After flying high on the Ferris wheel, I finally wanted to treat myself to the legendary nightlife in Osaka that evening. That had been the main reason to move into the hotel, after all. A short nap later, I set off. First, I wanted to try the street food in the famous Shinsekai district. I didn’t let the warning in the article put me off. It wouldn’t be that dangerous.
Dinner in Shinsekai
It was just after 8 p.m. and there was still a lot going on. I briefly considered climbing the Tsutenkaku Tower. It is modeled after the Eiffel Tower and is the district’s main attraction. However, the line was far too long and I was just too hungry.
Unfortunately, Spa World is not tattoo-friendly, so I hadn’t even planned to go there. It’s a shame, as Beppu is much more open-minded!
Instead, I wandered around the streets a bit and tried to get my bearings. It was loud and hectic, and everything smelled damn good. Unlike Hiroshima, there weren’t that many entertainment bars here, or maybe I didn’t recognize them right away.
Eventually, I ended up in one of those damn good-smelling restaurants that specialized in Kushikatsu. These are small skewers made of all kinds of ingredients – fish, seafood, meat, and vegetables, which are then breaded and deep-fried.
They had one of the smartphone-based ordering systems there as well, and I went “all-in,” and ordered the “large assortment.” It didn’t look like as a lot of food – as you can see in the picture, it was just 13 skewers. You just get those, sauce for dipping, and a bit of salad.
But I was stuffed after I had finished those 13 skewers. Be careful: the vegetables in particular are damn hot. So I had to order a beer and after that sake to quench my tongue (unfortunately ;-)).
Nightlife in Osaka’s Amemura district
New friends at the Farplane Bar
Well-fed, I made my way to the last stop of the evening. For this, I chose the Farplane Bar in the nearby Amemura district. I passed quite a few host bars and also an advertising poster for a chamber music venue (sic!). I had to search for a while, but finally found the entrance.
And that was definitely a highlight of the whole trip. There wasn’t much going on, no fetish event, just a few locals at the bar. But I was immediately given a warm welcome and asked a few questions. The people were… weird… One girl was busy drowning her heartache and was already beyond good and evil, one guy looked like the archetypal Yakuza boss. A guy with a top hat was constantly trying to grab my boobies and I had to slap his fingers multiple times. Luckily one of the girls took pity on me and translated whenever Google Translate was overwhelmed with the Kansai dialect.
Of course, I ordered the “penis cocktail” and was not disappointed:
(Near) Crash in a Cellar Bar
At around 1 a.m. I decided to leave. There is no public transport after midnight in Osaka, just as in Tokyo. I didn’t feel like taking a taxi; I could walk the 3 kilometers to the hotel in the dry but cool weather. I said goodbye, not without exchanging social media details, and leisurely strolled off.
Three blocks away, I was suddenly approached from behind. A robbery?
No! The group from the Farplane had happened to take the same route, and with my beautiful green hair, I was of course recognizable from a mile away. Without further ado, they dragged me (without much resistance) to a basement bar. Stuffy, smoky, even more alternative. The waitress had tattoos from her white-blonde hair to her toes and had filed her teeth to a point. The whole evening I understood maybe two words of what they were saying. But that didn’t matter much – we were all far too drunk anyway.
At around 3 a.m. the bar closed, and/or my “friends” wanted to go somewhere else (I didn’t find out). For me, it was high time to go to the hotel because I wanted to go to Kyoto the next day. I got home shortly after four, more than a little tipsy and with sore feet, but still very happy.