Japan: Shinimamiya & Hotel Raizan South

Part of Shinsekai

Dobutsuenmae mall, a little early in the day though

Leading on from my last post I thought I’d talk about my favourite place to stay in Japan. My first trip to Japan was in 2011 with my mate Alex (who had been to Japan before). We flew into Osaka and went to stay at a hostel/businessman hotel called Hotel Raizan South in Shinimamiya.

Local coffee shop at the start of the Dobutsuenmae mall

Shinimamiya (which is just south of the well known Shinsekai area) is an older suburb and is rather dilapidated and run down. The area has been referred to as the most dangerous place in Japan, but I find this title absolutely hilarious. There is very little crime in Japan and while the Yakuza may have some dealings in the area they are fairly legitimate organisations these days and aren’t involved in petty crime. I understand they even do lots of positive work in the local communities to improve the general perception of them. I’ve had a fun night drinking with a local boss and even shared a Japanese bath with some heavily tattooed gentleman. (I might even write about these events in another blog post). 

Despite the dilapidated nature of the area I find it beautiful and fascinating. If you want to see how the other half live in Japan this is the place to do it. There are amazing photo opportunities everywhere, especially if you like urban photography.

Shinimamiya is perfectly located with many transport options. It’s on two different rail lines (JR & Nankai railway), two Osaka subway lines and a tram line (which I’ve never actually taken). On the other side of the main road is the old world area of Shinsekai. It’s a great area populated with plenty of Izakaya’s (tiny Japanese bar/eateries), Pachinko parlours (Japanese poker machines), Kushikatsu restaurants (deep fried meat/vegetables on sticks) and the Tsutenkaku tower.  

Abeno Harukas in Tennoji

Ten minutes walk up the road is the quickly thriving area of Tennoji. It’s quite a contrast between Shinimamiya and Tennoji. Tennoji has some very flashy new shopping centres including the newly opened tallest building in Japan, Abeno Harukas. Sadly I think the magical nature of Shinimamiya will be very quickly taken over by the sterile nature of Tennoji. The flashy new buildings seem to be slowly migrating their way closer and closer to Shinimamiya. In 2011 we’d hardly notice another white face in Shinimamiya, on each trip since we are seeing more and more whiteys. (and yes i get the irony about a whitey telling other whiteys to go there, whilst complaining about seeing too many whiteys there).

Another great spot in the area is the long thin covered mall called Dobutsuenmae. It’s kind of dirty and neglected with the odd homeless person wandering about but this is how people live and it’s a very unique spot with many quirky stores selling all sorts of odds and ends (including 20 year old electronics). My favourite restaurant in the world 'Chitose Okonomiyaki' is a few metres down a side street from this mall. I'll write about Hideki and his amazing food in another post (i promise).

Chitose Okonomiyaki

somewhere down the far end of the Dobutsuenmae mall

Now to Hotel Raizan South. This is one of those hotels that appear to be a mix between a businessman’s hotel and a hostel. There are plenty of regular Japanese guests mixed with tourists. I’d had some great times hanging out in the lounge meeting awesome people from all over the world. It's just one of those places that attract a weird mix from your typical backpacker to an associate professor in nanotechnology. If you stay here the best thing I can recommend is grabbing some beers and snacks from the local Family Mart and sit in the small lounge and see who you meet.

Sadly one of the great aspects at Hotel Raizan South has now moved on, I'm referring to their former manager Shinozaki. An older Japanese man who is the life of the party. He was so generous to us, often taking us out for a flashy meal or supplying us with beer or pizza. We had a great time with him and I have always looked forward to catching up with him on each trip.

View north from Hotel Raizan South

View South West from Hotel Raizan South

Shortly before our most recent visit the corporation that owns the hotel decided in their infinite wisdom to move Shinozaki across to manage a nearby apartment building. Shinozaki was a great asset to Hotel Raizan South and it will never be the same without him. Sadly Shinozaki wanted to stay at HRS until his retirement in 2 years. Shinozaki was one of the many Japanese people that made me wish I knew much more Japanese so we could converse better.

I'm unsure what will happen to Hotel Raizan South now it has a new manager but I have had some fun times there in the past and hope to have more in the future.

PS. I apologise for the absolute clusterf$ck that is the layout of this post. Blogger has a complete mind of it's own when laying out photos in a post. What you see in the draft layout is nothing like how the actual blog post turns out. If anyone from google is reading this, you need to fix your crappy system. It's incredibly frustrating to use.

The rather large triple room in Hotel Raizan South