As the second largest metropolitan area in Japan after Tokyo, Osaka served as our base on two separate occasions during the latter part of our trip. We stayed in Umeda, the Northern downtown area and busiest transportation hub, both times: Close enough to the busiest railway station in Western Japan to get to wherever we needed to go, well-connected to the city’s sights, but a lively entertainment district in its own right, with an abundance of department stores, shopping, and entertainment complexes to choose from. Since our stays were regrettably brief, we concentrated on some of the city’s most famous areas: Dotonbori Street, Shinsekai, and Osaka Castle Park.
Namba, the Southern downtown area, is Osaka’s most famous district, and Dotonbori Street in particular is the city’s most popular tourist destination. Running parallel to the Dotonbori canal and historically a theater district (declining interest in traditional entertainment led to many of the theatres closing, with the remaining ones bombed during WWII), it’s now mostly known as a gastronomic wonderland: An eccentric and colorful food destination lit by a myriad of neon lights and extravagant mechanized signs. Make sure you visit after dark for the full experience! We walked it both by day and night, and it’s a lot livelier and impressive when lit up.
A phrase associated with Dotonbori and its extreme food culture is kuidaore, often translated as “eat until you drop”, but which actually means to spend so much on food that you’ll fall into financial ruin! One of Dotonbori’s most fascinating peculiarities are the eye-catching mechanized signs that advertise the area’s many restaurants, and typically reflect their establishment’s specialties: From crab, octopus, puffer fish, squid, oysters, gyoza, sushi, to Kobe beef (and a fire-breathing dragon coming out of a wall to beckon you to try Udon noodles), there’s something for even the pickiest of eaters (that’s me!). The custom was born in the 1960’s after the crab restaurant Kani Doraku was the first to install a six and a half meter crab with moving arms and eye stalks, spawning many imitations, all contributing to the street’s amusement park vibe.
Dotonbori’s most prominent feature dates back even further: First installed in 1935, and last renewed with LED lighting (the previous ones all having used neon lights) in 2014, a 20m tall and 10m wide advertisement for Glico (the leading manufacturer for Japanese candy and snacks, such as Pocky sticks) shows a man running on a blue track, his arms raised in victory. Considered an icon of Osaka and popularly used as a meeting spot, there isn’t a time of day when you won’t pass people imitating the Glico Running Man for a picture op while crossing Ebisubashi bridge.
We explored Dotonbori from West to East, and then walked South towards the New World—Shinsekai. The area was developed into its current layout in the early 20th century, with New York’s Coney Island chosen as a model for the southern half, and Paris for its northern portion. For a while at the beginning of the century, the area flourished, but due to neglect following WWII, it soon became one of the poorest in Japan, which lead to a rise in criminal activity, and a reputation as one of Japan’s seediest and most dangerous neighborhoods. Prostitution occurs openly and without much police interference, and a sizeable homeless population has taken root in the slightly run-down district. Even though some travel guides insist that the stigma these marginalized groups bring are to blame for Shinsekai’s current destitute reputation, we decided to play it safe, and visited during daytime. We found it oddly deserted on one side of the Tsutenkaku Tower, and rather busy on the other, but we didn’t feel unsafe anywhere.
The tower is the centerpiece of the neighborhood, originally modeled to resemble the Eiffel Tower on top and the Arc de Triomphe at the base. It was disassembled after being damaged by a fire in the 40’s, and the current, taller structure dates back to the mid 50’s, designed by the same architect who built the Tokyo Tower. In keeping with Osaka’s reputation as a foodie destination, Shinsekai is the origin of kushikatsu, a dish we loved so much, we kept coming back for it. It’s basically any meat, seafood, or vegetable your heart desires, skewered on a stick, breaded, deep fried, and optionally dipped in thinned tonkatsu sauce—you’ll feel your arteries clog up in real time, but they’re positively addictive, and we all but rolled out of the restaurant each time.
The next day, we left behind the sparkling and bustling downtown areas of Osaka, and crossed a bridge over an impressive moat into what almost seemed like a quiet pocket of a bygone time. The Tokugawa shogunate eventually moved the seat of government to Edo (modern Tokyo), but before then, the capital used to be moved around with the reign of each new emperor, and Osaka, then known as Naniwa, was the first capital city Japan ever had. Osaka Castle was the largest castle at the time it was built in the late 16th century, and was meant to become the center of a new and unified Japan under Toyotomi rule. The park surrounding it covers about two square kilometers, and makes for a serene oasis in an otherwise loud, busy city.
After being destroyed several times—either during the war that ended the Toyotomi lineage, or due to fire—the structure we see today dates back to the 1930s, and miraculously survived the WWII air raids mostly intact. The reproduction in ferro-concrete has five stories on the outside, eight on the entirely modern inside (which includes an elevator), houses a museum about the castle’s history, and offers views of the surrounding park and city from the observation deck.
Other than a visit to the Cup Noodles Museum on our very last day in Osaka, this just about covers all we got to see of it, which of course doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface, so it will definitely be on the itinerary of a future Japan trip again—it’s so conveniently located, too! It served as our base to Himeji, Wakayama, and Koyasan, but you could also easily get to Nara (we visited while based in Kyoto) as well as other destinations from here, such as Kobe or Naoshima, which we unfortunately couldn’t fit in this time around—but there’s always the next!
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