Where's Wally ?

Osaka

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March 30th 2006
Osaka is a bit like I'd imagined Tokyo would be. It's a tangle of flyovers, buildings, subterranean malls, neon, arcades and the occasional castle. You can quite easily spend a whole day lost underground. Anyway, we tried shopping but we're pretty rubbish at it and failed to get anything despite walking down a couple of the longest shopping arcades in Japan ( each around 2.5km of covered shops all ... read more

Asia » Japan » Osaka

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In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Fol... ... read more