Dotombori Bridge
December 19, 2004
The Dotombori bridge in Shinsaibashi has always been a familiar site for locals and travellers in Osaka. It’s a weird place with many restaurants and shopping areas, many shoppers, many beautiful gals, and shady people coveting them. The area has been under renovation for the past few months. Today while crossing the temporary bridge, we noticed a new walkway open up alongside the river. The previous times I’ve walked by, the walkway had been obscured by barricades and blocks. Today, it was quite impressive how some thought and construction could turn the place into a decent looking area. I’m stoped.
This may become a nice place to come to after dinner to just relax. However the river is notorious for being disgusting. I hope they’ll put in as much effort with the river clean up as the construction.
While walking down there, you can’t help but notice just how many restaurants line the sides. Unfortunately these buildings were quite ugly. To match this new area, they’ll definitely need a bit of a facelift too.
December 19th, 2004 at 09:56
This is the bridge with the giant Glico sign right? The one I’m standing on here? I’ll never forget the story you told me about how people jump into the water off the bridge to celebrate the town baseball team winning a champeenship and they die from sucking down dirty water. You’d think the random wafts of sewage would remind people that any untreated water in a Japanese city is a health hazard.
December 19th, 2004 at 11:37
Yup the very same bridge! But yesterday I noticed there was no smell when we were walking right beside the water. I do vaguely remember reading about the government going through the canal for rubbish. There is now a HUGE beer ad - it covers one whole side of a building. Quite interesting.
December 20th, 2004 at 10:21
Wow, that’d be amazing if the city did some environmental cleanup in the area. It could be developed into a major destination point, seeing as it has the potential to be really beautiful and scenic.
December 20th, 2004 at 23:32
You can’t tell from this bad picture but the place is shaping up nicely. If some extra work were done with the surrounding buildings, it’d be a great hangout. Oh, well, if a whole bunch of people just disappeared from the area too. It’s so crowded on weekends.
December 21st, 2004 at 00:57
Cool! Found a page that talks about the plans for this area. There’s even an artist’s rendering pretty much the same picture I took. Check it out!