＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
In July 2018, “Osaka Metro” announced its “Station Renewal Plan” and “Home Door Installation Plan”, totaling 45 billion yen investment, excluding the planned extension of the Chuo Line to “Yumeshima”, which is being considered with IR (Integrated Resort) and Osaka Expo in mind. I think the “plan to install platform doors” is fine.
However, the Station Renewal Plan, announced on December 20, 2018, is in such “bad taste” that it makes one want to tilt one’s head.
Based on the concept of “large-scale reform of underground space,” it appears that nine Midosuji Line stations and six Chuo Line stations will undergo “bold renewal” between FY 2018 and FY 2024. The concept for each station is as follows. (15 stations are scheduled for renewal, but images have been released for only 13 stations)
[Midosuji Line]
“Shin-Osaka: Osaka of the near future”
“Nakatsu: Presentation”
“Umeda: Information terminal”
“Yodoyabashi: History”
“Honmachi: Crossover point”
“Shinsaibashi: Textile”
“Tennoji: Sky”
“Daikokucho: The station where trains look the coolest”
[Chuo Line]
“Morinomiya: Forest”
“Tanimachi 4-chome: Osaka Castle and Golden Teahouse”
“Sakaisuji Honmachi: Semba townspeople culture”
“Bentencho: Benzaiten”
“Osaka Port: Ships”
In particular, the “Shinsaibashi Station” ceiling and walls “look like a schoolboy’s design with lots of sticky little flower patterns pasted on it,” which is “the kind of design you often see on wrapping paper or pots,” and is in particularly bad taste.
Morinomiya Station has decorations hanging from the ceiling that look like leaves, but they are not very impressive, as they look like cheap “decoration” for some shopping district.
The ceiling of Yodoyabashi Station has many retro lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling, perhaps in place of chandeliers, but they are cluttered and do not look good.
At first, I thought that the name pasted on the ceiling of “Sakaisuji Honmachi Station” was a karuta, but upon closer inspection, I found that it had the names of the master families of Semba merchants, such as “Odan-san(「親旦那さん」), oie-san(「御家さん」),” “dan-san（「旦那さん」）, goryon-san（「御寮人さん」）,” etc..
I can’t deny the “cheesy feel.”
The concept also seems incongruous that “Shinsaibashi” is “textile”. If anything, “Hommachi” should be “textile”. Shinsaibashi” used to be ‘high-end fashion’, but now the Midosuji side is a ‘foreign luxury brand district’, and Shinsaibashisuji itself is a ‘drugstore district’.
I think the design of Maihama Station on the JR Keiyo Line in Urayasu City, Chiba Prefecture, where Disneyland and DisneySea are located, could be similar to that of Shinsaibashi Station, but I do not think it is appropriate for a station on the Midosuji Subway Line, which runs under Midosuji, Osaka’s representative business and entertainment district. I think it is not appropriate.
On a different note, in 2001, the Osaka City Environmental Bureau hired a foreign designer to build the Maishima Waste Disposal Plant in Maishima, which was being developed on the premise of attracting the 2008 Osaka Olympics, wasting a large amount of taxpayers’ money.
It is so bizarre that one might mistake it for an “amusement park” or a “theme park.
If it was created by “volunteers,” no problem, but the fact that they were paid a large sum of money is problematic.
The waste incineration plant was designed by F. Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist famous for his “environmental architecture” that continually rejects architectural rationalism. The design fee is 60 million yen for the Maishima Plant (waste incineration plant) and 66 million yen for the Sludge Center (sewage treatment plant), for a total of 126 million yen.
This is totally inappropriate for the “purpose” of the facilities.
Designers are often “artists” who want to “assert themselves” by coming up with “eccentric ideas. This is fine for something like a painting, but when it comes to the design of public transportation, which is used by many people, a little more common sense is needed.
Mayor Yoshimura of Osaka City and Mr. Toru Hashimoto seem to appreciate this “station renewal plan”, but do they want to emphasize it as “an achievement of privatization”?
Not to digress, but last year two high-impact commercials for Hazuki-loupes(ハズキルーペ) were shown on TV. The first one was ranked second in the “CM likability ranking” and the second one was ranked first.
The president himself worked on these two commercials. At first, the plan brought by a professional CM creator was far from what the president had in mind.
This is a good example of “never trust professionals too much(「プロを信用し過ぎてはいけない」).
Although Osaka Metro is a privatized company, Osaka City owns 100% of its shares. However, since it is still a highly public company, we would like to ask for a wide range of opinions and more careful consideration of the “details of the station renewal project.