Utsubo Park

Utsubo Park
Utsubo Park
	Utsubo Park in 2006
Type	Urban park
Location	Nishi ward, Osaka City
Coordinates	34°41′06″N 135°29′34″E / 34.685055°N 135.492786°E
Area	9.7ha (0.097 km2)
Created	21 October 1955
Operated by	Osaka city
Status	Open all year

Utsubo Park (靱公園, Utsubo-Kōen) is a large public, urban park, situated at Utsubo-Hommachi in Nishi-ku, Osaka, Japan.

The park was constructed at the site of a former air field of the United States Army, so the land is a long rectangle shape characteristic of a runway (700m x 150m). This place was one of the busiest fish wholesale markets (Zakoba fish market and Utsubo dried fish market), from Edo period until 1931, at that time a new wholesale market was opened at Fukushima ward.

The Utsubo Tennis Center occupies a large area of the western part of the park. Some international tennis tournaments have been held there. The most famous one is the HP Open and World Super Junior Tennis Championships.

Around the eastern part of this park, many cafes and bakery have opened after 1990. Sometimes open-air wedding are held at the rose garden. This area is becoming one of the fashionable places in Osaka city.

Facilities

tennis centre

Osaka science and technology centre [1]
Utsubo tennis centre [2]

stadium(centre court):one hard court, capacity of about 5000

sub centre court:one hard court, capacity of about 500

public:14x hard courts, 4x clay courts

Rose garden : admission free
wedding hall and restaurants

Activities in the park

Rose festival : concerts, mid May at rose garden
Flower and sculpture exhibition : from mid October to November

Access

Higobashi Station of Metro Yotsubashi Line and Watanabebashi Station of Keihan Railway is closest to the eastern part of Utsubo park (rose garden). Awaza Station of Metro Chūō and Sennichimae Line is closest to the Tennis Stadium.

External links

Official page of Utsubo park [3] (Japanese language)

Photographs

rose garden
autumn tints
Science and technology centre