Hozenji Yokocho

Two stone-paved lanes, each about eighty metres long and wide enough for one person to pass another sideways, running behind the noise of Dotonbori. Around sixty restaurants are packed into them in low wooden buildings with lanterns outside, and stepping in from the main street cuts the volume by half.

At the centre is Hozenji, a small temple whose Fudo Myoo statue is completely green. Visitors ladle water over it as they pray, and they have been doing so for so long that moss has covered every surface, the face included. Only the outline of the figure is left. The custom has a name, mizukake, and it takes ten seconds to join in.

The alley burned twice, in 2002 and 2003, and was rebuilt with donations from Osaka businesses and performers who did not want to lose it. The flagstones were relaid, and the rebuilt frontages follow the old ones deliberately.

Meoto Zenzai, on the corner, serves sweet red bean soup in two small bowls rather than one, a superstition about couples staying together that a 1940 novel made famous. Beyond that the range is wide: kappo counters where dinner runs into five figures, kushikatsu shops, and okonomiyaki with no menu in English.

Go after dark, when the lanterns are lit and the stone is wet. And walk carefully: those flagstones are slippery in rain, which is the one complaint everybody has.

It is one minute from the Glico sign and most people crossing Ebisubashi never notice the entrance.