Investigation Results: The Orca in the Aquarium at the Entrance of Nichii in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi

Welcome to “Miyacco Detective,” the section where readers can investigate Nishinomiya mysteries and feel like detectives. Actually, you really are detectives, though. The idea is that articles will keep getting updated whenever readers, our “Miyacco Detectives,” send in new information.

Here at @Nishi2, we receive lots of tips every day, along with emails asking us to look into various things.

The @Nishi2 team is excellent, of course, but there’s only so much we can do on our own, so we’ve decided to ask our readers for help～(^o^)／

What We’d Like Miyacco Detectives to Tell Us

This reader request comes from Yossy-san.

Here’s the request that came in to Nishi2.

On the south side of Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, along the Yamate Kansen road, where the general housing exhibition center is now, there used to be a Nichii (Saty), right?

The place where Nichii (Saty) used to be is around here on the map↓↓

「© OpenStreetMap contributors」

I’m around the same age as Yossy-san, but I can’t remember it at all…
My house was nearby, so I usually went to Nichii by bicycle, and I barely remember the entrance by the big parking lot…

By the way, Nichii opened in 1973, and the store name was changed to Nishinomiya Saty in 1993👆

So the request is: “Wasn’t there an orca in the aquarium at the Nichii (Saty) entrance～?? Someone tell us～”♪

Here are the key points of the request🐋

Information from Miyacco Detectives

Anonymous
I think there was an aquarium at the Saty entrance. I tried to trace back my distant memories. But as for the size, I think it was bigger than the kind commonly found in homes, maybe about the size you’d see in a pet shop. I don’t remember an orca. What I remember seeing was a green aquarium full of moss and seaweed. I think there were fish swimming inside. I don’t think it was an orca.

There was an aquarium at the entrance～!! Could an orca have been swimming in it??
They don’t remember an orca, but it does seem like there definitely was an aquarium～

Anonymous
I happened to see the article. About the aquarium, or orca?, near the parking lot entrance of Nichii (Saty) Nishinomiya store… Around 1990, I was working at Nichii Nishinomiya as an employee. Around what year did you see that aquarium? There is something I can think of as a possibility, though I’m not certain. If the timing matches, I may be able to share that possibility with you. But it would only be a possibility…

Nobutan
Regarding the information that there may have been an orca on the parking lot side of Saty, I remember there being a pet shop where you entered the store from the parking lot side. Maybe they had fish on display there too, and there might have been a big fish like an arowana? If there really had been an orca, you’d think it would have been kept in a big pool, but I don’t remember an aquarium that large… On the 4th or 5th floor of Saty, there was a swimming school called People.

There was a pet shop where you entered from the parking lot side～!! So there was a big fish like an arowana… Apparently adult arowanas can grow to around 1 meter long

Anonymous
I saw the question asking whether there was an orca at Nichii (Saty). At the entrance of Nichii (Saty), I think there was a picture of an orca swimming in the sea? It was a fairly large panel, and I feel like there were several others too… It’s a vague childhood memory, though.

A picture of an orca!? Children are pure, so it wouldn’t be strange if they thought a picture was the real thing😊

Hiro
About whether there was an aquarium at the entrance of Nichii in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi. I’m also 44. When I was little, I often went shopping at Nichii. I don’t remember whether there was an orca, haha, in a big aquarium, but I think there was a pet shop near the entrance from the parking lot. So there may have been fish tanks there.

Anonymous
About the orca in the aquarium. At the time of the earthquake, I was working part-time at Spogium, a sporting goods store inside Saty. Right after the earthquake, we sold sneakers, bench coats, and other items that could be useful to disaster victims, including myself, at very low prices in the parking lot. But I don’t remember an aquarium. Could it be that the memory got linked with the heated pool, since the top floor of Saty had culture classes and a swimming school? By the way, in the map of the Nichii area that Nishi2 made for the self-service udon article, Mister Donut was in part of the open plaza area in front of Nichii, the northern part. In the southern part of that plaza, there was an elevator, and if you took it, you could get to the swimming school in question. I also learned calligraphy at that culture school when I was a child. Sorry if there really was an aquarium💦

From here, the information we received via LINE is below↓↓

Seishun no Kage
The orca at SATY in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi… I wonder if it had something to do with a bird shop separate from SATY⁉️ I feel like a friend said they were going to work at a bird shop? Maybe it was a pet shop⁉️

Popokoro
Hello, I always enjoy reading your site.
I’m currently 52, and when I was in first grade, I heard that you could see a whale in the Nichii parking lot!! I begged my parents to take me to see it. In my memory it was a whale, but since the aquarium was there for a while, maybe there was also an orca.
I was happy to see it, but I remember feeling sorry for it because the pool was so small. We had studied “Kujira-gumo” in our textbook, so it left a very strong impression on me.
Am I the only one who thinks Nichii back then felt like a department store to Nishinomiya residents?😅 It’s a nostalgic memory.

So it really was a whale, then.
It was in a small pool? Hmm, hmm. It sounds like Nichii had a big presence back then.

Wakame-chan
When I was in elementary school, I went every day to People, which was on top of Nichii! That aquarium really left an impression on me too, and whenever I ask people about it, they say, “No way!!!” But it was definitely there! It wasn’t an orca, it was a smaller whale! To me as an elementary school kid, it looked huge, but it was definitely in the parking lot! I was only in elementary school, so maybe I just assumed it was a whale, but anyway, in my memory as a little kid, it was a giant, huge whale!

I see. When you’re little, everything looks big, doesn’t it!

Wakame-chan
I was so happy to see this article! People kept telling me, “A whale in the parking lot?! No way!!!” Since I went every day to People above Nichii, which is now called Konami Swimming School, this really brings back memories! Maybe it was this? (false killer whale) It says “orca-like,” right? I also wondered if it might have been a dolphin, but it says it’s in the dolphin family, so maybe it was this whale!

Wanko-san
I saw the article about the orca at Nichii (Saty).
What I think is, maybe it wasn’t inside the Nichii building, but at a shop outside?
Nichii had three entrances, on the west side, at the traffic light along Yamate Kansen, and on the east side. I think there was some space on the grounds outside the building on the east side, and toward the north there was a Mister Donut and a shop that had budgies, goldfish, and things like that.
Maybe that shop had the orca～?
I don’t remember an orca, but I feel like no matter which of the three entrances you used, you ended up in the clothing section, so maybe it was that shop? As an aside, I remember there being a shoe store and a record rental shop across the road on the opposite, east, side.

Thank you for the detailed information! So it was a shop outside. Hmm, hmm.

Yasu-san from Somewhere
Place: Nichii (Saty) that used to be in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi
Details: Whether there was a large aquarium at the entrance from the big parking lot side, and whether there was a large fish? In the reader’s memory, an orca, inside it
About this matter.
In my memory, I have absolutely no recollection of there being, or an orca coming, there… But based on guesses and hazy memories, at the south entrance of Nichii back then:
・There may have been a square pool-like place filled with water to about 20 cm deep, purpose unknown… sweat.
・There was a pet shop outside the entrance, and I think they also sold aquatic creatures like goldfish… sweat.
・I think there was a housing exhibition center on the west side of Nichii back then too… sweat.
・Maybe that housing exhibition center sometimes displayed a large >orca-shaped vinyl float or something like that, completely a guess, sweat.
Could it be a mix of these memories? Sweat.
Since these are very old memories, mostly guesses, I’m sorry if I’m wrong or completely off the mark.

Chikakoyu
I’m sending this on LINE about Nishinomiya Nichii.
Hello😃
When I saw this article, it made me nostalgic and I thought, “Oh yeah, Nichii was there～✨” But I couldn’t remember anything about an orca or an aquarium.
So I messaged my mother on LINE. ↓
Mother: “Your younger sister worked part-time as a cashier at Nichii when she was in high school.”
I, her older sister, couldn’t even remember that my younger sister had worked at Saty😅
Then I messaged my sister on LINE. ↓
Sister: “No, I don’t remember.
But I do feel like there was some kind of fish picture or object there…”
❗️
Then I thought, that could be possible!…
There’s no way there was a real orca, after all…
I’m sending this LINE in case it can be of any help.
I’m hoping this turns into something interesting✨

Thank you for even messaging your mother and sister to ask! So there may have been something like a fish picture or object～

Summary of Information from Miyacco Detectives

• There was a pet shop at the entrance of Nichii
• The pet shop had aquariums with fish swimming inside
• There was something like an orca picture or object at the Nichii entrance
• There was People on an upper floor of Nichii, and it had a large pool
• You could see a whale in the parking lot
• At the housing exhibition center on the west side of Nichii, an orca-shaped vinyl float was sometimes displayed
• It wasn’t an orca, but a whale

That’s what we found～