What used to be where the baseball field at Hamakoshien Sports Park is now? Nishinomiya Quiz

This is the “Nishinomiya Quiz” corner, where knowing the answer proves you’re a true Nishinomiya expert.

Here’s today’s quiz:

If you haven’t seen the answer yet, give it a try♪

When you think of Hama Koshien Athletic Park, this huge sailing ship-style playground equipment probably comes to mind.

It was apparently once called “Naruo Hama Park,” but today it is known as “Hama Koshien Athletic Park.”

There’s also a tunnel of cherry blossoms there～

The correct answer is b. Kosei Nenkin Pool.

I’m guessing quite a few readers used to go there often when they were kids.

Source: Showa-era Nishinomiya City, vol. ⅸ

According to Showa-era Nishinomiya City,

Beyond the pool stood the Hama Koshien housing complex. It was an outdoor pool equipped with a 50-meter pool, slides, and diving platforms, which were unusual for recreational swimming at the time. In summer, large crowds came from outside the prefecture as well. It was damaged in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and closed. The site is now the baseball field at Naruo Hama Park (Hama Koshien Athletic Park).

That’s what it says.

There was also an article about Kosei Nenkin Pool in the Kobe Shimbun.
Kosei Nenkin Pool was built in 1967 and seems to have been a huge pool facility covering about 20,000 square meters.
It had features like a gourd-shaped pool and diving platforms of different heights, and was apparently packed on weekends and during summer vacation.

Looking at the photo, it really was crowded, wasn’t it (^_^)

Hama Koshien Athletic Park is here ↓↓

The address is 20-1 Edagawa-cho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture.

In Closing

Nishinomiya City really had a lot of places to have fun, from Koroen Amusement Park in the Meiji era to Koshien Dai Pool, Hanshin Park, and Kosei Nenkin Pool in the Showa era.