Kansai Cool

Worldly and otherworldly, spirited and spiritual, trendy and traditional, Japan's Kansai region is a place where past and future live side-by-side, sometimes at odds. Home to some of the Japan's oldest history, and a place where the country's most time-honoured arts and crafts still thrive, Kansai-the western region that boasts the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, the bustling commercial city of Osaka, and the cosmopolitan port city of Kobe-has a character all its own, right down to its dialect, mannerisms and cuisine. The perpetual dance between custom and innovation plays no small part in Kansai's unique personality.