Temma

I love Osaka. And in Osaka there is a section called Temma, that I love a lot. It is full of bars, but it's not creepy, or sleazy or sketchy like some bar districts can be in other places. It is a very blue collar, white collar, middle class place. There is a large mix of buildings, but most of them are old, wooden and a tad tired looking. A friend and I had just eaten dinner at an Italian place that looks just like a run-down izakaya and not at all Italian restaurant-like from the outside, although they have great Italian food. We were wandering, exploring the neighborhood and I wanted to take in one more place before going back when I ran across the Inada Sake Shop. We parted the noren curtain and entered a very neighborhood stand bar. There was oden, and other bar food and since their main business was selling sake, they had a wonderful selection which we took full advantage of. After having our oden and sake we left at the same time as another group who were intent on telling us non-Osakans what a great place this was. "Very Osaka! Very Osaka!" Which having been to numerous bars in Tokyo, I can assure you was, indeed, very Osaka. The customers were friendly, the staff was friendly, they catered to my desire for something medium dry and they didn't overcharge us. Thank you Temma! I'll be back.