Osaka (大阪), the heart of Kansai

South Osaka

So it’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to update this thing. I’d apologize but I think it’s understandable that I get busy between trying to travel a bit and settling into a new living situation and job and all that. All I can say is please do check in from time to time, I’ll periodically get to putting things up.

So, back to spewing unsubstantiated generalizations. In this post I’ll try to cover what it’s been like in Osaka, the city I’m currently living in, and the time I’ve spent here since I last left you.

I arrived in Osaka beat and pretty much stayed in that state for the following week. I’m crazy lucky in that the apartment my company arranged for me is just a few blocks from work, but work hours are pretty long, with it being fairly common for people to stay late into the night, which made it hard to take care of the everyday things like buying kitchenware, groceries, and incidentals. I work for a Japanese subsidiary of an American company so rules are a bit more relaxed than neighboring offices, where everyone goes to lunch promptly at noon (it’s pretty absurd actually, I go to lunch with a couple coworkers around 11:45 and wherever we go is empty, but by 12:05 there’s always a line out the door), but this doesn’t seem to translate into the American habits I’m used to. People work for a very long time, but break it up with goofing off a good bit as well. I’m more used to screwing around here and there, but being in an environment where people work much more efficiently and not nearly as long. I’ve never worked for this particular company or in sales and marketing at all back in the States, so I can’t make a direct comparison. Still I’ve never seen anything like people working all day, heading out to a dinner that I’d call debauchery, and then going back to work. On that note, Japanese people drink. I know I said it before, but christ can they drink. I went out to such a dinner with coworkers the first week and just keeping up put back 4 pints over dinner and two more over dessert. Now that doesn’t qualify as much of a binge, but the point is that half of them went back to work. The ability of these guys (and girls) to put back abusive levels of alcohol and then sober up in time to write tomorrow’s monthly report is impressive to say the least, I don’t know where the notion that Japanese cannot hold their alcohol came from, because it is definitely false. In either case people in my office are very lively and fun, across all age groups, so it’s been a real pleasure in there, even with the substantial language barrier.

The Main Drag in Shin-Osaka

Anyway, I spent my first couple weeks in Osaka mostly working pretty hard and trying to get my shit together, but I managed to grab some time in the city as well. There’s not much in the way of sights in Osaka, but that’s not why you come here; the city is young, alive, vibrant. It is very much a lived in and liveable city, which hopefully I’ll convey to be standing in some contrast to Kyoto, just down the road. Shin-Osaka itself, where I’m at, is a nice quiet area with three major components and little else: Shin-Osaka station, the main JR hub here with Shinkansen access in addition to city subway and standard local/express trains, office buildings that house a number of companies not wishing to pay Umeda’s rent (northern Osaka, just across the river from Shin-Osaka, which means new Osaka btw), and massive apartment buildings packed tightly and spreading far like no projects I’ve ever seen in the states. I live just a few minutes away from my office here on the border between the professional and residential worlds, which is nice enough and quite convenient. There’s plenty of cheap but decent restaurants that cater to the massive lunch crowds from the office buildings and the people returning home from work, and its certainly not bustling but its busy enough most hours of the day. It’s a fine place to live, but of course there’s no reason to visit. Shin-Osaka station itself is quite nice however; even though apparently it’s small by Japanese standards (and seeing the train stations in Kyoto, Tokyo, and even Himeji have proven that much), its got a lot of decent places to pick up all sorts of food on the go, addressing both mixed-distance commuter crowds and long-haul shinkansen and regional train riders. To me, it has a nice feel of a busy central hub. I suppose that seems like a curious point of view, but I quite like mixing pots like that, where you see every sort of person on every sort of journey; business people heading to work or on a business trip, individuals and families visiting relatives or going on daytrips, people going shopping or for a night on the town, etc. etc. There’s surprisingly few places that you see so many sorts of people, since you really have to be at neither the destination nor the source and the intermediary location has to serve a wide variety of both. In a lot of ways Osaka, and Shin-Osaka station, embody what I like most about travel; while there are many specific sites out there that are well worth just going and seeing, that provide an experience in merely viewing them, travel can be a lot more fun just living it up in a different place, exploring and enjoying what you find.

Osaka has a lot to offer in that realm; like Tokyo, New York, or London, it’s a center of modern life and there is plenty to do. It doesn’t have the size of the afore-mentioned, and Osaka-jin are sort of the Japanese equivalent to stereotyped southerners in that they’re friendlier and more open than Tokyoites but considered more provincial. Still, it’s an extremely cosmopolitan environment, and there’s a lot to talk about. First of all, Osaka’s primary locations of interest are oriented along a north-south axis, following the Midosuji line which am conveniently on. The subway is designed like a grid system, or perhaps more like ribcage, with Midosuji going along the primary axis and a bunch of east-west lines crossing the city horizontally and, farther out, splaying to cover the more remote environs after leaving the city proper. Along that north-south axis there are two primary points of interest, unsurprisingly called the north (kita) and south (minami) of Osaka. The north is a big business center, with financial centers and corporate offices packed around the Umeda train station. Some good department stores around there and plenty to of nice restaurants and bars, all supported by the most industrious portion of the city. Got some decent shopping and fine eating done there and took care of some errands at the central post office of Osaka and the citibank there. It’s a fun area with a little more class and a lot less noise than South Osaka. Also, that’s where I first tried Okonomiyake, one of just a couple Osaka-unique foods. Okonomiyake is cabbage (surprise surprise) (that was sarcasm btw I just realized that I may not have told viewers at home that cabbage is pretty much the only cheap vegetable in Japan and is the go-to for pretty much everything) mixed up with the meat or fish of your choosing (traditionally just more vegetables when in Osaka, but restaurants have obviously diversified the cuisine) and a little mayo mixed with some egg and sort of stir-fried on a flat surface, kind of fire-and-ice style if you know the place, into a pancake form. Then it’s topped while it’s still hot with a sauce that’s kind of like BBQ sauce and varies from sweet to quite spicy and mayonnaise if you want it (I get it without). The hot pancake boils off the water in the sauces fast so they gain a sort of frosting-type consistency. These things are massive and crazy delicious. They’re pretty easy to make too, so I’ll probably give them a try when I get back home. Interestingly, although Okonomiyake has been adopted by most of Kansai it’s really the accepted cuisine of only Osaka and, surprisingly, Horoshima. If you really know zero about Japanese geography, Hiroshima is down in Kyushu way far west/south of Osaka, so its odd that this particular delectable has been adopted in the two very disparate places.

Working south but still in Kita Osaka we reach Nakanoshima, which literally translates to the Island in the middle. This is an island that splits apart the major river that flow through Osaka, and is home to a number of turn-of-century buildings, a real anomoly in a city and a country that was bombed to oblivion in the 40s (Osaka, like Toyoma, was almost entirely levelled) as well as a pretty good collection of Oriental ceramics and nakanoshima park. To cover those each, the architecture is interesting and, combined with the incredible view of modern Osaka on both sides of the river, similar to the views you get of Paris from Notre Dame, is worth seeing for itself. The Museum of Oriental ceramics has some nice pieces in the small collection that’s on display, but fundamentally I don’t really see the point in isolating ceramics from the rest of a culture and period’s creations, unless someone is a student of that form of art itself. Finally the park is a lot of fun. It’s a small city park, a world away from the temple gardens one inevitably visits in Japan (which I’ll talk about in a post or two hopefully, it’s a very different but certainly no less enjoyable experience). I saw it on a weekend so there were children running about having a good time, people enjoying a walk through the rose garden, and lots of Osaka-city sponsored events going on. Besides the impressive rose collection there’s not much to the park in the way of vegetation or wildlife, but the real appeal is the pleasant atmosphere of people taking a break and enjoying a great view of the city across the rivers.

A View from Nakanoshima Park

From the Rose Garden

This brings us to South Osaka, the environment that modern Japan is so famous for and that I’ve never seen the likes of anywhere. Perhaps elsewhere in Asia it exists, but certainly not in the Western world. The Minami Osaka of interest is the area from about a quarter mile north of Shinsaibashi station down to about a quarter mile south of Nankai Nanba station, and about a half kilometer in width. All told its an area of about a square mile, and this entire area is occupied by I described a couple posts ago as buildings packed together each with 5 stores/bars/restaurants/clubs/lounges/karoke facilities/strip clubs/host or girls clubs/etc. stacked up, and this place is packed every time I go there, day or night, with shoppers and revelers both. I’m sure I’ll see more of this sort of thing in Tokyo, but this is the place that makes me believe you really can spend any sum of money you want in Japan and you can get things you wouldn’t even imagine. Cars, clothes, and every sort of entertainment were on display in this cattle-car-packed little streets. Beyond the sheer density of shopping and entertainment locations, I want to stress the varied nature of it all. There could be an expensive members-only club with tinted glass balconies overlooking the street right above a cheesy pachinko parlor, or a high-end karaoke club with a slab marble and bronze facade and lobby right next to a dango stand. Contained within those hundred or so blocks there was a wider range of wares sold than I think even exists to any significant extent in the US, and that whole range in one place. Needless to say, the place is very fun and exciting, and accessible to people at all income levels.

The layout of the area is as such. North of the river there’s the central covered corridor with shops that are the equivalent of Zara, Express, and the kind of things that would occupy a similar space. That’s Shinsaibashi-suji and runs the full length of the whole area from across the river and south to the northern extent. It frames the area on the west side, and everything east of there and north of the river is the primary entertainment area with bars, clubs, lounges, etc. Immediately south of the river is Dotombori, which is mostly cheesy shops, massive pachinko parlors, and girls/host clubs (girls clubs you can imagine, host clubs are the inverse). Go farther south and things shift as you get near Nanba. First you get lunch places and stores catering to the weekday business crowd along with a few very old holdovers from bygone times, craft-makers that are still sustained by their skill or fame, primarily kimono makers (I’m guessing this location always had high rent, so these guys have probably been well frequented for quite some time). You almost do a double take when you see them though since they’re so out of place, and that’s if you see them (I only spotted these kinds of places down a couple really small back alleys). Beautiful stuff, but crazy expensive. The kimonos in the windows where running a few grand. Farther south still and you reach total contrast, tons of high-end European stores; Armani, Versace, Rolex and Tag, a Godiva chocolate bar that was packed, etc. It’s like a 5th avenue I guess but it’s in pretty stark contrast with all of its immediate surroundings.

Dotombori in the day

The covered street in part of Dotombori

In terms of specific experiences in the Shinsaibashi area, I didn’t do much at night but explore and see what there was to see; ate some street food, went to a couple bars, include an Irish one just to catch some expats, which I did and had a fine time with seeing a sort of… miscellaneous band with washboard kazoos and all that was actually either surprisingly good or I was sufficiently intoxicated to think so, and a club I picked based on the number of colors streaming out the slat windows where everyone that had more than one and less than ten drinks in them thought that a white person with more than two words of Japanese was the most incredible thing since bread came to Japan. I also got to get lost on my way back because I forgot which of Nishi and Higashi was east and which was west. In the daytime I haven’t had a chance to spend much time there either, but did get some shopping done in the Doguya-suji district, which is the area where they sell the goods for restaurants (of which Osaka and in fact every place I’ve seen in Japan has seemingly excessive amounts, will discuss below). That place was a lot of fun to shop in because where else will you get the cloths they hang in external doorways, a bento box of any size or make you’d like, an industrial deep-fat fryer, or the head of a buck. Plus, because the place caters to restaurant owners (although there were plenty of domestic shoppers), everything was unbelievably cheap for what it was i.e. about a tenth of what it would cost in crate-and-barrel. Besides that I hope to spend more time shopping in the Shinsaibashi area (the northern half of the whole affair, the south is Dotombori, and they’re split by Dotombori-gawa (river) which has an uncanny feel to it with all the lights and buildings packed alongs its deep dark banks).

A store in Doguya-suji

The best thing to shop for in Japan, by the way, is clothes. Tokyoites seemed to dress more sharply and Osakans more bohemian, but people in both cities have proven extremely fashionable. Siteseeing out in Nara, Kyoto, and even local sites people do keep it more casual, but when in the city people dress… unbelievably. To qualify, everyone is wearing an outfit, it’s not like T-Shirt and Jeans or collared-shirt and jeans or a two- or three-piece suit with a hat or some generic crap like that, there is just no across the board standard, everyone has a unique outfit involving several articles of clothes and accessories none of which you could place the origins of. Looking at the clothing stores, you can understand how this is all accomplished; there are a ton of boutiques, even out in Shin-Osaka where I’m at, that sell a huge variety of clothes, usually only one or two of each article, and this goes for guys as well as girls. Every store is like a consignment store except the stuff is new. I don’t know what prices are like yet, but I do know that Japanese people must have massive closets. All told, this makes it rough to travel here, because I could only bring so many clothes and I can only bring so many back, and I’ve got work clothes and casuals to handle, so the bottom line is if you’re travelling in Japan the best you can do I think is have a few unique and good-looking outfits that have at least a few articles in common and try and get by with that. And it doesn’t matter if you don’t roll that way back home, you will stand out here in a very not great way if you roll into town in something sub-par, believe me I’ve done it numerous times; that’s why of all things I end up having to think about fucking clothing. As a final note, I should say that vast majority of the outifts are not merely unique, they are also look really good; people in Japan below the age of 50 seem to have excellent taste when it comes to clothes and style, since none of this follows a specific fashion, at least not one I can discern, but what most people come up with generally looks fantastic.

I know it’s odd that I’ve spoken at such length about clothes of all things, but it’s quite unusual, and having to live here it’s a major concern and no small source of frustration. When you’re in your native element, you don’t have to give a damn, but when you’re already a foreigner in an extremely homogenous society, you have to do your best to go by local customs; that’s not something you do for personal need or emotional desire or any crap like that, it’s what you have to do to be treated with a measure of respect. To elaborate on that crucial point, I’d like to talk a bit about the expats I’ve met her in Japan and the culture of expats they’ve opened me up to. There is a network of, primarily American, expatriates here in Japan. The network I’ve been given some exposure to is mostly comprised of business owners and language teachers, I don’t think many businessmen are part of Kansai Scene’s readership, and perhaps soon you’ll understand why. Expats here, and not just the ones I’ve met personally, but the ones that related publications cater to, are extremely cynical and snarky and often bitter. For a while I couldn’t figure why. Some I understand, they’re stuck here after being language teachers for a couple years; they can’t get out of the country with a barren resume and a recession worldwide. But others, that own thriving businesses or have every intention of staying, carry the same traits. Here’s what I think it is, and again this is a gross generalization and detailed observation based on very little information, but hell why not right? I think many people come her with the wrong idea in mind. I think they expect that they will be lovingly and respectfully accepted as foreigners, admired for living a foreign life in Japan where they yield to no Japanese customs and carry on their foreign tendencies. The Japanese are a notably gracious people, and extremely nice and kind (in fact, I’ve yet to meet a mean person. Can you imagine that? I’ve met people that are less than exceedingly helpful, but no one has yet been mean in any way or brushed me off, besides the looks I get from time to time when I’m particularly grungy or unshaven), but that is a bit much. Do people go to western Europe, to France and Italy, with the idea that they will adopt no French or Italian customs? Do they go with no desire to do French and Italian things, but merely to be in a French or Italian place and wonder at the alieness of the place? No, that’d be silly, but I think a lot of people do that here. I think that a lot of foreigners come to Japan with the notion that this is some alien place with strange and curious people that are almost another species entirely, but that’s just not the case. A foreigner is given a lot of leeway, and often undue credit, but to be loved and respected a foreigner must adopt the customs and live the lifestyle of Japanese. You have to take the differences in stride, not view them as novelties to be smiled at at first and later to be despised. I see Japanese people’s attitudes change when I show deftness with chopsticks, or order truly very Japanese things, or bow at appropriate times, or make a point of not handing money directly, or give a small gift when I return from a day trip. All of these things go a long way. I told one of the expats I met, whose been here for three years, that I had been invited to a barbeque at one of my coworker’s houses, just me and his family, and he was blown away. Maybe I’m just lucky, but so far the Japanese people that I had been warned would be cold and distant to strangers have been very open, with people starting up conversations with me as soon I show some sign of knowing the language or some mild acumen with customs. The very first night I stayed in Japan, at Kimi Ryokan in Tokyo, the behavior change of the host when I placed the credit card, with both hands, facing him neatly in the tray rather than handing it to him, was dramatic. Ever since I’ve continued to notice that shift in people, almost like a switch, that directly follows me doing something unexpectedly Japanese. I don’t know I could be way off, but the cynicism of the expat community is in pretty stark contrast to the warmth of the Japanese people I’ve met and interacted with.

On a final note, I’d like to make mention of how the life Japanese businesspeople seems from the outside. Places like Dotombori and Shinsaibashi are no anomolies; they are well frequented and lesser versions of them exist all over the place. Urbanites in Osaka and Tokyo at least go out and have fun, they eat and drink and enjoy a great deal of entertainment. This stands in incredible contrast to the strain of blandness of everyday life, in that people work very long hours with very little upward mobility or goals to drive them. People work very hard just to get by, and then blow their money to get some life out of life. It’s tough to work your way up the ladder, and pay across the board does not seem that great (even though things seem cheap to me, I get the sense that everything is expensive to people domestically, even with the strong yen and weak dollar tempering that disparity, I’d never of this before in Japan, but I think that Japan is not so much expensive as the purchasing power parity of Japanese is pretty low compared to the states). On the whole, I think people work hard to keep their jobs and bring home some cash, but as much as they may want to be driven as Americans famously are, there doesn’t seem to be the level of opportunity here that there is in the states. On that note, I have no idea how all these restaurants survive in Japan. Every place I go there are tons of restaurants, and half the places I frequent are damn near empty, and yet somehow they all stay in business? I really don’t get how a sushi bar with a handfull of customers a night can get by, but there may be something I haven’t seen yet. I did notice an older man in a sushi bar with me the other day who just kept getting more to eat and drink, maybe throwing down fifty or a hundred bucks that night on this tiny little tucked away neighborhood sushi joint, perhaps the survival of these restaurants is tied not to the quantity of customers but their ability to eat and drink.

So that pretty much covers Osaka. There are a couple sites beyond all that, Osaka Castle which has a pretty enough park and is a pretty structure but it is clearly a concrete model not the real deal, and nothing compared to Himeji (a post soon to come), and Sumiyoshi Taisha, a buddhist temple complex that is only a couple centuries old in its current structure but is identical to what it was about 1400 years ago, as periodically the wooden structures are rebuilt and repainted. Sumiyoshi Taisha is nice enough, it is not the quiet temples of Kyoto (soon to come) but it has its own local feel, being the central outlet for Osakan superstition.

The concrete reconstruction of Osaka-jo, pretty on the outside but oh-so-false

Some people praying with a priestess at Sumiyoshi Taisha

I should also mention that I will soon have vids up on the flickr pages too. I get tired of stopping and getting out of my enjoyment of a place to take photos, so sometimes I just throw the video on and have it follow me for a bit.