Hattori Ryokuchi parkrun, Osaka, 15th November 2025

An Englishman (and woman) abroad, Tom Tinsley reports all the way from Japan:

“We chose Osaka as the start point for our trip to Japan as we have Japanese friends who live there. Osaka is a massive city with a few parkruns, but we settled on Hattori Ryokuchi as it seemed the easiest to find, and our friends confirmed that it was a nice park. 

Having selected the parkrun and worked out the route, the next problem was the 8am start! We made it in good  time and received a friendly welcome from the locals. The first timers briefing was in Japanese and English, which certainly helped as, besides us, there was also a young couple from London, a lad from my part of Liverpool (them Scousers get everywhere!) and a couple of Australian ladies.  The small group of 34 runners were assembled for a team photo, and then we were off.

It was an unusual route. The start and finish were on the top of a hill, and we started by going downhill on one side, back up to the top, down the other side of the hill, back up and then repeat.  With my dodgy knee still playing up, I decided to walk the downs and jog the ups – the opposite of the other slower parkrunners! Still, it was a beautiful warm, sunny morning, and walking downhill let me appreciate the sun shining through the “bamboo forest” as the lake came into view at the bottom of the park. 

Mind you, I don’t think the locals had fully grasped the concept of walking parkrun. One of the Australian ladies had planned to walk it all, but had to get her skates on when the tailwalkers broke into a jog!

It was also confusing as there seemed to be more people out for their own morning jog in the park than there were participating in the parkrun. It would be great if some could be brought into the fold as the lovely volunteers deserve more than 34 participants. 

It is fair to say that it is not the fastest course (I don’t think there were any flat stretches), but for every up there is a down. Osaka is a bit of a concrete jungle, so it was great to spend some time in this lovely park. 

We walked back to take the metro into town with the Aussies, discussing parkrun experiences. One of the them said that parkrun was a fantastic gift that Britain had given to the world. I think she is right!”

32:54	Gill Milne
37:20	Tom Tinsley