Lots of Fun and Games in Osaka

Dohtonbori, a pedestrian-only street lined with restaurants and shops, has a fun-house atmosphere. This is Osaka’s entertainment center. Around dusk the street’s neon lights and glittering displays come to life, creating a dazzlingly colorful spectacle.

You’ll see signs with shooting stars and Japanese letters that seem to dance across storefronts.

One restaurant beckons patrons with an overhead gigantic mechanical crab that waves its legs through the air.

The street, four blocks long, also is filled with a fascinating cacophony. The music that wafts from shops and restaurants ranges from rock ‘n’ roll to traditional strains.

Shopping is a big part of enjoying Dohtonbori. Boutiques sell a wide variety of items from the traditional to the ultramodern.

Some of the shops don’t use street numbers in their addresses, but the names of all are clearly shown in both Japanese and English.

Creative facades and displays make window shopping great fun, but don’t hesitate to go into the shops. Vendors are friendly and helpful and will communicate in sign language if they don’t speak English.

Variety of Styles

Astro 555 has avant-garde clothes. Even though the clothes have labels in French (Robes de Conte and Les Bijou), they’re made by three young (20 to 26 years old) and talented Osaka designers. This is their first store.

Styles include pert blue wool crepe collarless suits with pleated skirts (about $235 U.S.), brown grosgrain pantsuits with big, broad-shouldered jackets (about $188), black busboy jackets with snaps down the front (about $45), blue cotton kimono-sleeve suits (about $192) with traditional tops and high-slit skirts, hip-hugging pleated skirts in clinging black wool jersey (about $38) and jumper skirts of plaid acetate and rayon, with many buttons circling the waist (about $75).

The clothes are highly original in styling, carefully constructed and made in limited quantity. If you’re a small size you’ll be able to fit into them.

Mariateresa offers appealing and reasonably priced casual clothes. Styles are youth-oriented. Most of the garments are designed and made in Japan. Some are imported from Korea.

Look for plaid pedal pushers ($75), black high-waisted trousers ($60), slightly baggy pants made of parachute fabric in vivid colors ($75), cotton knickers ($114), jersey knit bubble dresses ($60), quilted cotton jackets ($60) and other offbeat fashions. Clunky clogs ($46) are colorful.

Fashion Room Rokko has dozens of unusual sunglasses: round bright blue Lucite specs ($8), mirrored lenses in all sorts of colors ($7), dark glasses large enough to hide behind and fake mother-of-pearl frames with lots of brilliants.

Zany Watches

Additional accessories include zany watches, one with an enormous fake mother of pearl face ($8), one with glitter for numbers ($16), a black watch with sparkles for numbers ($16) and a pocket watch with a railroad motif ($16).

Marutomi has an abundant selection of sweat shirts ($14-$21) with catchy sayings. There are also rock star T-shirts ($8), including many expressing adulation of Michael Jackson in Japanese.

Nearby, a sister store without a name sells similar sweat shirts ($12-$21) with women’s sayings, including “Best girlfriend” and “She made up her mind to do it.”

The basement level of this shop has some campy and charming young fashions, including striped tight trousers ($14), pedal pushers with straps made of the striped fabric used for train engineers’ uniforms ($25), trousers with bustle backs ($30), attractive shirt and pantsuits in brushed cotton ($122) and a busboy suit with black straight skirt and red short jacket ($45).

City Discount Men’s Shop has bold, humorous men’s fashions, including sateen shirts with big pearl buttons ($27), collarless shirts in a rainbow of colors ($27 to $30), woolen sweaters with pseudo-military appliques ($37) and gray heavy denim jeans ($27).

Minerva Book Store (1-3, 1-chome Dohtonbori) has a huge selection of Japanese comic books. These funnies have such amusing and strange characters that you might want to buy one as a souvenir even if you don’t understand a word in them. They cost about $1.

Convenience Store

Ijinya (8-20, 1-chome Dohtonbori) calls itself a convenience store. It has a wide variety of silly and clever little gift items, including pencil sharpeners shaped like globes, cash registers and antique Victrolas ($2.50), cosmetics bags shaped like aprons or roses ($15), toilet paper dispensers shaped like the rear ends of automobiles ($15) and toy bears filled with candy and “happy birthday” banners across their chests ($3).

Fujimoto Shokodo (3-24, 1-chome Dohtonbori) sells pretty little boxes for personal treasures (three drawers for about $36, nine drawers for about $47). Also fine brush and ink supplies for calligraphers, rice paper stock and coconut-shaped handbags made of wood and leather ($67). It also sells hundreds of small wooden pegs with rubber stamps of Japanese family names and family symbols ($2.50 each).

Morita-ya has lovely gift items and clothing made of traditional Japanese cotton fabrics. There are attractive lined aprons ($153), kimono “suits” with traditional tops and straight skirts ($215), shirts lined with contrasting fabric ($69), handkerchiefs ($4), tie-dyed scarfs ($60 and up), draw-string purses with bamboo bottoms ($91), embroidered neckties and scarfs ($22 to $215) and unusual combs and other hair ornaments.

Family Kimono Shop

Kimono Yamato is a family kimono shop with ready-to-wear models and made-to-measure tailoring of Japanese traditional dress for adults and children.

Shelves display kimono fabrics sold in bolts that are about 14 1/2 inches wide, convenient for tailoring kimonos that are basically cut and sewn in panels. There are also cottons with vertical stripes in rich or subtle colors.

Best of all are the silks, with colors from shiny blacks and delicate pinks to rich earth tones and purples. The silk fabrics often have characteristic patterns, with many designs representing important and symbolic flowers such as the chrysanthemum or cherry blossom, or family symbols.

Kimonos, which cost $300 and up, are special dress-up clothes, and tend to be expensive. Stop and browse, even if you’re not in the market for a traditional Japanese outfit.

(Prices quoted in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing.)