When my sister and her families dropped in LA again after visiting Las Vegas, my wife suggested visiting Universal Studio City Walk for evening walk & dinner.
At around 8:30 PM, I thought many restaurants might have been closed already and I was not eager to visit. But when we arrived at parking building, there were so many cars parked at late night and in the City Walk, there were so many people of all ages walking around.
Thought we did not have time to enter Halloween Night Show, people looked like enjoying this event. As event night, even general parking cost $17 after 3:00 PM. (If not event night, $10.00 after 3:00 PM). We arrived after 8:30 PM and stayed less than 2hours.
I thought of my school years when I used to go to bed at 9 or 10 PM. Even when I was studying for entrance examination for high school, I always bedded in at 10 PM. Now it looks how innocent I was at that time.
This new town in Universal Studio Hollywood is now good spot to walk casually with friends and/or with family. It reminds me of Osaka Shinsaibashi-suji. Eateries and shopping stores with a lot of neon signs.
This is artificial town, but people looked enjoying casual walk and shopping.
When I visited Universal Studio with friend (my future wife) in 1971, it was small but enjoyable studio. Since then periodically we visited with visitors. We thought this place was good for half day tour, but now it looks whole day is necessary to enjoy all shows and casual walking.
いつも代わり映えの無い店を訪問客に紹介していた私に、夕食はUniversal StudioのCity walkにすればと女房が提案し、夜おそく、目的地に向かいました。8時半すぎではどうかなと思いましたが、パーキングはビルが満杯の状態。こんなにおそくてもみんな来ているのだと納得し、City walkに向かいました。老若男女、あらゆる年齢の人々が散歩とショッピングを楽しんでいる様子でした。私たちはレストランは待つ時間がかかるだろうからと、Subway ファーストフードに決め、テーブルで周りを眺めながら、おいしくいただきました。
ラスベガスを訪問してきた姉たちに、また夜のネオンの人工の町並みを見てもらうことになって、どうかなと思いましたが、まあそれなりに楽しんでくれホッとしました。翌日はUCLAやサンタモニカMall、Beach などを訪れることに決めていたので、まあこれでもよいかと思った次第です。
私と姉は(女房も)自然が大好きですが、その子供や孫の代になると必ずしも自然愛好家というわけではないようです。これは例のKonrad Lorenzの刷り込み理論(Imprinting)ー子供のころに慣れ親しんだものを終生慕うという の証明のようなものかもしれません。
村田茂太郎 2015年9月27日
Universal Studio Hollywood, CityWalk California USA |
突然、水が噴出し、そrえを楽しむ大人と子供 |
、あるで夜の大阪・心斎橋筋をあるいているようなにぎわい |