My Town Osaka

NOBUTANI Kana

What views do you have of OSAKA?
You may think of vaudeville, delicious foods, cheerful atmosphere and so on.
I have lived in OSAKA for seventeen years.
Let me write about my town OSAKA for a while.

First, let me write about our dialect peculiar to OSAKA. They say OSAKA dialect is too blunt and acrid. TV personalities and movie stars swear at each other using OSAKA dialect.
So residents in OSAKA are often taken as harsh people, but that is not a image of us.
Surely OSAKA dialect is spoken with acrid accent, but our dialect has something very heart-warming.

One of the typical phrases we often use is"O-o-ki-ni", which is used when we show our gratitude.
Shall we look at "Vaudeville" in OSAKA.
OSAKA has been called "Mecca of vaudeville".
The most famous vaudeville company is"YOSHIMOTO-COMPANY".
Many performers belong to this company. This company entertains us with comic dialogue, comedy, comic skit, comic story-telling and so on.
All of them offer us laughter. Laughter brings us happiness. I think those performers who can make us laugh have great power and vigor. All kinds of vaudeville are televised on TV every day in OSAKA. Vaudeville is indeed one of the most important cultural aspects in OSAKA.
OSAKA people always keep lively, because they never lose the power to laugh away any harsh thing. I want to keep smiling, too. Let me write about some troubles we face in OSAKA.

OSAKA has such a large population, and so many cars are running about day in day out. OSAKA is notorious for the great number of traffic accidents. The death roll in traffic-accidents in OSAKA is among the worst throughout JAPAN.
Recently the accidents are not caused only by speeding. They are also caused by young people riding motor-bikes. Many children ignore traffic rules and get hit by cars. We see many drunken drivers.
There are also some hit-and-run cases.

OSAKA is full of down towns, with so many PACHINKO parlors, penny arcades and the like. We see drunken people and young boys and girls fooling about on the busy streets late at night.
On top of that, we face all kind of public pollution.
Our prefecture is located beside HYOGO PREFECTURE, which was severely damaged by the great earthquake on JANUARY 17, 1995. A great many people are left without their houses or families.
It is already three years since the terrible earthquake, people in OSAKA suffered less damage than people in HYOGO PREFECTURE, but we can not forget the tragedy caused by the earthquake.

Let me change the topic to brighter ones OSAKA is famous for its great variety of delicious foods.
We have a familiar phase"KU-I-DA-O-RE", which means"eating to one's stomach content, even to collapsing oneself after eating too much". We have even a life-size doll named"KU-I-DA-O-RE DOLL"who is a man dressed in a blue and pink suit, a pair of glasses, and a hat beating a small drum.
You can see this doll at DOHTONBORI DISTRICT, one of the most famous down towns. There are innumerable restaurants in this district. When you have an opportunity to visit our town. I would like you to try"TA-KO-YA-KI"( small dumplings of wheat flour with bits of octopus )."TA-KO-YA-KI"was born in Osaka and has long loved by people. And now it is getting move and more popular all over Japan. In Osaka"TA-KO-YA-KI"can be main dish at meals, while outside Osaka, it is eaten as a snack only. We can enjoy eating"TA-KO-YA-KI"at any occasion and any place.

OSAKA people love sports. OSAKA is also known as the home town of Hanshin Tigers baseball team one of the professional in the Central League, and Kintetsu Buffaloes one of the teams of Pacific League. Gamba Osaka and Cerreso Osaka are professional soccer teams whose home town is Osaka. Osaka people love flowers. In 1990,"Flower Expo"was held in Osaka. We enjoyed all kinds of flowers sent from all over the world. Osaka is connected to every corner of the world. In 1994, Kansai International Airport was opened in the southern part of Osaka.

Now Osaka people wish to welcome the Olympic Games here in Osaka in 2008. Many people including the governor are making every possible effort to realize the dream. In the streets, we see lots of flags campaigning for the Osaka Olympics.

There are a lot more things to write about Osaka.
I hope you will visit my town some day in the future.