Namba Parks

This guide to Namba Parks in Osaka starts underground, at the site of Osaka Stadium, home of the Nankai Hawks from 1950. It follows the ballpark through the team's 1988 departure, a strange interlude when developers staged a fake suburban neighborhood on the empty field, and the demolition that followed. From there it turns to architect Jon Jerde, hired simply to link two city blocks with a walkway between them.