑の少ない大阪市中心部には最適の再開発だと思った。
屋上には植物がいっぱい植わった公園があって、平日と言えどもいろいろな人が公園でくつろいでいた。

屋上公園から少し迷路のように下のコンコースまで階段で降りられるようになっていた。

階段で降りていく途中に、SOZという店を見つけた。新しいコンセプトのブロックのおもちゃだった。おもちゃと言っても、大きなサイズのブロックを使えば実用的な家具やら迷路まで作れてしまう製品だった。友人の子供が何度となくその迷路を行ったり来たり、僕は商品に惹かれたが結局購入しなかった。今思えば小さなキットを購入したら良かったかなと思う。

地上まで降りたところでその子連れの友達と別れ、別の友達と会うべくその場を後に北上した。


There used to be Osaka Baseball Stadium and it was the home stadium for Nankai Hawks. According to my mom, she took my sister and me to a concert of Hideki Saijo with free tickets that she got from a newspaper company agent. I was too small to remember the fact. When I was an elementary school student, I remember that we went to the ice skate rink located at the basement of the stadium. After Hawks changed its franchise city to Fukuoka, inside of the stadium was turned into a exhibition place of model houses at some point.

Although I don't know when the stadium was redeveloped as a major shopping mall because I have been away from Osaka for a long time, I noticed the name of the new shopping mall complex as Namba Parks when I visited Yamada Denki store 2 years ago.

When I was home in Osaka this time, this is the place where I have visited the most. I waited to meet my friend who works nearby and another frined of mine with her daughter picked this place for lunch with me as well.

This building is a unique building and is probably designed for the purpose of afforestation in a core of the city. I thought this is a good redevelopment for less greenry city centre of Osaka. There was a park with trees and flowers on the top of the shopping mall complex and there were many people relaxing even though it was a weekday.

From the park on top of the building, there were stairs to go down – it was a little bit like a maze.

On our way down to the ground level, my friend and I found a store called SOZ – a toy store that has a new concept of blocks. I called it a toy, but you can actually build a piece of furniture or even a maze if you use bigger size of the blocks. It was a really neat product. My friend's daughter repeatedly went through the maze. I was very attracted to the product but I didn't purchase a small kit after all. Maybe, I should have bought one then.

At the end, on the ground level, I saw off my friend and her daughter and then I headed north to see snother friend of mine.