Osaka: A Positive Review
Jun. 8th, 2008 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zukkokyaEarlier today, I stumbled on a section about Osaka in the book I'm reading (Travelers' Tales: Japan). Because of Kanjani∞, I've become interested in this city whose appeal is so strong that they've dedicated more than three of their singles to its glory. So I was surprised when the reviews I got from people who'd been to Osaka didn't have the same flamboyant enthusiasm. My Japanese calligraphy teacher had the most eloquent reaction when I told her I want to visit Osaka someday:
"EHH? ... NANDE?"
At the time, I didn't have a good answer to that. ("I like their men," though true, doesn't have quite the educated ring to it that I was hoping for.)
So I decided to do more research and found that the vast wealth of printed knowledge about Japan is cut largely in Tokyo's favor. Fortunately, all I could find said pretty much the same thing anyway: Osaka is an ugly city, but it has a rich personality. That's the kind of thing you read and wince. "Nice personality," after all, is universal for "let's stay friends." Still, I couldn't believe that Kanjani∞ of all people would put up with living in a bland, ugly city unless it had something else to its name.
What I read in the following excerpt drew a second conclusion that resparked my interest: Osaka has its rich personality because it's ugly.
Osaka is an independent city with natives to match. While contractors and investors beautified Tokyo, Osakans dug in their heels to keep their city exactly the same. And from that, they held onto the historic character that defines them today.
This is only what I've come to understand after reading a few books and the testimonials of pop stars. I hope to write a more personal account someday after visiting or even living there myself.
Until then, enjoy the writing of someone who has been there!
Osaka: Bumpers and Runners
By Alex Kerr
A city one would never think of putting in a "must see" itinerary, until....
"Welcome to Osaka. Few major cities of the developed world could match Osaka for the overall unattractiveness of its cityscape, which consists mostly of a jumble of cube-like buildings and a web of expressways and cement-walled canals. There are few skyscrapers, even fewer museums and, other than Osaka Castle, almost no historical sites. Yet Osaka is my favorite city in Japan. Osaka is where the fun is: t has the best entertainment districts in Japan the most lively youth neighborhood, the most charismatic geisha madams and the most colorful gangsters. it also has a monopoly on humor, to the extent that in order to succeed as a popular comedian it is almost obligatory to study in Osaka and speak the Osaka dialect.
[...]
"Fashion in Osaka is not like fashion elsewhere. Tokyo is the home of trends; all the businessmen wear the same blue suit, housewives wear the same Armani, artists wear the same pastel shirts with high collars, and the young people hanging out at Yoyogi wear whatever the latest craze happens to be. Kyoto people are afraid to do anything that might make them stand out, so they dress rather drably -- like Tokyo on a bad day. But Osaka is a riot of ill-matched color, tasteless footwear and startling hairdos. Satoshi (author's friend) puts it this way: "In Tokyo, people want to wear what everyone else is wearing. In Osaka, people want to shock."
[...]
"The downtown neighborhoods of Tokyo, while they still exist, have largely lost their identity, but Osaka maintains a spirit of fierce independence which goes back a long way. Originally, Osaka was a fishing village on the Inland Sea called Naniwa. The writer Shiba Ryotaro maintains that the colorful language and brutal honesty of Osaka people can be traced to Naniwa's seaport past.
"Osaka dialect is certainly colorful. Standard Japanese, ot the sorrow of Edan and Travor, has an almost complete lack of dirty words. The very meanest thing you can shout at somebody is kisama , which means literally, "honorable you." But Osaka people say such vividly imaginative things that you want to sit back and take notes. Most are unprintable, but here is one classic Osaka epithet: "I'm going to slash your skull in half, stir up your brains and drink them out with a straw!" The fishwife invective and the desire to shock produced the playful language that is the hallmark of Osaka dialect. When Satoshi describes a visit to the bank, it's funnier than the routines of most professional comics. It begins with the bank, and ends with the dice tattooed on his aunt's left shoulder. Free association of the sort he employs is called manzai in the blood. That's why comedians have to come here to study.
[...]
"In recent years, the fact that certain areas like Shinsekai have become slums has acted as a protection, scaring away the developers and investors who raised land prices and transformed the face of Tokyo. Osaka preserved its identity, which goes right back to the old seaport of Naniwa. So when friends aks me to show them the "true Japan of ancient tradition," I don't take them to Kyoto: I take them to Osaka."
--Alex Kerr, an excerpt from his book Lost Japan, which was included in Travelers' Tales: Japan.
"EHH? ... NANDE?"
At the time, I didn't have a good answer to that. ("I like their men," though true, doesn't have quite the educated ring to it that I was hoping for.)
So I decided to do more research and found that the vast wealth of printed knowledge about Japan is cut largely in Tokyo's favor. Fortunately, all I could find said pretty much the same thing anyway: Osaka is an ugly city, but it has a rich personality. That's the kind of thing you read and wince. "Nice personality," after all, is universal for "let's stay friends." Still, I couldn't believe that Kanjani∞ of all people would put up with living in a bland, ugly city unless it had something else to its name.
What I read in the following excerpt drew a second conclusion that resparked my interest: Osaka has its rich personality because it's ugly.
Osaka is an independent city with natives to match. While contractors and investors beautified Tokyo, Osakans dug in their heels to keep their city exactly the same. And from that, they held onto the historic character that defines them today.
This is only what I've come to understand after reading a few books and the testimonials of pop stars. I hope to write a more personal account someday after visiting or even living there myself.
Until then, enjoy the writing of someone who has been there!
By Alex Kerr
A city one would never think of putting in a "must see" itinerary, until....
"Welcome to Osaka. Few major cities of the developed world could match Osaka for the overall unattractiveness of its cityscape, which consists mostly of a jumble of cube-like buildings and a web of expressways and cement-walled canals. There are few skyscrapers, even fewer museums and, other than Osaka Castle, almost no historical sites. Yet Osaka is my favorite city in Japan. Osaka is where the fun is: t has the best entertainment districts in Japan the most lively youth neighborhood, the most charismatic geisha madams and the most colorful gangsters. it also has a monopoly on humor, to the extent that in order to succeed as a popular comedian it is almost obligatory to study in Osaka and speak the Osaka dialect.
[...]
"Fashion in Osaka is not like fashion elsewhere. Tokyo is the home of trends; all the businessmen wear the same blue suit, housewives wear the same Armani, artists wear the same pastel shirts with high collars, and the young people hanging out at Yoyogi wear whatever the latest craze happens to be. Kyoto people are afraid to do anything that might make them stand out, so they dress rather drably -- like Tokyo on a bad day. But Osaka is a riot of ill-matched color, tasteless footwear and startling hairdos. Satoshi (author's friend) puts it this way: "In Tokyo, people want to wear what everyone else is wearing. In Osaka, people want to shock."
[...]
"The downtown neighborhoods of Tokyo, while they still exist, have largely lost their identity, but Osaka maintains a spirit of fierce independence which goes back a long way. Originally, Osaka was a fishing village on the Inland Sea called Naniwa. The writer Shiba Ryotaro maintains that the colorful language and brutal honesty of Osaka people can be traced to Naniwa's seaport past.
"Osaka dialect is certainly colorful. Standard Japanese, ot the sorrow of Edan and Travor, has an almost complete lack of dirty words. The very meanest thing you can shout at somebody is kisama , which means literally, "honorable you." But Osaka people say such vividly imaginative things that you want to sit back and take notes. Most are unprintable, but here is one classic Osaka epithet: "I'm going to slash your skull in half, stir up your brains and drink them out with a straw!" The fishwife invective and the desire to shock produced the playful language that is the hallmark of Osaka dialect. When Satoshi describes a visit to the bank, it's funnier than the routines of most professional comics. It begins with the bank, and ends with the dice tattooed on his aunt's left shoulder. Free association of the sort he employs is called manzai in the blood. That's why comedians have to come here to study.
[...]
"In recent years, the fact that certain areas like Shinsekai have become slums has acted as a protection, scaring away the developers and investors who raised land prices and transformed the face of Tokyo. Osaka preserved its identity, which goes right back to the old seaport of Naniwa. So when friends aks me to show them the "true Japan of ancient tradition," I don't take them to Kyoto: I take them to Osaka."
--Alex Kerr, an excerpt from his book Lost Japan, which was included in Travelers' Tales: Japan.
