News for the Kansai area of Japan in English!
Friday July 30th 2010

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‘Kansai Parks’ Archives

Sakura Buds Coming Out

Sakura Buds Coming Out

Just stopped by the park to check out the cherry trees and saw the buds are already out. Some of them are even green with a little pink showing. It's time to start cherry blossom watching! Cherry trees this spring could bloom a little earlier this year. If you care about seeing the cherry blossoms in full-bloom, you had better start keeping [...]

Expoland Park Shutdown

Expoland closed last Saturday as a result of the rollercoaster crash that sadly killed one young woman. It is still closed and there has been no date set for the reopening of the park. Expoland has currenly disabled all links to information on the park in their home page in both Japanese and English. The only message available is a [...]

One Week Before the Expoland Rollercoaster Crash

Expoland has had several problems with the rollercoaster over the years. After last week's accident, which unfortunately took the life of a young Japanese woman, maybe the park will take better care of the rollercoaster, update it, or tear it down and build a new one. Two women from Kyoto say they had a problem with the rollercoaster they were [...]

Another Woman Injured on Expoland Rollercoaster in 2005

According to sources, in 2005 a woman received neck injuries from an accident on the same rollercoaster that killed a woman last week at Expoland in Osaka. Expoland admitted the accident happened, but could not provide more details because the police had confiscated the documents related to the case after the accident on Saturday last [...]

Hirakata Koen Park

Hirakata Koen Park

Hirakata Park, Hirakata Koen in Japanese, is a fun little theme park. It's mostly for families with kids, but adults can have some fun there, too, on dates or to break away from the monotony of work. It’s located along the Keihan line about halfway between Osaka and Kyoto cities. Take the Keihan either from Osaka or Kyoto and get off at [...]