Name practically any modern country in the world and odds are that the capital city of that nation rings-out like Paris does when mentioning France; or London when the topic shits to England, and Tokyo, quite naturally, when speaking of Japan.
Although Tokyo is the long-established seat of power in this island nation of 127 million inhabitants, some might argue that Osaka is the heart and soul. Indeed, just as America has its clash of cultures between North and South, so too does Tokyo, the center of government since 1603, and Osaka, the free-spirited birthplace of Japanese capitalism.
Both cities, worlds apart in many respects, are divided between eastern Japan, known as Kanto, and western Japan, known as Kansai where civil wars have been fought, rebellions squashed, and plots against the shogun were not uncommon.
Tokyoites consider Osakans as uncouth, vulgar and money-grubbing, a legacy that dates back to Osaka's somewhat despised origins as a merchant class.
To Osakans, Tokyoites are stuck up, ultra-conservative and too image-conscious to be taken seriously, a reflection of their upper class heritage since the early military rulers or shoguns made it the nations capital.
Oddly enough, some American ex-pats in Japan have adopted certain tendencies of this mostly friendly rivalry, taking sides on the everything from appropriate Japanese business etiquette, to food choices and mannerisms.
In Tokyo, retail prices on virtually anything you buy is pretty much carved in granite, and to question the official rate might be considered somewhat undignified. In Osaka, price tags are often little more than a starting point for a friendly round of old school bargaining.
On my frequent trips to Tokyo, my “Kansai-ben”, or strong Osaka accent, often startles unsuspecting taxi drivers, many of them who react like I’m a gangster from the film “Black Rain” (Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, filmed on location in Osaka, 1989). Admittedly, I do find the Osaka dialect similar to black or street-English in many respects.
I vividly recall the rude awakening I received when I first opened my English school in Shibuya, located in the center of downtown Tokyo, where I was confronted by an array of subtle criticism and innuendo mostly by the American community.
“What are you doing still living down there?” said one white American man in a bar, leaving me with a yearning desire to punch him in the nose.
Adding insult to injury, a prominent African-American businessman who, upon observing my Kansai license plates, quipped, "You know, you really should change those plates,” even though he was well aware I was driving back to Osaka the very next day!
I’m not sure about the wisdom of starting another war between the people of Tokyo and Osaka, but readers of todays blog would do well to note that subtle sub-cultural divides exists in almost every country in the world, regardless of who controls the military, the official language, or the conversation about this years travel plans.
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