Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 486, The Nation's Kitchen, Part 1.

Looking back at it, it's rather strange that when I was first learning Japanese and studying Japanese

history in undergrad, one of the biggest cities in the country was always explained to me

solely in relation to another.

I'm talking, of course, about Osaka, an absolutely beautiful city and one that I recommend to anyone going to visit the country.

The thing is, though, while Osaka has so much going for it, from its long and unique history to its excellent,

and I do mean excellent food, I'll never forget that the first thing I learned about

Osaka was that it wasn't Tokyo.

Specifically when I was taking Japanese history and language courses back in the day,

Osaka was explained to me as essentially Japan's

Boston, existing in rivalry to the more New York-esque, white-collar city that is Tokyo.

To be fair, in the American Northeast, that is the sort of comparison that does make sense.

Similarly, in my language classes, Olsaka came up primarily in terms of

Olsaka-ben, or Kansai-ben, more generally, the regional dialect that is often played

for comedic effect in Japanese movies and TV, again, arguably somewhat similar to the Boston

Towne accent, for example.

What I'm getting at here is that Olsaka is often introduced to non-Japanese people, primarily

in relation to its bigger, newer neighbor, and that that's kind of a shame.

So this week I'm going to start the process of tackling a long-requested topic For years now, I've had people ask for a history of Olsaka in the same vein of the history of Tokyo we once did.

Now, at long last, it is time.

And to be upfront with you all, I have no idea how long this will take, because Olsaka, or at least some version

of it, is substantially older than Tokyo is.

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