Dotonbori Route

What Dotonbori is

Dotonbori is the name of both the canal that runs east-west through the heart of Osaka's Minami and the entertainment district along its south bank. Theatres gathered along the canal dug in the early Edo period, and it grew into a dense quarter of eateries and amusements. By Ebisubashi, the bridge over the water, stands the "Glico sign" of a runner with arms raised, and gaudy signboards crowd together — a moving crab, a giant pufferfish lantern. People never thin out, day or night; it is Osaka's liveliest corner. This is a street for grazing as you walk, not for settling down to eat.

"Kuidaore" and konamon

Osaka has a word, "kuidaore": to spend more freely on food than on clothes, to ruin yourself for something good to eat. It names a temperament, and Dotonbori is its stage. The signatures are "konamon," flour-batter foods griddled on iron — takoyaki and okonomiyaki. Takoyaki is rolled into balls around octopus; okonomiyaki mixes cabbage and pork into the batter and is cooked flat. Both are cheap and hot and call people over by the smell of sauce. Add fresh-steamed pork buns, skewers and sweets. Not fine cooking, but the plates ordinary people have eaten every day — those are the stars here.

How to walk this route

Start at Namba station. Come up to street level, head for Dotonbori's main street and open with a boat of Wanaka's takoyaki, cooling the dashi-rich batter as you walk so as not to burn your mouth. Out by the water, pause on Ebisubashi to look at the Glico sign and catch your breath. On from there is Mizuno for okonomiyaki — its flourless yamaimo-yaki a plate to sit down and take slowly. Finish with 551 Horai's pork bun, held in its paper and bitten hot. About two hours on foot; the trick is to alternate standing and sitting, takoyaki and bun.