Osaka with a Leica iiig and Summitar

After a three hour drive and a two hour flight I needed a drink – I say ‘a’ euphemistically: beer, nihonshu (“sake”), red wine and whisky hit the spot but set the tone for the following three nights. It was my wife’s birthday trip to see her nephews and enjoy the food for which Osaka is famous (high quality and inexpensive).

For a change I took my Leica iiig and Summitar, and shot FP4+ at 400asa to develop in Rodinal and Rollei Retro 80S (aka Agfa Aviphot 80) at 40asa for PMK Pyro. My intention was to use the FP4+ for night and low-light shots, and the 80S for low contrast but well lit scenes. With only one camera of course it just didn’t work out that way. My only backup was my Pixel 6 smartphone.

The younger nephew (now 21) knows my gum print work and interest in old buildings so I asked him for a suggestion regarding where to explore – “south, start at Shinsekai”. Literal translation “New World” is an area developed before WWII then neglected. Now it’s a refurbished crowded tourist trap – primarily Chinese who seem to love the horrendous colours and gaudy decoration, but also Korean and various European and North American tourists. Featured image – tourists on a quiet corner.

For the first time in years another photographer approached me and started talking about my camera; he was speaking English so I assumed he was Chinese but we reverted to Japanese when it turned out he was one of the rare Japanese tourists (few can afford hotel prices now).

“Osaka Parking” is famous in Japan – the meaning is “parking in an inappropriate or illegal place”. An example was not hard to find, worse is known – parking on the corner bend of a major crossroad controlled by traffic lights is the worst I’ve heard of.

The Arcades

I continued south and finally found what I was looking for. Osaka has an extensive network of arcades, often wide, packed and full of food shops and restaurants but further south these become a rabbit warren of narrow, dark, old and disintegrating shops, primarily small izakaya and local goods of various kinds.

Largely empty during daylight hours, and more importantly empty of tourists other than me, they are frequented by locals in the evening.

Ahhhhh

After touring the arcades a couple of times I ventured further south and came across rows of small neat well kept shops. It seemed slightly odd that there would suddenly be so many restaurants next to each other and there was nobody in sight, so I started taking photographs. A security guard suddenly appeared shouting “no photography”. I was concentrating on understanding his Japanese and lost any nuance of what he might be saying “somebody might suddenly appear” – is this a magic place? I wondered. When he’d gone I managed a couple of shots of two other streets but then local residents started shouting “no photography” so finally I gave up.

Back in the hotel the penny finally dropped. “Ahhhhh ….. of course”. Talking to my wife it transpired that in my complete naivety I had stumbled across the largest red light district in Japan, (contact me for the address and what is legal/illegal in Japan). Enlarging the images on the screen the kanji on the lanterns give a hint of what lies behind the facade.

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