America Mura – Osaka’s Hip American Village

If from the outside, AmeMura (literally “the American village”) is known by its full name, in Osaka this contraction is hardly used. Very close to the famous arcades of Shinsaibashi, of which the Apple Store serves as a hub, this is a relatively tight district and still rather unknown to foreign visitors in the Minami area.

Discreet lung hype even underground of the economic capital of Kansai, it is even said here that the fashions of Tokyo are inspired by it. A sort of Harajuku of Osaka, the district takes its name from an already distant era when its shops imported exclusively usa fashion.

Built around the LOOP café that started it all, the surrounding empty warehouses were quickly filled with businesses from the early 1970s. Welcomed by a miniature reproduction of the Statue of Liberty and its giant clown a few steps further on, we find today in America Mura a slew of clothing stores (new and second-hand) as well as a handful of record stores and other galleries.

An attractive nightlife

At the hinge, its small urban park Sankaku Koen and a tiny neighborhood police station around which cars 🚙 pass in the mesh of narrow streets dressed in staggered lampposts. On weekends, we meet in the central square for the flea market, but it may still be after dark that the park lights up and comes alive. Then it’s time for the bars and the few scenes live to wake up but be careful, the clubs close here at 1am.

For the average visitor, the main attraction of Amemura lies above all in its shopping boutiques streetwear sometimes avant-garde who spit hip-hop at a mind-blowing volume. This becomes particularly worrying for the staff of said establishments when on the other side of the street, the sound is already almost too loud for passers-by!

More visible, the famous centre commercial Big Step still distributes to many clothing stores and other international cuisine restaurants. In the same genre we can still mention OPA, but the district does not forget to recall its Japanese roots in an unusual way through an unexpected little sanctuary, Mitsuhachimangu, which dates back to 749.

Amerika Mura will mainly interest lovers of urban culture who are looking for an offbeat atmosphere; for the others the discovery is undoubtedly much more dispensable.

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