Nagai Park- a homely park for you to get your green fix!!!
Only 30 minutes away from Osaka Umeda, this park is the perfect place to be to take a rest from all the excitement and crowd in town.
Toddlers learning to walk on the lawn, sound of excited cries from the soccer stadium, amateur runners on the jogging tracks, well-groomed(extremely well-groomed actually…) dogs walking with their owners, aspiring flute player practicing for her next performace,quiet murmuring of old men playing Shogi (Japanese chess) on the benches, people sunbathing on the lawn in summer??!!….
What better way to feel how it is like to relax like a local than coming to Nagai Park?
Nagai park, which has been opened for more than 40 years, not only houses a botanical garden (with the Osaka Museum of Natural History inside), the park also has a tennis court, a rubber baseball stadium, 2 athletics stadiums, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a youth hostel and not to forget, a SUMO ring!
For me, coming to Nagai Park is not just about escaping from the tourist crowd but actually enjoy the privilege to be welcomed by the trees and plants in the 24.2 hectares Nagai Botanical Garden.The botanical park which cost you only 200 yen to enter.
Any season you come, you will be promised with an abundance of greeneries and blossoming flowers ever smiling for your camera lenses. In spring, this is a heaven of cherry blossoms, dogwoods, azaleas. As summer approaches, look out for the Japanese and German Irises, hydrangeas. Be mesmerized by the grand lotus in the pond, and the tall and bright sunflowers. As the weather gets cooler, you can spend your day sitting in the bench enjoying the breeze by the camellias.
For tree enthusiasts, you will surely not want to miss the forest area that recreates trees that existed in Osaka about 10,000 to 2million years ago.
So even if you do not have time to cover the whole of Nagai Park, just coming to the botanical garden is worth your time. Even better, book at least a night in the hostel in Nagai park and take a walk in the park before you start your sightseeing in Osaka!
