Namba Parks

 

Shopping malls are true cathedrals of consumption, especially in a country wherein many people claim shopping as a hobby.

Most are featureless boxes, but a few have had some serious money spent on their architecture.

Namba parks is one such location, and from one angle one might understand the name "parks" as having some rekevance.

However, most visitors will see a dark canyon with beckoning lights enticing people into magical lands where things you don't need call out to be bought...

The canyon metaphor is also literal.

The architect, American Jon Jerde, modelled the architecture on the sandstone canyons of the Colorado Plateau in the American Southwest.

As a photographer, I like it.

Jerde has also designed another couple of shopping malls in Japan that I like: Riverwalk in Kokura, and Canal City in Fukuoka.

I notice common elements to all three...

Namba Parks is my least favourite, though that may be simply because I have visited it less than the other two.

I was about to write that after multiple visits to these malls I had never actually bought anything, but then I remembered that Canal City used to have a Wendys that I visited once, and Riverwalk has a Freshness Burger and a map museum that I had visited...

As well as the shopping mall, Namba Parks consists of a cinema, and an office building and a residential building. The rooftop gardens don't seem to get much use...

I currently only have one post on Riverwalk, here, and one on Canal City, here.

The previous post in this series exploring Namba, Osaka, was on sights seen between Namba Hips and Namba Parks.

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.

Canal City Hakata

Canal City Hakata, 博多

A couple of months ago I took advantage of a lull in the pandemic and went on a trip to north Kyushu. This involved my first visit to a city in over 2 years.

In my quest to visit ,what were for me, the exotic and unusual, I revisited Canal City in Hakata, a "Cathedral of Consumption".

Japanese shopping malls are for the most part architecturally bland, usually resembling industrial scale warehousing, but a few are not.

The interior of CanalCity is a meandering "canyon" with a water feature running along its base. It is also quite colorful.

Canal City was designed by American architect Jon Jerde, and the architecture is somewhat inspired by the canyon country of the American southwest. He also designed another colorful complex called Riverwalk in Kokura.

Like a methadone clinic or a pachinko parlor, people were lining up to enter before the doors opened.

Japan Shop

Riverwalk Revisited

My final stop at the end of my fifth day of walking around Kyushu was the Riverwalk complex right next to the castle.

I'd been here several times before but it was such a great place for my kind of photos that I couldn't resist.

Designed by the  American architect Jon Jerde, Riverwalk comprises mostly of shops and offices, though there is also and art gallery and a TV studio.

Kokura is the closest point to Honshu, so I broke my journey here and headed home for a few days to spend the new year with my wife. Early in the new year I would be back for the next leg of my 78 day walk around Kyushu.

A Walk Around Kyushu Day 5

Following a miserable and rainy fourth day, day 5 was back to glorious weather. I didn't have too far to walk today, just from Yahata to Kokura.

There were 2 pilgrimage temples to visit, and a major shrine which was unexpected. With the afternoon free I visited a few places "on assignment" for Japanvisitor,com.

I took the train out to Mojiko and visited the Kyushu Railway Museum there, and then headed back to Kokura to revisit some architectural sights that interest me.

First up there was the International Conference Center by Arata Isozaki, somewhere I have posted about before

And then through the concrete jungle to the iconic Riverwalk Complex,

It was the 29th of December and so I broke my walk and headed home for a few days to spen new year with my wife before coming back a week later to continue with the next leg of my 2,200 kilometer walk.

Vacation 2011 Day 1: Kokura

After exploring Yahata it was time to head to Fukuoka, but first I spent a quick hour revisiting Kokura. Around the castle moat the cherry blossoms were out so I was able to have a little ohanami before leaving the country.

Below the castle is a branch of Yasaka shrine, and as I have a keen interest in komainu I couldnt resist taking some snaps.

In front of the castle was a small Inari shrine and several buddhist statues clad in gaily colored bibs with offerings of fresh flowers.... the late afternoon sun and shadows made for good pictures.

The main reason to revisit Kokura was to check out Riverwalk, the complex designed by Jerde. Ive posted about it before, but at a different time of the year and a different time of the day, and a new lens, it was possible to take some new shots.

And finally, walking across the river back towards the station the pleasure boats lined up to have their picture taken....