Are you a fan of Korean food? Or seaweed? Although you can find many Korean restaurants dotted around Osaka, did you know that Osaka has its own little Korean-town? It is located in Tsuruhashi 鶴橋.
Well according to wikipedia it is the largest Korean town in Japan, larger than the one in Tokyo. You can eat yakinuki Korean style, you can buy as much kimchi as you want and even find the traditional chima jeogori dresses of Korea in the shopping arcade streets. It is well-worth spending an afternoon walking about the place, finishing with some nice yakiniku in the evening.
Getting to Tsuruhashi is really simple, there are no fewer than 3 stations. You can go by subway on the Sennichimae line (Pink) (station number S19), or by JR Loop line (outer loop from Osaka Station) or by Kintestu Nara or Osaka lines. I personally recommend either taking the subway or JR.
If you’ve been to Tsuruhashi, leave a comment and share your experiences with us.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Janne // Jun 25, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Worth noting is that there’s another area in Shimanouchi, just east of Shinsaibashi. Still fairly small but it has grown rapidly the past couple of years, with Korean restaurants, bars, basement groceries, video rentals and so on. In a way it is more genuine, in the sense that it seems to cater exclusively for Korean residents, not so much for Japanese.
2 Ian Cheung // Jun 26, 2007 at 11:01 am
Thanks Janne,
I didn’t know about Shimanouchi. From my understanding Tsuruhashi isn’t non-authentic because it is catering to Japanese but because the Koreans there came to Japan from an earlier period (some before the war, and some against their will). There was more pressure to fit in and be more Japanese-like than now, especially in 2nd or 3rd generation Korean-Japanese.
Newer Korean areas in Japan have a greater percentage of residents that have just moved to Japan and so a stronger connection to Korea and have less pressure to be ‘assimilated’ into Japanese culture.
3 Saitoko // Aug 30, 2009 at 4:41 pm
There’s an open air shoutengai area in Momodani that has an actual Koreatown gate on both ends. It’s not quite as seedy feeling as the under-the-tracks parts of Tsuruhashi, and has a nice, festive feeling about it. Worth a visit whenever you want to take a stroll in a nice, open Korean area, full of shops and restaurants, but where you won’t constantly get bumped into, squeezed past or blocked by too many people in skinny little walkways.
I like Tsuruhashi’s evening vibe along the Loop Line, but I can’t say I’m really sold on their yakiniku. It’s rather touristy there, so prices are high for not exactly top quality. My personal favorite place for yakiniku is in Fuse.
P.S. I live very close by Tsuruhashi, and we walk over there or through there to have lunch or dinner pretty regularly.
Leave a Comment