Nakanoshima Park

This guide to Nakanoshima Park in Osaka starts with a strange sound at the river's edge, a subway train rushing beneath a sandbar that became the city's first public park in 1891. It traces the hotels, bathhouse, restaurants and Noh stage that once drew crowds here, Osaka's first beer garden among them, and follows what replaced those buildings decade by decade after none of them survived. Kneel by the walkway and listen before you walk on.