Around Osaka - Tsuruhashi
Checking out Osaka’s Korean area
As a big fan of Korean food and culture I was eager to check out the Tsuruhashi area of Osaka, the city’s ‘Korean Town’, and headed down there last week. The noticeably ‘Korean’ part of Tsuruhashi is found where the JR, Sennichimae subway, and Kintetsu railway lines converge and the area around the stations is a rabbit warren of narrow alleyways full of character.
The west side of the stations is home to numerous yaki niku (Korean bulgogi beef barbecue that you grill yourself at your table) restaurants, with a couple of streets devoted entirely to this cuisine. Several restaurants have been featured on TV and proudly display photos of the owners posing with tarento (TV personalities) who dined there, but more interesting than these were some of the menus outside the restaurants.
As with most yaki niku places I’ve been to the menus featured photos of each part of the cow you can order, alongside a ‘map’ of the cow showing where each part comes from; What was remarkable about these menus, however, was the sheer variety of internal organs and cuts of beef available. Moreover, some of the organs looked too bizarre and disgusting to eat (even for a getemono connoisseur like myself), although with so much food on the menu it would be possible to find something to suit most people except vegetarians.
To the east of the stations there’s a large area of shotengai (covered shopping arcades) featuring the usual shops selling clothes, fresh fruit and vegetables, and fish and meat, but with a Korean slant. You can buy chimachigori (traditional Korean hanbok dresses), kimchi (spicy pickled vegetables), Korean-style laver seaweed, spicy doenjang (similar to Japanese miso) and the aforementioned cow organs, as well as a surprising amount of whale meat and whale bacon.
Farther away from the station there was what appeared to be a small fish/meat market, but by noon everywhere was closed apart from one place selling suppon (live turtles eaten in expensive restaurants). That part of the shotengai area was much quieter and the lack of business was reflected in the quality of the shops. The arcade gradually got more and more downmarket, many of the shops being open but not staffed (you have to ring a doorbell at the back of the shop if you want to buy anything) - a reflection of the honesty and lower crime rate found in Japan.
Tsuruhashi was an interesting place to spend an hour or so as the area has a unique atmosphere and a lot of the people are noticeably of Korean ancestry (there are some 90,000 ethnic Koreans living in Tsuruhashi according to Wikipedia). One thing I couldn’t help but notice was the lack of hanguru (Korean hangul writing) on shop signs in the area, considering that in most countries ethnic enclaves are usually easily identifiable from their respective writing scripts shown on signage. Perhaps this reflects a concerted effort by ethnic Koreans to assimilate into Japanese culture despite the discrimination they face in Japan?
For more Tsuruhashi photos, check out: More Tsuruhashi Photos
August 9th, 2008 at 2:56 am
You mention that there was a lack of Korean script within the Tsuruhashi area? That is because a vast majority of Koreans that live in Japan and number some 700,000 are comprised mostly of 3rd and 4th generation Koreans. Their families had settled there during the occupation of Korea, but they should not be confused with the large importation of labourers during World War II, as most of those 2.5 million returned to Korea shortly after the war had ended. Although Zainichi, or resident Koreans have retained some of their Korean identity, for the most part they adapted to life in Japan and are almost indistinguishabel from Japanese because the language is now their primary one used. For most, especially foreginors, Koreans appear similar to Japanese, so when using Japanese lanuage they are often mistake as Japanese even to native Japanese.