I spent a bit time roaming around Osaka at night over the weekend, through the shopping arcades, the restaurants and the bars…

Minami is one of the main areas to go out, and is crawling with people. I walked through what felt like the longest shopping arcade in the world, in between countless stores. You can get lost in the store and the streets, because it all looks somewhat the same, neon advertising, people, music… it’s a sight to be savored.

At the centre, a little bridge, lit up by the huge neon billboards. This seems to be the central meeting point, judging from the number of people looking at their mobile phone and waiting for their friends.

Osaka is Japan’s street food capital. You can stuff yourself within, say, 20 meters. The local specialty is Takoyaki, little egg, vegetable and squid dumplings that are being prepared and sold at every corner.

I had to laugh hard at this little movie, playing non-stop at one of the stands. I wonder how the employees deal with that 24/7.

The eggs seem very happy, though.

Besides all the madness, there are also tiny, dimly lit streets, barely enough for two people to walk past each other, filled with Japanese restaurants. As usual, you just have to make a right or left turn away from the madness and find yourself in a totally quiet spot, while life is having a ball just around a few corners.

Those seem to be truly Japanese places, with the cloth hanging over the entry. A lot of them serve Fugu, the deadly fish, if you don’t prepare it properly. I settled for another version of Ramen, though.

On Saturday I went to the Kita area, to a gay bar run by an Australian, and it was fun to have an actual conversation again. I only stayed for a couple of beers, as the bar filled up and the crowd was starting to dance to the latest J-pop, Euro-trash and the Japanese version of Let it go. Another sight to be taken in and digested…

Kita is close to the main train station. It seems to be the oldest part of Osaka, as far as I have seen it, with little streets that roughly follow a grid, but mostly covered and forming one big bar and restaurant arcade… the deeper you go, the more prominent the nightlife, the more red-light it becomes.

It wouldn’t be advertised as such, as most images were big-eyed cute manga girls, but I’d say a fair share of those places were strip joints, by the feel of it, catering to the suited guys with their colleagues, coming from work…. You pass a number of Japanese maids trying to get you in, or tougher looking guys.

They are all friendly to the Japanese, it’s not an aggressive way to get customers in. Me, as the only European on sight, always got ignored, which actually suited me well.

I didn’t stay too long. First of all: the smoke: Japanese bars and restaurant have no smoking ban, and it really gets to me after a while. Smoking is banned on the streets though, and mostly adhered to.

Second, the metro only runs until about midnight, and I was sure I was not going to stay out all night, tired as I was.

If you want to see Japan go wild, this is the place to go. Believe it or not, but I saw them throwing friends up in the air in a cheering crowd, or even taking a leak outside. With all the rules in this country, I am sure this was a major no-no. But it’s good to see them let loose from time to time…