Japanese nature – awordfromjapan

Osaka’s World Expo Memorial Park (万博記念公園) is where the World Expo took place back in 1970. The theme was Progress and Harmony for Mankind, reflecting the optimism of the time. Countries from all over the world built fanciful and futuristic pavilions to showcase their most advanced technologies and as an expression of their national prestige.

The pavilions are long since gone, as is the landmark tower that formed the centrepiece. In the intervening 49 years, the area has been transformed into a wonderfully diverse park and recreational area, with forests, lawns, flower displays and natural habitats, as well as a very extensive and beautifully landscaped Japanese garden. I reckon the park is about 3 km long, and would take at least half a day to see everything.

Here’s my list of 10 things that make it a great day out:

You arrive there by monorail.

Monorail — This is what the future looks like. In 1970. Now where’s my jetpack?

2. It’s really good value

Entry fees in Japan tend to be quite expensive. But it only costs about €2 to get into the park, and you can stay there all day.

3. The Tower of the Sun

The Landmark Tower is gone, as are all the national pavilions. But one monument still stands: 太陽の塔　The Tower of the Sun. This strange artwork, which greets you as you come in through the main gate, has three faces representing the past, present and future.

4. Expo 1970 featured some genuinely historic technological developments

The very first IMAX film was shown at Expo 1970. The Expo also featured maglev trains, mobile phones, local area networks and a rock that had been brought back from the moon by American astronauts the previous year. People must have really felt like they were living in the future.

5. Forest footbath

There’s a place in the middle of the forest where you can sit and relax with your feet in hot water for 10 minutes. For free (except you’ll need to buy a towel for 200 yen if for some reason you came to the park without one). It’s really quite agreeable, if you disregard the sign saying “Watch out for the snake!”

There are bags of herbs floating in the hot water. Possibly as snake-deterrent.

6. The ソラーデ “sky promenade”

There’s a wooden walkway extending for several hundred metres at treetop level. This is a lovely immersive way to experience the forest environment, surrounded by green leaves and birdsong.

7. So much nature

There are dozens of different zones and habitats from marshes and forests to lawns and formal gardens. At various times of year you can experience cherry blossoms, plum blossoms, azaleas, poppies, tulips and irises in full bloom. It’s amazing to think that this forest wasn’t here 50 years ago – it feels like it’s been here forever.

8. Lots of information

If you can read a little Japanese, you can really learn a lot about the birds and trees in the park.

9. Carts for hauling your children around

Loads of people had these little carts containing their infant children as well as picnic and barbecue equipment. I hadn’t seen this before (but I guess I’ll be seeing it a lot in future, because it’s such a practical idea). The children seemed really content.

10. The Japanese garden

We only saw a fraction of the Japanese garden because it extends over a couple of kilometres and we were getting tired from all the walking. But it is a really beautiful place, expertly laid out to create a sense of tranquility and serenity.

There is a very special and important shrine called Fushimi Inari Taisha in the mountains near Kyoto.

What makes it special is its thousands and thousands of torii shrine gates.

The shrine includes the whole mountain, and the paths and steps leading all the way to the summit are lined with these gates.

There are so many torii mounted so close together along the path that in many places it feels like walking through a tunnel.

At one point we came across a couple having wedding photos taken.

(My smartphone camera seems to have coped poorly with the unusual colour of the setting, compensating for the predominantly red surroundings by giving the daylight a bluish tinge. The photos taken by Yuko using her DSLR came out better, so we can hope the couple’s wedding photos turned out well also.)

Why are there so many gates? The reason is that this is an Inari shrine, a shrine dedicated to the god of fertility and industry. People show their gratitude for success in business by donating a gate to this god. The name of the person and the date are inscribed on the uprights of the gate.

The gates are painted or lacquered in a colour called 朱色　shu-iro—vermilion. There is variation between the shiny finish of the newest gates and those that have faded over 5 or 10 years to a pale whitish pink. We didn’t see any gates older than about 20 years.

As well as torii gates, Inari shrines are very strongly associated with foxes. Every Inari shrine, however small (for example the one on the roof of my office building in Osaka), has a pair of stone fox guardians, usually holding symbolic objects like a scroll or a sheaf of rice.

As the foremost of all the Inari shrines in Japan, Fushimi Inari shrine has lots of fox statues.

There was also a statue of a horse god housed in a small wooden building. The floor was covered with business cards.

The fox theme is interactive—visitors are invited to draw faces and write wishes on wooden fox masks, which are hung up and displayed outside the shrine building.

The railway station also picks up the theme.

Visitors typically walk up the hill behind the main shrine building, which meets a circular path that brings you to the summit. The walk is about 2 or 3 kilometres, and it can be a bit tiring walking up steep steps. I recommend you wear comfortable walking shoes. However it is worth the effort as there is so much of interest to see along the way, in terms of both religious significance and the beauty of the natural environment.