THE CULTURAL HEAVEN OF KANSAI: OSAKA AND NARA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL
Many tourists visit Osaka and Kyoto straight after (or instead of!) Tokyo. There's a good reason for it: in these two cities you can find examples of most of the typical Japanese "must see”-s, like castles, spring baths (onsen), shrines, traditional gardens, etc. Hence it's a convenient choice to come here and cover them all in one. What we found, however, is that for the same reason these cities are so packed with visitors, that your experience will be less enjoyable than a visit to less frequented destinations in the country with at least as much beauty. Undoubtedly there are many unique and unmissable experiences that you cannot get anywhere else but here, but for the rest we preferred to go somewhere more remote.
Osaka and Kyoto formed part of the end of our round trip in Japan, after we'd covered longer distances in the South. Apart from these two big cities we also visited a few other outstanding places in the Kansai region, on the Kii Peninsula: Nara, the ancient capital, Koyasan where we stayed at a Buddhist monastery and Hongu, the heart of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route. Read our recommendations for Kyoto and for the Kii peninsula in our related posts.
The Kansai region played probably one of the most significant roles in the Japanese history, as the capital was located here over centuries: before Tokyo the capital was Kyoto until 1869, and even before that it was Nara (until 794). In both cities many buildings commemorate their historic golden period.
The 1st bite of the region: the unmissable Kobe beef
At the recommendations of fellow travelers and our sushi teacher in Tokyo we decided to make a stop-over in Kobe on our way up from the South, and sample the famous "Kobe beef". Kobe is a big city only about half an hour from Osaka on the bullet train line. This was a bit of a disappointment for me, because I pictured a village with cows grazing on green hills around, a bit like in Switzerland, but in fact, you won't see any animals apart from the few life-sized plastic cows that you can take pictures with in front of the restaurants.
The "Kobe beef" has become an internationally well-known trademark, which is well reflected in its price too. The meat comes from the black cows of the prefecture and it has a unique marble look, which raises rumours about how such noble meat is produced. It is said that the cows are massaged, fed beer and/or played music to grow nicely, but there is no proof of this.
We timed our arrival to Kobe for lunch time when restaurants offer special deals at roughly half the price of the same food at dinner. Still don't expect a cheap meal though! It starts at about £20 for 80g of meet. However, the quality of the service matches the standard of the food itself. We had a fantastic steak lunch with wasabi (this might sound like a strange combination but it is very tasty), local steak sauce and vegetables. The overall experience will definitely make a long-lasting memory, so we highly recommend to try it!
Osaka, the home of bunraku and sumo
After Kobe we continued to Osaka to spend about 2 days visiting some of the highlights, and trying the process of visa application - this time at the Chinese consulate (which is a fun comparison to our 15-minute-long visit to the Vietnamese embassy earlier).
Before WWII Osaka used to be the heart of the business life in Japan, most companies headquartered here. By today Tokyo has overtaken this role, and according to a local businessperson we spoke to, now it exceeds Osaka in GDP by about 5:1. Osaka is still a huge and very busy city, but it owns some cultural assets that date back to the old times. Without completeness, some of these are sumo and bunraku, the latter is the mother of the puppet theater.
Osaka is the location for the sumo Grand Tournament in March (another few tournaments run in different months elsewhere too), and also many stables (as sumo clubs are called) are located here. Unfortunately, none of the tournaments were on at the time of our visit. Visiting a wrestling practice session would have been our only option, but we heard that a Japanese speaker needs to accompany all foreigners as the stables want to ensure that visitors follow the rules during the session, that is presented them in Japanese. We've given up further research on it due to our limited time in the end, but this will surely be on our list next time we come to Japan!
Bunraku performances are also periodical, but we were luckier this time, and we could get a ticket. The full performance lasts the whole day (8 hours!) as they say that the story can't develop fully in a shorter time. It's possible to buy tickets for only parts of the story, in which case you can read about the scenes you don't see. Those who stay the whole day watching the play also eat and have a nap sometimes when necessary, as we witnessed! It seems to be completely OK to take a little rest during the performance. It was also interesting to see that kimonos were commonly worn by women, just like in the parks in the sakura season. The play itself was a traditional Japanese story with original bunraku elements: almost real-life-sized puppets each moved by 3 people without speaking, the storyteller, the musician (shamizen player) and the voices of the puppets who sit on both sides of the stage. Each role was voiced by a man, who doesn't speak but sings. The story was the Tales of Imoseyama, which is very similar to our Romeo & Juliet, except for some local elements, for instance that the girl's head was chopped off by her own mother, the guy killed himself with a sword and the parents were happy about their deaths as it was for a good purpose. The cherry on the top was the wedding of the mortally wounded guy with the head of the girl before his head was chopped off by his father too. We were a bit under the impact of the play by the end of our 2-hour section, but it was certainly a very local experience.
Pachinko
A few steps from the bunraku theatre is the dynamic Dotombori district, an area with a channel, bridges, neon lights, night life and street food. We took the opportunity to try our luck in a Pachinko center here, the local version of gambling. Gambling is illegal in Japan, but pachinko & slot centers are very common in every city - sometimes there are streets of multi-floor buildings all at one place. The typical player here is hard to be defined, from youngsters to mid-age ladies and elderly men anyone can turn up. People sit by machines in dense rows in the loud noise and vivid lights. Lacking a loyalty card we played with the minimum sum, about £7 (let's call it the cost of learning that we should not gamble next time), which lasted about 15 minutes, an insufficient time to figure out how the game works. Seemingly you don't need to do anything apart from holding your hand on a button while the little metal balls flow around the screen and eventually get into a whole which gives you points and more balls. As you sit there and stare at the balls and the digital screen that displays some fancy cartoon-like animation, not many of your skills impact your luck really. As all instructions were in Japanese only, an assistant came to us from time to time and pressed a few buttons to keep the game going, and then at some point she told us that the game was over. Szilveszter was hoping to win something with the beginner's luck (at least a piece of candy), but we didn't. If anyone knows how to play this game, we would appreciate some knowledge sharing!
Floating garden
In Osaka the Sky Building is another must see, especially at night, with a "floating garden" overlooking the city at the 46th floor. Although it was built in 1992, so not that recently, it has some futuristic architectural elements and is indeed interesting with a ring-shaped layout, escalators crossing diagonally from one side to the other in the air and an open-air observatory at the top. Don't expect an actual garden though - they call it so because of the view that lays down underneath from high up.
Nara, the ancient capital
Nara makes a great day trip from Osaka with easy access by train. It's easy to walk around in the city and discover its religious sites and lovely parks - with lots of deers.
Nara became the first permanent capital in the 8th century for about 75 years when the whole country came under imperial control, which moved with each emperor beforehand. Today it is still the home of numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites from around this period.
In the Todai-ji temple, the largest wooden building in the world, the Great Buddha is housed, a 16m high bronze and golden statue that is one of the most significant sights in the country. The park around the main temple has a mystical atmosphere with old cedars longing up to the sky, many other shrines, hundreds of stone lanterns and maybe even more deer wandering freely. Buddhist monks considered deer as the sacred messengers of Gods in the past, therefore they have enjoyed protection. Today they form part of the cultural heritage.
Unfortunately, the deer here are a lot more calculating than we saw elsewhere as they only allow you to pet them if you have deer biscuits with you. It was a nice relaxing few hours to walk around the park and visit its main sights.
The speciality in Nara is the kaki-no-ha sushi, a sushi that is wrapped in persimmon leaf which gives it a special fruity taste. It's worth a try!
