Osaka Tourism - Travel to Osaka

If Tokyo is Japan's capital, Osaka might be called its anti-capital. It is the main metropolis of the Kansai region, and its inhabitants exhibit a strong rivalry towards the Kanto region, from baseball, food, popular culture, even to which side they ride escalators (on the left in Tokyo, but on the right in Osaka).

Table of contents

1 Districts

2 Understand

3 Get in

3.1 By plane

3.1.1 Kansai International

3.2 By train
3.3 By car
3.4 By bus
3.5 By boat

4 Get around

5 See

6 Do

7 Learn

8 Work

9 Buy

10 Eat

11 Drink

12 Sleep

13 Contact

14 Stay safe

15 Get out

16 External links

Districts in Osaka

Like Tokyo, Osaka is best thought of as a group of cities that have grown together.

Understand Osaka Tourism

Get into Osaka

Travel to Osaka By Plane

Kansai International

The main international gateway to Osaka is Kansai International Airport, covered in a separate article.

Travel to Osaka By Train

Shinkansen trains arrive at Shin-Osaka station to the north of the city center. Connect to the center with the Midosuji subway line.

Local trains from Kobe, Kyoto and Nara arrive mostly at the Umeda and Namba stations.

Travel to Osaka By car

Travel to Osaka By Bus

Overnight highway buses from Tokyo and other areas can get you to Osaka for significantly less than a Shinkansen ticket.

Travel to Osaka By Boat

Get around in Osaka

See Osaka

Do Osaka

Learn

Work

Buy

Eat - Travel to Osaka

In a nation of obsessive gourmands Osaka is known as an excellent place to eat, exemplified by the Osakan maxim kuidaore, "eat until you burst". The best place for this is Dotonbori, a street that contains nearly nothing but one restaurant after another. Some of the more famous establishments here include:

Kani Doraku (かに道楽), easily identifiable by the giant mechanical crab waving its pincers about, specializes in crab. Good but moderately expensive.
Kuidaore (食い倒れ), featuring a mechanical clown beating a drum, is one of the contenders for the title of the largest restaurant in the world. Each floor specializes in a type of food. Affordable, but more fun in a group.

Drink

Sleep - Osaka Tourism

The cheapest option is capsule hotels, found near the major train stations . Japan's first capsule hotel, Capsule Inn Osaka (opened 1977), is still open for business, happy to accommodate foreigners with some semblance of a clue and a steal at ¥1600 for a night.

Contact

Stay safe - Osaka Tourism

The base for Japan's yakuza gangsters, Osaka has a dangerous reputation (by Japanese standards), but is still remarkably safe for a city of its size. Unless you're dealing drugs you're unlikely to get involved with the local mafia, but some districts, particularly Shinsekai, may be a little dodgy at night.