I’m terribly sorry that it took me a while to publish this article, but I finally finished to write the sequel to the blog entry about Osaka Expoland I announced quite a long time ago.
On my way back from my second trip to Sekigaraha Menard Land I thought it would be a good idea to pay Expoland (エキスポランド) another visit. It had been a couple of months since I explored it for the first time and I just wanted to have a short look again – to find out what happened to the Caribbean Resort and the other remaining buildings. Like with my first trip there I expected it to be a quick stop, maybe even without taking pictures. But again I was wrong…
I rode the Monorail from Minami Ibaraki to Banpaku-Kinen-Koen and pressed my camera against the window to get some elevated shots of the park. Since I accidentally changed the settings of my camera right before I reached Sekigahara Menard Land the pictures turned out to be very blurry and while I was wondering about that I realized that there were people in the park! In a park that was closed down for good more than two years earlier and that was being demolished during my first visit in December of 2009 – what an intriguing surprise! (I’m sorry for the picture quality of this posting again – it wasn’t my day…)
This time the main gate to the park was wide open. On top there was a sign that informed all people passing by about the newly installed Farm Expo. So what they did was cutting off about 20% of the park with typical Japanese site fences, revamped the existing buildings in the area into shops, painted and reopened the restaurant and heaped up some soil to use as a planting area. One of the former water rides was converted into a stable for pigs and halfway between that stable and the organic food stands were a couple of chickens in a cage for children to pet. The former clown house was converted into a farmer’s market, selling all kinds of herbs and produce.
The first time I went to Osaka Expoland the sky was overcast (later it started to rain) and the place was empty except for a few construction workers and a guard – quite a depressing sight. During my second visit the whole area was flooded by warm light and crowded by happy families enjoying a nice spring day. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different and I was kind of glad that they actually made good use of this really nice location as I thought they would tear down the whole place to build more apartment buildings and a shopping mall. It’s the first time I’ve seen a formerly abandoned place being reconverted and at least in this case it was a really good decision – although it means that I’ll have to go back there one day to find out what the future holds for Osaka Expoland.
Oh, and in case you are wondering what happened to the Caribbean Resort: It wasn’t demolished, but fenced off and therefore not accessible during my second visit in April.
(You can find out where Expoland was by clicking here.)
Abandoned Kansai 
At last ! I was looking forward to this and I am also pleasantly surprised that they made good use of the site. Did I read correctly the sign over the gate which, I think, says “entrance free”?
Yeah, I should stop making promises here – I’m always late posting the stuff I announced…
And yes, you read the sign correctly: Entrance was free. It was actually pretty buzzing, but since my camera settings were off and I didn’t even realize it I couldn’t use any of those shots as they were all blurry.
Oh, cool! Was that strange tower with the face, wings and golden disk still there?
That’s the Tower of the Sun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Sun
And it was still there since it wasn’t part of Expoland, but of the Expo Commemoration Park.
Sadly the farm expo didn’t last and now everything has been demolished and is turning into a shopping mall.
Yeah, neither did the water park – it seems like they opened that one the following year (or the previous?). I took some pictures of then demolition 1.5 years ago, but haven’t been there since. As for the shopping mall: I guess the wives have to go somewhere when the husbands visit the new soccer stadium across the street… 😉