Comparing Osaka with almost any other Japanese city is akin to likening a bloodied steak to boiled chicken.
Its people, a sassy, friendly breed, with a legendary, often ribald sense of humor, carry a swagger you don't see elsewhere. Unlike Tokyo, where the stranger is largely ignored or, at best, banished to peripheral vision, in Osaka you are sized up: its men and women look you straight in the eye, your presence is frankly appraised.
It's not that the Japanese, in general, are a modest people, it's that they do not wish to appear to be immodest. Osakans, however, have no such concerns. Strong women, gregarious men — they are known for their generosity and instinctive kindness, the helping hand they unfailingly extend to visitors lost in the maze of their city streets.
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