Osaka in Timelapse

"There is no other city as vulgar and obscene as Osaka. We should celebrate the image and welcome the development of casinos and red-light districts to attract people." - Toru Hashimoto (Mayor of Osaka).

Amongst travellers, Osaka is often a city that's bypassed in favor of the capital, Tokyo, or its prettier near neighbours, Kyoto and Nara. It is however a great travel destination in its own right with many vibrant districts, entertainment areas and attractions like Osaka Castle.

If you're looking for the heartland of Japanese cuisine, its likely you'll find it somewhere in this massive sprawling city. Osaka is the birthplace of kaiten Sushi (or sushi-go-round), and many varieties of local fast food including okonomiyaki, takoyaki and udon. 

For me Osaka is also unique for its many different railway company and lines.  These include The Osaka Municipal Subway system and also the Keihan Electric Railway, Hankyu Railway, Hanshin Electric Railway, Kintetsu Corporation, Nankai Electric Railway as well as many lines on the JR system. If that's not enough, there's also the Osaka monorail with about 28km of track.  If you're visting, Google maps is pretty good with directions, works with all the different train connections and even includes fare information. 

In this months timelapse I've attempted to capture a sample of the vibrance and movement of the city. All footage is shot durring March 2012 with the Canon 5D Mk2.  In total I shot about 24,000 frames and the video is an edited selection of this! 

Music: "Die acht sünden" (the eighth sin) by zero-project. 

The video is also available on Youtube: Osaka in Timelapse.