CITY LIFE: OSAKA

If you want to understand just how revered beer is in Japan, then head to Osaka. The nation’s party city positively effervesces with new craft breweries, old izakayas and cosy hole-in-the-wall bars

- Chris Tharp

It’s early afternoon, and Sake no Ana is nearly full. Customers hunker down at the bar, sipping sake, highballs, shochu, and glasses of beer. They’re mostly men in their 60s, or older, unified by a rough, world-weary look. As I slide onto a stool, I’m met with shy smiles. This working-class establishment in Osaka’s Shinsekai neighbourhood may not win any awards for design, but I feel welcome — included in the camaraderie of day drinkers, bound by an unspoken understanding among those who sip their tipple while the sun still hangs in the sky.

Menu placards are tacked to the smokestained walls, announcing the culinary choices in bold yellow, red, black, and white. Behind the bar, two elderly women are busy preparing drinks and, more importantly, cooking side dishes of kushikatsu, the deep-fried skewers that Osaka is famed for. I order some — little plates of sausage, quail eggs, beef and pork — and wash them down with a couple of mugs of draftAsahi, the savoury crunch of the kushikatsu perfectly complementing the crisp Japanese lager.