Make Believe Bonus: Osaka's Shinsaibashi At Night
Eat Your Heart Out, Shibuya
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It feels like Kansai has become the center of tourism in Japan. Sure, a stroll through Shibuya or Shinjuku in Tokyo reveals throngs of somewhat bemused visitors trying to cram in everything the metropolis has to offer in life five days, but head out West and everything feels doubled. Kyoto boasts squished-together crowds for every temple and shrine you can imagine. Osaka, particularly around the Shinsaibashi neighborhood near Namba Station, feels equally as busy, especially when the sun sets and waves of revelers from around the world come out to get messy.
I found myself wandering around this district last weekend, in the city for work but eager to revisit memories of yesteryear. Osaka served as the destination for entertainment of any sort the first two years I lived in Japan, and I found myself spending a very odd six months in the heart of the city after the end of one teaching job / particularly cutting breakup. It was never that crowded, and rarely felt suffocating during the 2010s, whenever I’d visit from Tokyo for whatever reason. Yet that changed in the late 2010s, when more visitors from across Asia came into the city to enjoy its exquisite cuisine, sloppy nightlife and tax-free shopping at Don Quijote. Suddenly, Osaka was a destination.
It’s only become more of one in 2023, at least based on one three-hour stroll through the heart of the nightlife district on a holiday weekend. Tourists from all over the world mingled and moved past one another, joined by locals simply out to have a good time and get sloshed. Most stretches of the area…from the covered shopping arcade to the streets surrounding the love hotel zone…were more crowded than I had ever seen them before. Sings for bars, clubs and shady massage shops advertised in English. Others played different games…in one of the clearest signs of NewJeans-centric dominance / copyright skirting, a new restaurant embraced the K-pop group’s bunny mascot as a way to lure in customers, which I imagined the ownership viewed as domestic and international.
In recent months, Tokyo has faced a dilemma — people want to go to Shibuya and drink on the streets. A combination of rowdy youth and a huge uptick in tourism since the spring has resulted in Shibuya’s Center-gai becoming a party zone, with revelers stocking up on canned booze from assorted convenience stores and hanging out in the streets kicking them back until first train. It’s the tension between locals and tourists playing out in miniature, with the specter of Shibuya Halloween looming so large as to motivate the mayor of Shibuya to urge people not to come out for what has become an annual clusterfuck.
It’s a fascinating clash playing out in the capital — but one that feels sort of silly after strolling through Shinsaibashi on a Saturday night. Owing to the concentration of people in the city to one area, Osaka feels like ten times rowdier and rougher than Tokyo does in 2023. People of all nationalities are loitering around the streets, chatting one another up and draining Strong Zero cans. I’ve yet to hear a single point of concern about this area, despite it feeling like a Kirin-soaked party paradise compared to Shibuya.
I’m ultimately on the side of the riff-raff…while safety concerns post Itaewon are valid and people should really hold on to their trash instead of dumping it in the street, I’ll always champion a good, safe time boozing in the street over being a boring stay-at-home sad sack. Osaka felt like my kind of place on this front. I stuck around until about 11:30 p.m., and the streets only seemed to be getting busier as the night carried on. I’ve never seen longer lines in a Lawson than the one I wandered into on the America-mura side of town at about 10 p.m. Intimidating lines for ramen, curry and takoyaki were common. Who the hell brings a baby out after the sun sets in the Namba area? Well, I guess that’s just part of the mess.
It was so busy that at some point, I sought out refuge from the masses of people filling up side streets by zagging onto the main shopping arcade. Something grabbed my attention — the familiar high notes of Ado’s One Piece contribution “Shin Jidai,” being delivered by a woman doing her best karaoke performance of the song to a crowd of folks who, like me, wanted some space. It was a delight watching someone singing their heart out at like 11 at night, and a sign of how fun the city gets after dark.
That’s always been the case…even when it was more of a local crowd wiping themselves out like ten years ago, Shinsaibashi offered plenty of options. What’s different in 2023 is, owing to tourism, how crowded everything is. A friend recommended a speakeasy-style bar called Bible Club Osaka, pricey but worth a splurge after a long day of work. Yet despite checking in on it three times before midnight…a seat never opened up. OK, well, maybe I’ll try the far shadier Family-Guy-themed bar like two minutes away. Yet walking up the steps to The Drunken Clam, I realized it too was packed…and an honest-to-goodness karaoke bar, which nudged me to chicken out of going in regardless of capacity issues.
I’ll go earlier next time…for the content.
Osaka’s nightlife scene seemed healthy, to say the least. A decade ago, you had a mix of doofy mainstream clubs catering to the wack set (I still went sometimes) alongside a handful of “cooler” spots where, like, Gold Panda or Simian Mobile Disco would spin. Walking around Shinsaibashi today, the situation seemed more balanced. Most new establishments leaned towards the garish and EDM-centric…but you also had biggie-sized clubs catering to actual hip-hop, from Japanese names like Lex, Elle Teresa and more, a welcome step up from the foreigner-traps of my days which offered a DJ playing Tupac and nothing more. I’m sure more indie spots exist….but it was nice seeing ample places for younger folks local and foreign to spend their night.
And, in some cases, line up for. I decided at some point to check out Triangle Park…for old time’s sake. I passed by club Joule…and was struck by a huge line. That Saturday night, their would be some sort of Diesel-supported party featuring a variety of rappers such as Cyber Rui and Peterparker69. I’ve never seen a queue quite like this one anywhere in Japan…it stretched all the way to the back of Triangle Park, way down the street.
Now this is how to have a weekend, and I’m happy nobody is trying to snuff it out.
Wild line for any club in Japan
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
please go back to the drunken clam and let us know how it is