Shinsekai and Tsutenkaku Tower
A district still in the 1950s, fried skewers and tired neon.
Duration
1 hr – 2 hrs
Best time
In the evening
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The district was built in 1912 on the site of a world's fair: the northern half copied Paris, the southern half Coney Island. The Tsutenkaku tower was its centre, rebuilt in 1956 after the first was melted down during the war.
Shinsekai then went downhill and kept its 1950s décor, which is now the whole point. You eat kushikatsu, crumbed and fried skewers, under one absolute rule posted everywhere: you dip in the shared sauce once only.
Getting there
Metro Midosuji line, Dobutsuen-mae station, or JR Shin-Imamiya. Five minutes on foot either way.
Rules on site
Never dip a bitten skewer back into the shared sauce: it is the district's one rule, and it is taken seriously. Neighbouring Nishinari is the poorest part of Osaka and is best crossed without lingering at night.
Other places in Osaka
Osaka CastleHideyoshi's white and gold keep, in a park of several hectares.
DotonboriThe canal, the giant signs, the Glico running man, and the street where Osaka eats standing up.
Sumiyoshi-taishaOne of the oldest shrines in Japan, with its almost vertical humpback bridge.
Kuromon MarketSix hundred metres of fishmongers, sea urchins opened in front of you and Kobe beef on a skewer.