Matthew J. Holland

Osaka midori no hyaku-sen

I have really enjoyed seeking out the 大阪みどりの百選, namely one hundred spots scattered around Osaka prefecture that are of value for their natural beauty, preservation of plant or animal life, or simply public parks that play an important role in the local community. It took a couple years for me to visit all the sites and "collect" all the M100 stones that are still out there, and for reference I have put together a very simple guide, really more of a photo gallery with comments. It was a lot of fun. I made a lot of discoveries of new places to visit, particularly in the southern half of Osaka prefecture, and enjoyed seeing how some sites have "aged" differently than others over the three decades since the sites were selected. Most of the M100 stones are quite easy to find, though a small handful are extremely difficult to find. My "guide" is far from a walkthrough, since I only provide a few sentences for each M100 site, but hopefully it will be enough to get the interested reader started.