I'll let you decide whether that's a good or a bad thing.
大阪 has several main areas and all of them share Osaka’s reputation for cuisine and shopping. As I said earlier, 大阪 is famous for its food – it’s part of the saying “京都の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ”, (きょうとのきだおれ、おおさかのくいだおれ - kyouto no kidaore, oosaka no kuidaore) meaning roughly “wear clothes until you collapse in Kyoto, eat until you collapse in Osaka”. Make sure to try some お好み焼き(おこのみやき - okonomiyaki) when you visit – there’s no better place to go for it than the source.
梅田 (うめだ - Umeda) is the station area and features lots of restaurants and big shopping malls. Probably the most well-known is Yodobashi Camera, an enormous building featuring eight floors of every kind of electrical equipment you can imagine. Half of the building is clothing if that’s more to your liking and the top two floors are entirely restaurants. 梅田 feels like 大阪 in miniature in some ways - a little bit of everything - and for those just passing through, it does a good job as a window to the city. For those wanting to delve a bit deeper though, jumping on the extensive 地下鉄 (ちかてつ - chikatetsu - subway) network and exploring can pay dividends.
難波 (なんば - Namba) is another shopping and nightlife district of 大阪, featuring dozens of 商店街 (しょうてんがい - shoutengai - covered shopping streets) and a kilometres-long underground shopping area called “難波 Walk”. One of the most photographed areas is 道頓堀 (どうとんぼり - Dotonbori); here, a giant neon sign featuring an athlete known as the “Glico Man” sits in endless celebration of his victory.
Glico is a big confectionary company in Japan (the makers of Pocky, among other things). He might not seem all that special but he’s become a closely linked symbol of 大阪 – I think most Japanese people would recognise him. 道頓堀 is also where 食い倒れ太郎 (くいだおれたろう - Kuidaore Tarou) lives, a self satisfied-looking life sized puppet who used to be the mascot for a famous multi-levelled restaurant called Kuidaore (sometimes written "Cuidaore").
The restaurant has closed down, but he still sits outside the building banging his drum. He’s too much a part of the history of 大阪 to be thrown out.
When you start appearing in food and featuring in the おみやげ (omiyage - souvenirs) of an area, you know you've fairly well made it into Japan's heart.
Also near Namba is 日本橋 (にっぽんばし - Nipponbashi), home of an electronics area known to most as Den-Den Town. This is where the 大阪 Street Festa is held and with its many game, フィギュア (figyua - figurines) and costume shops, it’s a great spot to go Otaku spotting. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even find the occasional maid café in Den-Den Town, uniquely Japanese institutions which are exactly what the name suggests – coffee houses where you can pay a premium to be served by girls dressed up as maids. These are very unusual but ultimately harmless – sometimes the maids are the most normal-looking people walking around!
Like several areas in 大阪, the name of 日本橋 ends in "橋" (はし - hashi - "bridge"). This is quite literal - bridges play a huge part in the city because of the number of rivers running through it and you often finding yourself crossing 橋 to get from one bit to the next. They make for some very picturesque walks, particularly at night time.
心斎橋 (しんさいばし - Shinsaibashi), the main shopping district of 大阪, also follows this naming convention. Along with lots more 商店街, it features wide leafy streets lined with boutique shops and international brands. In stark contrast, アメリカ村 (あめりかむら - Amerika mura - "America Village") also sits within 心斎橋, the "Little America" of 大阪. It's mostly a hangout for outrageously dressed young people but it also features a lot of American-themed clothes shops, bars and clubs; it's a good spot to sit and people-watch.
Another landmark worth visiting is 大阪城 (おおさかじょう - oosakajou - Osaka Castle), a huge building that watches the city from its perch on the top of a hill.
Like Himeji Castle, it's visually striking and makes an impressive addition to the skyline but unlike the White Heron, it was actually attacked and conquered during a civil war. It's also surrounded by 桜 (さくら - sakura - cherry blossom trees) and I’m told that it’s stunning (and very crowded) during 花見 (はなみ - hanami - cherry blossom viewing).
Unfortunately the inside has been reconstructed as a museum so it’s hard to imagine what it would have looked like in ancient times, but the exhibits paint a more complete historical picture of the war and you can see a lot of weapons and armour that would have been used at the time. Should that be a little too sophisticated for you, you could always try some on and have your picture taken.
If nothing else, the 360 degree view of 大阪 from the top is very impressive (if a little city-ish). The buildings stretch over the horizon and it's very difficult to get a sense of scale unless you're high enough to notice.
When it comes down to it, whether or not you like 大阪 really depends whether you like big cities. With its huge shopping areas, restaurants and night-life districts, there's never a shortage of things to do and see, but it can be a bit daunting at times. "Things are much faster in Osaka", I remember one of my coworkers saying, "the people there don't like to wait for things." Having visited and been swept up in an impatient crowd more than once, I can see what she means. There's plenty to like beneath all the rush-rush though - if you can put up with the sensory overload for long enough, you'll find a friendly old city with a unique atmosphere to it.
Or at least a lot of good shopping and grub.
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