Osaka

Somewhere between Hikone and Kyoto, on my way to Osaka, I was struck by how the scenery racing past our train car was an uninterrupted urban landscape. In Hikone, the city is broken by rice paddies and rivers, yet the area is entirely urban sprawl. The train ride from Hikone to Osaka is nonetheless beautiful. The cities here in Japan are situated between picturesque mountains that provide a green contrast to the concrete skyscrapers.

The train terminal in Osaka is nothing like the grand main station in Kyoto. The Osaka station was even larger than the Kyoto station, with trains and subways arriving on many different levels. The chief difference is that the Osaka station is no where near as pleasing to the eye as Kyoto. Immediately after disembarking in Osaka my group of eight was pulled along in a sea of Japanese. The train station was overwhelming in the morning. Thankfully Jon and Ryan had read through a guidebook and navigated us to the local terminal where we caught another train.

The two locations out group seemed most interested in visiting were the Outback Steakhouse and a street called Den-Den Town. Our navigators were unable to find the Outback Steakhouse, but Den-Den Town was much easier to locate. Den-Den Town is the epicenter of anime fandom in Osaka. The street is lined with anime souvenir stores of all sorts. I found action figures, models, t-shirts, caps, mug and costumes. Costumes of female anime characters were found at every store. My friend Jon bought a costume of a character from Final Fantasy X for $130. The worst part of the Den-Den Town is how unbearably seedy the street is. Every block contained a store selling pornography. For the first time in Japan I saw homeless and litter on the streets. Even at night, Den-Den Town is still an ugly street bath in a neon glow.

At this point Lauren, Jon, Steve, Scott and I left the other three guys we came with at a maid café and made our way to the shopping-arcades around Dotombori. A maid café is a restaurant where the patrons are served food and chatted to by women dressed in scanty French maid costumes. The five of us were not into that sort of thing so we moved on. Dotombori contained many shopping arcades; these covered streets are one of the coolest features of Japanese cities. Even the small hamlets surrounding Hikone have a covered arcade or two. The arcades in Osaka were even busier than the few I visited in Kyoto.

After our walk around Dotombori we walked across Mido Avenue to Amerika-Mura, the epicenter for finding foreign fashions in Osaka. The Lonely Planet guidebook described Amerika-Mura as a “…concrete park with benches where you can sit and watch the parade of fashion victims.” I doubt I could have said it better. Amerika-Mura is filled with colorful stores selling vintage American clothes, gothic maid costumes and urban hip-hop paraphernalia. I am still amazed at what a high price an old college t-shirt can fetch at a boutique in Japan. After seeing the sights in Amerika-Mura, we got back to the train station for the long ride back to Hikone.