Namba Park! It's one of my precedent for the final task in UGM. As I know I have to research about the integration of public space and commercial park I think I should really explore for various of shopping center here in Osaka.
I only relied on my Google Maps that I could only access it in the dorm. I wrote the direction in my notebook. And load the maps offline in my phone. I headed to Momoyamadai Station to took the Subway Midosuji Line (red) towardz Nakamozu. I spent 390 yen for the train. It only took approximately 30 minutes to pass 11 train stops to reach the Namba station.
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| Tiket kereta aja ampe 40.000 rupiah++ Ada gerbong khusus wanita juga di Jepang ^^ |
I still checked my offline maps in my phone once a while too convince myself that I was in the right way to Namba. Before I left the dorm, I was planning to go to Namba, Americamura, Ajinoya Restaurant and then Tsutenkaku tower. But when I arrived at Namba Park, suddenly the maps just went blank because it didn't have any internet connection. Bad luck me.
I just explored the Namba Park. Namba Park is designed by Jerde. I saw a lot of Jerde's masterpiece from internet, but I ever came to one of it in Jakarta, the Central Park Mall was Jerde's design. Jerde applied the Placemaking theory and made the Placemaking to be their kind of slogan. So thier Namba Park, I was sure, is also designed with applying the Placemaking theory.
Namba Park is not that large. The entrance was kinda confusing because as you know Japanese building is always connected with one another. It's like it has a lot of entrance gate. Every gate you can entrance made to be the entrance, in my opinion, the entrance meant to be flexible. As its name, Namba Park, it has a park on its building. The Park was like the cover of the building. So inside was the function of the retail and the cover was the park which everyone can use it for leisure time.
I first went inside the malls. The interior of the mall is kind of old-fashioned, I guess because the building was old like 12 years old since the first time it's built. So it must be impressive at that time. Because I didn't really know about the tenants I just walked around. The mall has a kind of inner court and and has the connecting bridge on each floor.
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| The parks |
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| The dynamic curvy shapes of the building from the innercourt |
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| The tenants and mall facilities |
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| Interior of the connecting bridge |
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| The connecting brigde was also meant to keep the sense of its flexibility |
After took some photos I checked my maps in my phone again. It just couldn't load. But I remembered that I brought some maps and the Osaka Guidebook in my bag. The nearest place I could go is the Dotonburi, which well-known by its Glico-man. So I just followed the route and just trust my own sense of navigation. I was not sure about the way. I followed the train rails path above me. I just spotted an unique building that has a king of hole in a 8 shaped on its building. Ah, I must go there first because I think I didn't know where to go, right? I passed the OIOI building, I was pretty sure that it's also a shopping center too. I only checked Namba Hips from outside. Then I followed the road until I got to a canal rivers. I walked down the riverside and in my opinion it just looks like Venice even I never went to Italy before hahahaha.
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| FOLLOW THE TRACKS! |
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| NAMBA HIPS by Takamatsu Architect. More modern than Namba Parks. |
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| Various of shopping streets arcade alley. |
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| The riverside |
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| Tombori River Cruise. Is it the same like in Venice? I don't know hahahaha |
And I spotted the Glico big banner there!! Ah, it must be that famous area! But I wasn't sure about the Glico banner because it used to have the Glico Man right there and it changed into a girl. The Dotonbori riverside has a lot of store and restaurants, especially for takoyaki! I saw many octopus sculpture in front of the store.
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| THE FAMOUS SPOT TO TAKE A PICTURE |
And I found the Shinsaibashi district. I found a lot brand-name store in here, I wonder it's even not in a mall like in Jakarta. It's only an arcade shopping center, only a one long alley. It's like Japan was known for its alley shopping district, and Shinsaibashi is the most popular not only for tourist but also for the local people.
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| Shinsaibashi District |
And, luckily I found a free hotspot in Shinsaibashi so I could load the maps and got into Path to post photos. Because it's still a long day, I planned to continue my journey to the Tsutenkaku Tower. It's kinda far if I should go there by walk, so possibly took a train would be better because I didn't want to get lost of the unloaded maps on my phone. The station was near the Tsutenkaku tower. I only had to go through (another) shopping alley and there it is. I realized that Tsutenkaku tower was in the Shinsekai area. So shinsekai is also another shopping center. Tsutenkaku tower is a symbol of Shinsekai which literally means 'New World'. I took the maps from the guidebook and saw another interesting place to go because I think I want to enjoy the Shinsekai area at night. So I headed to check the Osaka Municiple Museum of Art. I have to walk above the Tennoji Zoo by the connecting bridge. But I saw something odd. It's like a lot of old-men beggars for money or food. Oh my God, I was too afraid so I quickened to the museum but I guess it's already close. The Museum is kind of a dead-end and it's only a few people in the area. I became more frightened so I walked back to the Shinsekai. It was a very bad impression of this area. I observed there were a lot of pachinkos so I just assumed that a lot of old-man there were going crazy for money to plays in the pachinko.
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| This alley is mostly a restaurant and a place for old men play traditional halma or something |
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| Tsutenkaku Tower within the Shinsekai Area |
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| That Shinsekai entrance left a bad impression for me huhhu. Tennoji Zoo & The Museum. And I also spotted the Abeno Harukas, |
It was a very bad impression, added by a strange smell from a lot of restaurant there. I rushed to get back to the nearby train station before it got dark at night.
So the nearby station was Dobutsuen-mae. I wondered that it didn't give an English translation even for buying a ticket. It's all in Japanese word. I pushed the help button and just said that I need to go to the Esaka station because I wasn't sure that the trains stop at the Momoyamadai. And I just realized that I can go to the Momoyamadai if I took the subway Midosuji line for the Senri-chuo station.
So I spent a lot of cash for the transportation.
Back to the dorm, Kelly told me before that she's already have a simcard so I asked her how to get it for my phone. There's no way out from this problem, because I need a credit card to buy it and I don't have any.
And a group of people planned to go to check the Shittenoji temple by tomorrow. I think I would love to join them as well.
xx.
Indah Tsiasti
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