Our Kind of Town, Osaka Is

Japanese history teachers have it rough compared to their American counterparts. Just think: three years ago the Commonwealth of Virginia celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement while 2010 marks 1,300 years since Nara was established as Japan's first permanent capital. One thousand three hundred years. That boggles my mind.

Although most U.S. military families stationed here visit Nara during their first 6-9 months in Japan, usually as a sidetrip from Kyoto, that was not one of our travel priorities.  Reports from friends and acquaintances, you see, always included an amusing anecdote or two about Nara's aggressive deer population. On the outside I chuckled empathetically but on the inside I whipped out a black magic marker and crossed Nara off my "must see" list.

Little did we know that we'd back in Japan in time to celebrate Nara's 1300th anniversary, the rare sort of event bound to pit the the historian me against the large mammal phobic me.  Chalk up one round for the historian.  When the Ancient Mariner asked how I wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary, I voted for Nara and he said "Whatever you want." The man's a keeper.

(Note: the author defines a large mammal as any creature possessing teeth and legs, weighing more than 18 pounds, and not called Mel.)

All the hotels and inns in Nara were fully booked the first weekend in December (see 1300th anniversary, above) but Nara is less than an hour by train from both Kyoto and Osaka, both of which offer plentiful lodging options.  We'd been to Kyoto - twice in my case - but not to Osaka, the third largest city in Japan after Tokyo and Yokohama, and the tenth most populous metropolitan area in the world according to the United Nations .  My student, Dr. T, tipped the scale by touting Osaka's reputation as Tenka no Daidokoro, the country's kitchen.  He encouraged us to seek lodging in the vicinity of Namba station where we'd have our pick of hundreds of restaurants within a few yards of the Kintetsu train line that would transport us to Nara in under an hour.  Teaching is such a rewarding profession. 

A bit giddy at the prospect of not spending another Friday in what passes for an office on a crowded barge while the USS Blue Ridge is under repair in dry dock, the Ancient Mariner was up for an adventure.  For the first time, we did not purchase our Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets in advance.  We simply rode a mid-afternoon train to Shinagawa and bought our tickets at a kiosk outside the Shinkansen entrance.  We had our choice of reserved and non-reserved seats on dozens of trains departing at 15-minute intervals.  This was so simple that I'm a little embarrassed we haven't tried it sooner.

Two and a half hours after settling into our assigned seats in Tokyo we arrived at Shin-Osaka station and followed the signs to the subway where we squeezed ourselves and one small rolling suitcase into a car crammed with rush hour commuters.  Just fourteen minutes later we debarked at Namba station and strolled through an underground shopping arcade, Namba Walk, in the general direction of the hotel according to the map Mr. Keeper had the foresight to print from the Hotel Orientale's website before we left Yokosuka.

When we eventually poked our heads above ground, it looked like we had somehow journeyed through the center of the earth and emerged in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip: flashing neon, pachinko parlors as far as the eye could see in every direction, and girls wearing sandwich boards promoting restaurants and karaoke bars.  An elderly policeman pointed us toward the Hotel Orientale but we walked right past the tasteful entrance because we were so busy gawking at the people partying in the street (me) and restaurant menus (Mr. Keeper).  Thanks to a cute sandwich-board girl at the second intersection, we only had to retrace our steps for half a block to enter the hotel, a surprisingly quiet and genteel establishment.

Stuffed animal Christmas tree in Namba Walk

"Your relatives would love Osaka," opined the Ancient Mariner as he relaxed with a Kirin after knotting the tie on the yukata he found in the bottom drawer.

"Some more than others, but I see your point.  Let's skip Osaka Castle this time so we'll have a good excuse to come back, with or without relatives.  I could easily spend a week just exploring the shops in Namba Walk, assuming I survive the Nara deer tomorrow."

"Don't worry.  I'll protect you." 

As I said, the man's a keeper.