Jaunted Embedded Travel Guides: Osaka Can't Stop Shopping
9/27/2007 at 4:50 PM
Tags: Embedded Travel Guides, Japan Travel, Shopping, Nerd Travel, Osaka Travel Guide, Osaka-Embed-Map (all tags)
Embedded Travel Guides: We are searching the world for folks who can take you on a field trip of their "backyard." When we find these folks, we then stealthy embed them into their local travel scene and ask them to be our eyes and ears out in the field.
We are expecting the same sort of grainy video, choppy sentences and snapshot photos that you are use to seeing from other sorts of embeds. At the end of the day we should be left with a backyard travel guidebook like no other.
Our man in Osaka is AJ McGuire, and, wow, does he have stories to tell.
I hate to traffic in stereotypes but it doesn't take much hanging around to figure out that the Japanese are pretty gung-ho Born to Shop. Name an object, and you can get the Louis Vuitton version somewhere in Osaka, customized, off the rack or knock off. Just like you can't go ten feet in this town without someone offering you some kind of prepared squid, there is literally nowhere without shopping.
Now I'm the kind of guy who wears the same dumb pair of jeans every day of the year so all this means very little to me. However, all trips involve the inevitable phase of collecting souvenirs to placate those you ditched back home for your trip. For them, I've picked out the three best ways to dump your tourist dollars into the Japanese economy.
Raw, Uncut Displays of Materialism
Every year, Mido suji and Shinsaibashi suji get more and more single brand shops (Coach, Vuitton, Nike) and upscale vendors of everything (Daimaru, OPA, Sogo), filling the once respectably dirty streets of South Osaka with iced out window displays and white gloved doormen. Speaking of Sogo, department stores are big all over Japan and much classier than say, Sears. Think Nordstrom mixed with a boutique-ified Whole Foods. Uptown Osaka (the zone around Umeda and Osaka stations) is packed with them, the big names being Hankyu, Hanshin and Kintetsu.
For the hipster in you, the rapidly gentrifying Horie neighborhood is packed with up-and-coming designers and print houses. Though a little more spread out than the consumption district proper, Horie is pretty well packed with shops full of clever furniture and fashion boutiques too over it to ever actually admit they're boutiques. The nabe is also a great place to stumble upon a hole in the wall antiques shop/bar, gallery/bar or any other kind of place where the salesmanship involves cheap beer and techno music.
The Weird and the Techy
Just as Tokyo has its nerd mecca of Akihabara, Osaka has Den Den Town. If you're into giant robots, cutting edge electronics or anything else that gets coverage at, say, Slashdot, start here. Den Den Town is technically only a certain stretch of one street but the area--and the tech bargains--extend about four blocks west towards Namba. The latest in cameras, computers and high-end A/V gear can be found about anywhere, but the real gem I've found is the used-goods shops mixed in amid all the bigger name retailers. A bit of hunting around will reward hackers, DJs and vintage synth enthusiasts with rare gear and flexible prices. In particular, check out the top floor of the Sofmap Saurus 4 near Sakai suji. Act coy, make an offer and bring your passport: Some shops will ditch the tax if you can prove you're a foreign tourist.
Den Den Town also delivers for those who's nerdiness tends toward anime and the like. For every shop selling the digital cameras and rice cookers of the future, there's one selling plastic figurines and discount DVDs of every animated series known to man. For similar kicks, check out Mike's Shop in Namba for toys and collectibles. It's perfect if you just so happen to need a life-size Predator statue. Y'know, just in case. The selection of giant sci fi character statues here is enough to warrant a stop.
An honorable mention also goes to AmeMura (America Mura). Not exactly an American enclave like the name suggests, it's instead a Japanese youth culture ground zero with heaps of record shops, novelty stores and places to buy weird clothes. It's the perfect place to spot all that ultra-elaborate fantasy fashion you've heard about, from Gothic Lolita to spacebound schoolgirl.
Souvenirs
"Just get me something Japanese," they said. Alright... The 100 Yen shop it is. The over-achieving Japanese cousin of the dollar store has more than enough for everyone you've promised a souvenir. Seriously, your friends won't be able to tell the difference. Fans, lanterns, nonsensical stationary, sake and tea serving sets, weird candy and more can be had for dirt cheap anywhere you see that magic "100" written across a building. They're all over the suburbs and in every shopping center, but if you can't find one, the big one at the cusp of Den Den Town is a good bet.
If that doesn't do it for you, just troll the Doutombori. There's plenty of souvenir action on both sides of the street, and this is the place for Engrish shirts. It probably won't be tasteful, but it'll leave you enough cash for that last meal of takoyaki.
Related Stories:
· Embedded Travel Guides coverage [Jaunted]
· Osaka Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Osaka Hotels [HotelChatter]
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