Osaka | introduction

We landed at Kansai Monday night and took the train into town, eventually getting off at Tanamichi yon-chome station, about three minutes walk from where we’re staying. We checked in just before midnight as our flight was delayed by a bit, and ended up getting to bed around 2 AM. (As I’m running out of time and battery power for the laptop, I’ll have to leave this entry as impressions only, and log the days in the morning if I have enough time. I’ll need to cover Days 1 and 2, Tuesday and Wednesday; Tuesday in which I went for a morning walk to Namba and Den Den Town, visited Osaka-Jo and the neverending shopping arcade in Kita, and ended up in Shinsaibashi in Minami, the epicentre of Osakan nightlife. Wednesday included a trip to the Osaka Aquarium, a ride on the world’s biggest ferriswheel standing at 112 meters, an elevator-ride to the top of the Umeda Sky Building for a look across Osaka lit up at night, and another trip into Shinsaibashi.)

Osaka has to be one of the easiest places to get around in – all the majour (and some minor) streets are labelled in romaji, and the city is organised in grids, with almost all streets running north-south and east-west. The train system is also extremely easy to get around in – figure out which station you’re in, find the name of the station you want to get to along whatever line stops at your station, and a fare will be indicated; purchase a ticket for that value and you’re set. You also have the option of purchasing a Y850 (about AUD$9.30) all day pass which gets you anywhere the metro trains run, which is right around the city. For fellow Melbournians, it’s as if for nine bucks, you can travel around the entire city without any zoning etc., but remember just how much bigger Osaka is than Melbourne – Melbourne is roughly 800m North-South by 1.76Km East-West, whereas the main districts of Osaka cover an area about 6Km North-South by 2Km East-West, which doesn’t include the reclaimed land out in the bay which is also covered by the pass. For the amount of travel you can do, it’s a very good price.

On almost every street there is a place to eat and about 10 vending machines. Almost every intersection has cross-walk lighting with only the smallest ones without traffic lights left un-regulated. Taxis are black Toyota Crowns with drivers dressed in black military-like suits and driver’s caps, and only those with plenty of spare Yen to burn take them, so much so is the case all over Japan.

There are quite a few homeless people here which is a sorry sight to see as it is in any city. They quietly keep to themselves and don’t hassle anyone that I could see, and they’re generally the only inhabitants of the streets very early in the morning.

Aside from the train, the most popular mode of transport is the push-bike, with youths and young-adults often giving rides and dinks to their friends. Bikes are ridden on the roads (any side really), and often on the many footpaths signed and approved for bicycles. They often ride through arcades and crowds, but rarely collide with pedestrians or each-other.

As the trains finish their service at midnight and the shops start closing from 8 PM, the night light begins to die-down from 9 onwards, a strange atmosphere to see given the population and the wildly bussling evening-life. Unfortunately we may not be here for a weekend as we’ll be in Kyoto, but depending on the Kyoto night-life, I may try and get a weekend-night back here in Osaka so I can see Shinsaibashi, the Ebisu-bashi canal area and Amerikamura in full swing.

Osaka is a wonderful place; cheap to eat in, cheap to stay in, cheap to get around, and the people are generally very friendly, even those with little or no English skills. I really do wish my Japanese was in a better state, but I know that next time I’ll be able to communicate better, as just being around these wonderful people is already so amazing. The young people in Shinsaibashi can rival the wacky Tokyoites at times, some of the really kitching it up for all it’s worth, but of-course I expect the Tokyoites to out-number the Osakans when it comes to kitch and coordinated themed costumes.

I think one of the most charming things I’ve seen so far was a guy straddling a bench in the square by the Aquarium, telling his embarassed companion that he liked her and her sitting there facing forward with her hands between her knees, face-down and smilling the biggest smile you’ve ever seen. It’s so amazing the way Japanese couples relate, sometimes not so differently to the way we walk around, but at times very different indeed.

That’s enough for now, hopefully I’ll get some time to elaborate more for those whose attention-spans haven’t been exhausted just yet.