“The guidebooks aren't wrong; Osaka is not a textbook beautiful city. Not a seamless stretch of civilization, but a patchwork of skyscrapers and smokestacks, Gucci and ghettos, that better approximates life as most of us know it.
With all this in mind, it's not surprising that Osaka is a center of casual food culture. Its two most famous foods, okonomiyaki (a thick, savory pancake stuffed with all manners of flora and fauna) and takoyaki (a golf-ball-sized fritter with a single chewy nugget of octopus deposited at its molten core), are the kind of carb, fatty, belly-padding drinking food that can sustain a city with Osaka's voracious appetite for mischief.”
― Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture
It's our final stop in Japan: Osaka. I think the above quote sums up pretty well what we absorbed about Osaka in our 36 hours there. It is the "kitchen" of Japan, we were told by a local guide. And it is the mall of Japan boasting a covered arcade of both high and low end shops that is 4 kilometers long without a break. That doesn't account for the "uncovered" side streets along the way with fish markets, tea merchants, pickle shops and restaurant supply stores. We skipped the Castle, definitely a more haute culture option and chose instead to wander the streets with a local.
Osaka means "large hill" (although I didn't see one on this coastal town) and is the 3rd largest city in Japan. A major financial center of Japan, it is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan Japanese cities. The city is home to the Osaka Exchange as well as the headquarters of multinational corporations such as Panasonic. Osaka is an international center of research and development and is represented by several major universities. And yet, it still looks like Vegas to tourists.
If you are into "Atlas Obscura," you can stay in Osaka for days! One other kind of unusual thing we saw was a string of "maid cafes." These cafes are frequented (mostly) by young men who are into gaming or Anime. Young women (and there are also young men cafes) dress as maids and welcome home their "master" serving coffee and food. They will even kneel down beside the master and stir his cream and sugar into his coffee or in some cafes, feed him (for an additional fee.) There is no sexual contact (in fact, not allowed to touch the maid) and no photographs. In some cafes, maid sing karaoke.
We didn't go into the maid cafes and generally you couldn't see the action as they are mostly second floor and higher, but we did see inside one on the ground floor and it all looked pretty benign. These appear to be a spinoff of the 'hostess clubs" frequented by the older salarymen crowd where Japanese businessmen gather after work and buy overpriced liquor while good-looking women flirt with them, but aren't sex workers. Prostitution is legal in Japan as well, but is controlled by a totally separate regulatory agency as the entertainment and dining industry. We also ambled past a few houses of "ill repute" in Dotomburi district.
Overall, this was very much like going to Vegas for the first time and wandering the streets with an overload of sight and sound stimuli! And in Osaka, smell too, mostly food cooking. Maybe it wasn't a "cultural" tour, in the typical sense of the word, but we certainly learned something.
In the evening, we opted for a somewhat less garrish experience and dined at Fukutatei Steakhouse. This little place has only 6 counter seats where you can watch the chef prepare Grade 5 Waygu beef over charcoal. Paul found this place on a list of the Top 10 Steakhouses in the World (according to the Robb Report) and had to jump through a few hoops, but was able to get a reservation.
The charcoal oven and all the meal prep easily seen from the counter where you sit and get a live Food Network presentation.
This was an amazing meal and we were the last customers. The chef speaks Japanese, Italian, French and English. We talked to him for a while and he asked how we found him. We told him we read the Robb Report and he was in the top 10 steakhouses in the World. He asked to see the article and when we showed it to him, I swear he started crying. He was so overwhelmed and said, "I experience emotion." Of course, no one cries alone at my house, so we both cried!! We invited him to Knoxville and he says he's coming. I don't know how he'd find the time when it's a one man show at Fukutatei, but maybe he will show up....
Since it was our last official tourist night, Paul wanted to experience another Japanese whiskey (or two) and we ended up at a very tiny kissa nearby that had the desired libation.
The name of the Bar is Heather Honey. Seats about 12 which is typical of these establishments. By the way, hedgehogs (fake one seen here holding a bottle) are a thing in Japan too. You can dine or have a drink with a cat, hedgehog, pig or even an entire zooful of animals.
So in conclusion regarding Osaka and Japanese vacations: WOW! Something for everyone. You should definitely go ! We will have a next, short blog after this one with TIPS and TRICKS while visiting Japan for anyone contemplating that.
“When the sun dips, Osaka’s neon heart illuminates the sky.” – Yoko Ogawa
Paul's Ponderings: We had a limited time in Osaka, but it was great. It's quite different than Tokyo and seems a lot more dense and urban even though it is half the size (but still huge by any standard). The shopping areas and alleys seemed way more crowded and busy than anything we saw in Tokyo; maybe that's an anomaly, but we did go to Shibuya in Tokyo. We did a walkaround with a guide and learned a lot about these backstreet areas. The highlight was the evening meal at an incredible small steak restaurant. The cities in this country are full of very small restaurants with great food.
We've tried some Japanese wines -- I was very surprised to see anything beyond sweet wine existed -- and found them to be highly drinkable. I can't name the producers but the grapes were recognizable. However, whiskey is a big deal here and it's pretty good. Obviously foreign whiskey (and more spirits) is available, but whiskey and to some degree gin seems to be what the locals are producing. The taste ranged from very peaty to a bit more oaky and in between among the ones we tried. Finally, there are a lot of very small bars -- 12 seats or so -- that are in various basements, buildings, etc, sort of like the small restaurants, although the latter seemed to be more at street level.
From here onward, we start the slow slog back home, flying back to Tokyo for a night and then onward to the USA. This has been a spectacular trip and we are looking forward to coming back and seeing more of this amazing country.
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