We took photos of what Nishinomiya looked like on New Year’s Eve.
We went to check out Hanshin Nishinomiya around 4 p.m.
This is in front of Hanshin Nishinomiya Station. Gozasoro had a line, while McDonald’s, on the other hand, had fewer people.
There was a baby castella stand just outside the station.
Foot traffic in Nishinomiya Chuo Shopping Street was neither especially busy nor especially quiet. There were a fair number of people. Food stalls were starting to appear too.
Lots of food stalls were being set up along Ebessan-suji.
It felt like there were quite a lot of baby castella stalls. There were also a decent number of fried chicken and kebab stalls.
There was taiyaki too.
There weren’t many takoyaki stalls. For okonomiyaki, there was one Hiroshima-yaki stall. There may be more inside the shrine grounds.
This is the view from Akamon Gate. Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year, begins at midnight on January 1. It’s almost time.
A video of us walking around casually ↓
How Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Looked
We went to check out Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi around 5 p.m.
This is Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station. As expected, there seemed to be a few fewer passengers than usual.
The southwest exit of the station. Foot traffic looked pretty light.
The southeast exit. Sorry, this isn’t some intentionally atmospheric photo or anything. It’s just a failed blurry shot.
Around Gardens. There were people, but it felt a little quiet.
The motorcycle parking area in front of ACTA was very quiet.
Even the northwest exit, which seemed like it would have the most foot traffic, looked like this.
A video of us walking around casually ↓
Koshienguchi Station
We went to Koshienguchi around 6 p.m.
This is the north side of the station. There aren’t many people, are there?
The south side also seemed quiet. There were only about two or three people getting on or off buses.
Honwaka Shopping Street also had this quiet feel.
Suzuran Shopping Street looked about the same.
But Life had a ton of customers. It seemed like it might have been the busiest place around Koshienguchi.
Traffic on National Route 2 also seemed to have thinned out quite a bit.
A video of us walking around casually ↓
Koshien Station
We went to Koshien at around 6:50 p.m.
This is what it looked like in front of the station.
There were a fair number of people walking around.
The bicycle parking area at Corowa Koshien. It looked like a decent number of bikes were parked there.
McDonald’s had fewer customers too.
In front of LaLaport, there were, as you’d expect, a few people walking here and there, but it was still pretty quiet.
Even that intersection in front of Koshien Stadium had no one crossing it.
A video of us walking around casually ↓
Finally
That’s our look at Nishinomiya on New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t as if there were no people at all, but foot traffic was definitely light. There are only a few hours left until 2022 comes to an end. Thank you for reading Nishinomiya Tsushin this year. Wishing you a happy New Year.
