On a brief stop in Osaka, we were taken on a walk around the neighbourhood of Isolation Unit’s office by Yanagihara-san and his friend, the architect Sohei Arao (of Sides Core). It was a walk closer to, say, Berlin, than Tokyo. We remember the quiet Utsubo Park, a former runway for fighter aircrafts, now home to more and more young people in search for a better quality of city living; the fabulously fragrant bread and pastries at Takeuchi, voted the best bakery in Japan over the internet; the lively mix of boys hitting baseballs in the orange clay ball court and sullen salarymen resting on benches next to a row of apartments shaded by lush trees; the amber evening light reflecting off the renovated old building next to the river which has the design store Graf.

Along the way, we made a pilgrimage to Ryuryudo, easily Osaka’s most famous architecture bookstore. Ryuryudo, more dedicated institution than bookstore, embodies the notion of architecture as culture. This is a family business that has been running for five generations. Its current owner Tomoko Matsumura, more passionate historian than storekeeper, is a walking treasure trove of obscure notes about Japanese architects and architecture.

Similarly, Yanagihara and his friends impressed us with their active efforts in promoting design discourse in their city through their Design East network. Osaka is struggling to remain vibrant, what with Tokyo being a vortex for everything else of interest. But being an industrial base, it still has small-scale manufacturers that can produce high-quality products. And this, Isolation Unit and other designers here have taken advantage of, making impressive design products that have made waves in the world’s important design fairs.