The first time you slide onto a stool at a proper, old-school Izakaya in Osaka, deep in the labyrinthine alleys of Namba or under the rumbling train tracks in Tenma, you’ll feel it. It’s not the warmth of the sake or the smoky kiss of gr...

Walk into Kuromon Market for the first time, and your senses are thrown into a beautiful, chaotic spin. The air is thick with the savory smoke of grilled eel and the sharp, clean scent of the sea. Vendors shout greetings with a gravelly ...

Welcome to Osaka. You’ve found your apartment, you’ve figured out the train system, and you’re starting to feel the city’s electric rhythm. But then comes the first true test of your integration, the final boss of daily life in Japan: ta...

Step out of any local train station in Osaka, stray just a block or two from the main road, and you’ll likely find it. A covered archway, sometimes grand and brightly lit, other times faded and humble, announces the entrance to a world w...

Hi everyone, Megumi here. As an event planner from Tokyo, my life is about understanding flows—the flow of people at a concert, the flow of conversations at a party. But nothing prepared me for the daily, rhythmic, and sometimes bewilder...

I still remember my first time. I was walking through the tangled, neon-soaked backstreets of Kyobashi, a neighborhood that always feels like it’s just getting its second wind after sunset. I passed restaurant after restaurant, but I was...

You hear it almost as soon as you arrive. It’s a question that hangs in the air, a subtle sorting mechanism used by locals over plates of kushikatsu and glasses of ice-cold beer. It’s not about where you’re from, or what you do, but some...

People have a picture of Osaka. They see the neon glow of Dotonbori, a dizzying, electric river of light and sound. They imagine the crush of people in Umeda Station, a human tide flowing with relentless, purposeful energy. They hear the...

Ever wondered what an entire city’s personality, its unfiltered id, would look like if you stretched it out over two and a half kilometers and put a roof over it? If you took all its noise, its contradictions, its love of a good deal, an...

You feel a tap on your shoulder. You’re standing in the produce section of a Life supermarket, maybe the one near Namba Parks, maybe a smaller Kohyo tucked into a quiet street in Tennoji. You’re holding two daikon radishes, comparing the...

When I first moved to Osaka from Australia, a city where a private backyard and a personal shower are practically constitutional rights, the idea of the neighborhood sento, or public bath, felt deeply alien. Why would anyone, in a modern...

Walk down any given street in Osaka, especially in the early hours, and you’ll notice something. It’s not the neon glow of Dotonbori, not yet anyway. It’s not the rush of salarymen pouring out of Umeda Station. It’s a quieter, more found...