Osaka, my home for the last two years, is a city with two centres, North (Umeda) and South (Namba). Both have buisness and entertainment areas but Dotombori located next to Namba is the area most Osaka residents and visitors would associate with eating, drinking and a night out on the town. If you just walked down the ugly streets past Starbucks and MacDonalds you might think this is just a filthy hole in a crazy Asian city; but you would be missing out. Osaka is a friendly, earthy place and its beauty is not so much its architechture as its people. This is Japan at its least reserved and most welcoming. The centre of the area is a bridge, Ebisubashi, over the Dotombori river, from which you can see a wall of neon, including the landmark "Glico Man" an advert for an Osaka candy company which shows a man running in front of Osaka castle. It used to be a tradition that when the local baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, won a match their supporters used to get drunk and jump naked into the filthy water, but to prevent this the bridge is being widened, and so the atmosphere of the place is being destroyed little by little. Off the bridge there is an art gallery and microbrewery called Kirin Plaza Osaka (KPO) which is a relaxing place to escape from the madness of the streets. Another famous pop-culture sight is a crab restaurant "Kani-Doraku" with a giant mechanical crab outside. There are plenty of small cheap restaurants selling Osaka's specialities Takoyaki (octopus balls) and Okonomitaki (which literally means "what you like - fried"). This is a great place to stuff your face and get drunk with friends, or to make new friends. A slightly tacky but interesting new feature is an indoor theme park devoted to Osaka's favourite shinto deity of prosperity "Ebisu" (like the jeans company Evisu which is based near here). Inside old Osaka is recreated with fake taverns and traditional stalls. Look for the huge grinning face of Ebisu on the front of the building. There is a lot of high Osaka culture to be found near here too. There are many famous Kabuki and Bunraku theatres in the area and many famous Japanese comedians first took to the stage nearby.
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