On Music in Osaka
There’s a few stories that came to mind while I was bored on the train and thought I should recount for you. I think they say a little bit about a part of this city that can easily be forgotten in my commentary.
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Leading east out of Shin-Osaka station towards where I call home there’s a raised pathway leading into a neighboring office building that provides commuters with an escalator down and the businesses on the second floor with a steady income. At the entrance to the building from the walkway there is a big patio and whenever I come home late at night I find five or six breakdancing groups practicing and competing there, boomboxes and all. Every once and a while I’ll see one person there early, around 11 or so, practicing on her own.
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Near my apartment there is a tiny non sequitur of a cafe called La Papillon that serves heinously overpriced coffee and underpriced alcohol. There’s a brass bar and if a beard could be French then the owner’s patch would be. He sits there all day smoking and surfing the internet. His 30-something daughter bustles about keeping the place somewhere between opened and closed. They serve half decent curry and never get any customers. Shin-Osaka is a fairly sleepy place with nothing to note when the sun goes down, but La Papillon carries it’s utter out-of-placedness into the night by transforming into a source of raucous laughter and cheers at the foot of a 4-piece stage. “American Folk” bands bang away all night with their multicolored suits and poorly affected southern drawls that closer resemble the symptoms of down syndrome.
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Outside the busiest and the quietest train stations in Osaka late at night I sometimes find a lone street performer gracing the crowds or the empty buildings. I’ve seen Cellists, acoustic and electric Guitarists, Shamisen, Trumpeters, a Washboard, and a harmonica player, that I recall. It’s rude to give money openly in Japan and although people have come to do it in many stores you don’t really give money to street performers and they don’t really ask.
