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"Yappa Minami ga Sukiyanen (やっぱミナミが好きやねん)"

JAPAN

JAPAN Sep. 15. 2021

Cultural Broadcasting Team

Hi all,
We've decided to focus on traditions, cultures, histories, religions, and food in the Kansai region where Kansai Gaidai is actually located and introduce to international students.

The very first topic is Osaka City Minami area.

The prefectural captial city of Osaka is Osaka City (大阪) (hereinafter called Osaka). The populaton is estimated around 2,750,995 (Osaka City Official), and it is the city where history, culture, and current business coexist. Osaka is frequently divided into two areas roughly: Kita (キタ) & Minami (ミナミ). Kita area is basically regarded as the business place, such as many office buildings, gourgeous hotels, and department stores; Minami has a lot of cultural and commercial spots such as Izakaya (Japanese style pub) and food restaurants. However, this does not necesarily imply that Kita has no cultural sightseeing spots and vise versa. As you may have noticed, Kita refers to the North and Minami refers to the South. So, Kita, including Osaka Station and Umeda area, is located in the northern part of Osaka, and Minami is in the middle and a little bit of the sourthern part of Osaka. Although they are originally geographical terms, these two words are used to explain the rough differences in culture between two locations.

In this ariticle, I would like to focus on culture in Minami, the place that makes Osaka "Osaka."

Historically, Osaka has been called "Tenka no daidokoro (天下の台所) ," which means the kitchen of Japan because merchants came to Osaka to buy and sell rice in inmemorial eras (Osaka info). And more surprisingly this commercial culture has been continued still today mainly in Minami area.


This is the Dotombori (道頓堀) and Shinsaibashi (心斎橋) areas whose symbol landmark is "glico running guy advertisement." There are many Izakaya, food restaurants, fashion shops, and so forth, all of which represent the current Japanese culture and trends. Also walking in for about 10 mins from this location leads you to Sennichimae (千日前) and Nippombashi (日本橋) regions, and you can enjoy two comedy theaters run by Yoshimoto Kogyo HD and many other Otaku-shops in which anime, manga, and video games are the main attractions.

Close to these locations above, there is the specific place called "Shinsekai (新世界)." "Tsutenkaku (通天閣)" , another landmark in Osaka stands there. Compared to Dotombori, there are much more izakaya stores, thus you can feel the commercial atmosphere quite directly.

Also, when you come to Minami, I strongly suggest eating takoyaki, octopus balls, because It is one of the most popular food in Osaka. If you don't know what takoyaki is, please visit this page https://livejapan.com/en/article-a0001178/.

When you come to Japan next time, please visit Minami area in Osaka and enjoy the attractive atmosphere!

Ebisu bridge in Dotombori: 1 Dotombori, Chuoku-ward, Osaka city, Osaka, Japan 542-0071
Tsutenkaku: 1-18-6, Ebisu-higashi, Naniwaku-ward, Osaka city, Osaka, Japan 556-0002

Works Cited: Osaka City. "Profile of Osaka city." Access
ed 13 Sep, 2021. <https://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/contents/wdu020/enjoy/en/overview/content_CityProfile.html>.
Osaka info. "HISTORY & CULTURE"Acces
sed 13 Sep, 2021. <https://osaka-info.jp/en/page/history-culture>.

JAPAN

JAPAN Sep. 15. 2021

Cultural Broadcasting Team

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