Osaka: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Osaka has a word of its own: kuidaore — to eat yourself into ruin. It was the nation’s kitchen, the port where the rice of all Japan arrived, and a city of merchants rather than samurai. This quarter is where that is still visible. An hour and a half, and only after dark.
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A short history of Osaka
In the mid-7th century the imperial palace of Naniwa stood here, and for a short time the city was the capital of Japan. In 1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi began building Osaka Castle, the largest in the country at the time, and in 1615 Tokugawa forces captured it and put an end to the House of Toyotomi. In the Edo period Osaka was called "the nation's kitchen", because the rice trade of all Japan passed through it. In 1945 American bombing destroyed a large part of it. In 1970 it hosted the first world exhibition in Asia, and in 2025 it hosted it again.
The ten best sights in Osaka
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1Osaka Castle
The keep is 1931 concrete with a lift. The walls are the real thing
2ShitennojiFounded in 593 — the first state Buddhist temple in Japan
3Sumiyoshi TaishaBuilt in a style older than Buddhism reaching Japan
4Osaka TenmanguIn July its festival puts a hundred boats on the river with fire
5Namba Yasaka ShrineA twelve-metre lion’s head that swallows bad luck
6Osaka Museum of HistoryStart on the tenth floor and walk down through the centuries
7National Museum of ArtEntirely underground, with a steel bamboo grove on top
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8Museum of Housing and Living
A full Edo street rebuilt indoors, with changing daylight
9Abeno Harukas300 metres, the tallest building in Japan, and an open roof deck
10Umeda Sky BuildingTwo towers joined at the top, and the escalator crosses open air
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Osaka →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Osaka:
Free walking tours in Osaka
Minami
Osaka has a word of its own: kuidaore — to eat yourself into ruin. It was the nation’s kitchen, the port where the rice of all Japan arrived, and a city of merchants rather than samurai. This quarter is where that is still visible. An hour and a half, and only after dark.
- Dotonbori · The canal was dug in 1612 by a merchant called Doton, who put his own money into it and was killed in the siege of Osaka Castle before it was finished. The city named it after him and the theatres moved in, and it has been the entertainment quarter ever since.
- Glico running man · A sweet company put a runner on this wall in 1935 because one of their caramels was said to contain the energy for a three-hundred-metre sprint. This is the sixth version; the fifth was taken down in 2014 and people came to watch it go.
- Hozenji Yokocho · Two stone alleys three metres wide directly behind the neon. In the little temple stands a statue that visitors have splashed with water for four hundred years as a prayer, and it is now completely covered in moss — you cannot see the stone at all.
- Kuromon Ichiba · A hundred and ninety years of selling fish to the restaurants of Osaka, and the stalls now grill it for you where you stand — scallops, crab legs, tuna cut in front of you. Come before ten; by noon it is a tour group.
- Namba Yasaka Shrine · A stage in the shape of a lion’s head twelve metres high with its mouth open, built in 1974. The mouth is said to swallow bad spirits, and people come to stand inside it before exams and job interviews.
- Amerikamura · In the 1970s a few shops here began importing second-hand American clothes and records off ships at the port, and Japanese street fashion was effectively invented in these four blocks. The signs are still hand-painted.
The New World
In 1912 Osaka built an entire invented quarter: the northern half designed after Paris, the southern after Coney Island. After the war it was abandoned and became a place Japanese people did not walk into for decades. Today it is cheap, loud and more real than anywhere else in the city. Two hours.
- Tsutenkaku · The first tower here, built in 1912 as a copy of the Eiffel Tower on top of an arch, was melted down for the war in 1943. The neighbourhood paid to rebuild it in 1956, and at the top sits Billiken — an American good-luck doll from 1908 whose feet you rub.
- Shinsekai · The name means new world, and it was built on the grounds of a world fair. The north was laid out as Paris with radiating boulevards and the south as a Coney Island amusement park; both halves are still legible in the street plan.
- Janjan Yokocho · A hundred and eighty metres of kushikatsu counters, where everything is skewered, battered and fried. There is one rule, written on every wall: the sauce pot is shared, so you may not dip a second time. People have been thrown out for it.
- Shitennoji · Founded in 593 by Prince Shotoku — the first Buddhist temple built by the Japanese state, and the start of Buddhism as an official religion here. It has burned and been rebuilt seven times, always to the original sixth-century plan.
- Tennoji Park · The lawn in front of the zoo was fenced off and semi-derelict until 2015, when the city opened it up, took the fences down and let cafés onto the grass. On a Sunday half the neighbourhood is lying on it.
- Abeno Harukas · Three hundred metres, the tallest building in Japan, and the top three floors are an open atrium with a roof you can stand under in the open air. From it you can see the whole of the old quarter you have just walked.
The Castle and the North
Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the largest castle in Japan here in 1583 to announce that unification was over and he had won. It has been destroyed twice, and the keep you see is 1931 concrete with a lift inside — but the walls below it are original, and one single stone in them weighs a hundred and thirty tonnes. Two hours.
- Osaka Castle · The stones in the outer wall were dragged here by sea from quarries a hundred kilometres away, and the largest of them is six metres across and weighs a hundred and thirty tonnes. Each lord carved his crest into the ones he supplied, and the marks are still there.
- Osaka Museum of History · You take a lift to the tenth floor and walk down through the centuries, and from the windows at every level you look straight at the castle. Under the building itself are the excavated foundations of an eighth-century imperial palace.
- Nakanoshima Park · A thin island between two rivers that was the rice warehouse district of the whole country — every domain in Japan kept a storehouse here, and the price of rice for the nation was set on this island.
- Osaka Tenmangu · Every July its festival puts a hundred boats on the river carrying bonfires, with fireworks above them — one of the three great festivals of Japan, and it has run for over a thousand years. Students come here to pray before exams.
- Tenjinbashisuji · Two point six kilometres of covered arcade, the longest in Japan, running north from the shrine. It is not built for tourists — it is where the neighbourhood buys shoes, medicine and fish, and it takes forty minutes to walk end to end.
- Umeda Sky Building · Two towers joined at the top by a floating garden, and the last stretch up is an escalator in a glass tube crossing open air between them. The roof is open to the sky, not glassed in, and it is the one place you feel how big Osaka is.
Getting to Osaka and getting around
- Kansai International · Built on an artificial island. The rapid train is 65 minutes
- Itami Airport · Domestic flights only, and 25 minutes from Umeda
- Shin-Osaka · The bullet train station. Kyoto is 13 minutes away
- Osaka Station · The northern centre. Everything above it is called Umeda
- Namba Station · The southern centre, and the airport train leaves from here
Cheap eats in Osaka
Eight counters where Osaka eats standing. The city has a word for its own habit — kuidaore, to eat yourself into ruin — and it is not a joke: Osaka was the nation’s kitchen, the port the rice of Japan passed through, and it is still the cheapest great food city in the country.
- Takoyaki Wanaka · Eight pieces, about 500 yen, eaten standing
- Mizuno, Dotonbori · Okonomiyaki since 1945, and there is always a queue
- Kinryu Ramen · Open all night. A bowl is 900 yen
- Janjan Yokocho · Fried skewers, 150 yen each, and never dip twice
- Kuromon Ichiba · Point at a scallop, they grill it while you wait
- Harukoma Sushi · Write your name and wait outside. Lunch under 2,000 yen
- Hozenji Yokocho · Tiny counters in two stone alleys, six seats each
- Tenjinbashisuji stalls · 2.6 km of arcade, and lunch anywhere under 800 yen
Museums in Osaka
- Museum of Housing and Living · 600 yen, and children spend an hour in it easily
- Osaka Museum of History · Ten floors down through the centuries, castle in the window
- National Museum of Art · All underground. Only the steel bamboo shows above
- Osaka Science Museum · A planetarium, and the queue is all local families
- Cup Noodles Museum · Free entry. Making your own cup is 500 yen
- Tower of the Sun · The 1970 world fair monster, and you can go inside it
Holy places in Osaka
- Shitennoji · 593 AD — the first state temple in Japan
- Sumiyoshi Taisha · Free, and the bridge is genuinely steep
- Osaka Tenmangu · A thousand-year festival with a hundred burning boats
- Todaiji, Nara · 45 minutes away, and the deer are outside
- Fushimi Inari · Ten thousand gates, each paid for by a business. Free, always open
- Kiyomizu-dera · A wooden stage on stilts, built without a single nail
Parks and gardens in Osaka
- Nara Park · Crackers are 200 yen. They will follow you
- Minoh Park · A 33-metre waterfall at the end of an hour’s walk
- Expo ’70 Park · The world fair grounds, now a forest with the tower in it
- Nakanoshima Park · Four thousand rose bushes between two rivers
- Osaka Mint Bureau · 560 cherry trees, open to the public one week a year
- Sakuranomiya Park · Five thousand cherry trees along the river, and free
Things to do in Osaka with kids
- Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan · 2,700 yen, and go at opening or at six
- Universal Studios Japan · Buy the express pass. Without it the queues eat the day
- Tennoji Zoo · In the middle of the city, and 500 yen
- Cup Noodles Museum · Design your own cup and take it home. Free entry
- Osaka Science Museum · Four floors, all hands-on, and a planetarium
- Namba Parks · A canyon of shops with eight floors of garden on the roof
Nightlife in Osaka
- Dotonbori · The canal, the signs, and it does not quieten until three
- Hozenji Yokocho · Six-seat bars behind the neon, and no English menu
- Ura-Namba · The back alleys where Osaka drinks, not where it photographs
- Fukushima · One station from Umeda, and locals only
- Kyobashi · Standing bars under the railway, from 500 yen
- Tsuruhashi · Korean grills in a maze by the station, open late
Frequently asked questions about Osaka
What is there to see in Osaka?
The top sights in Osaka are Osaka Castle, Shitennoji and Sumiyoshi Taisha. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Osaka?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Osaka without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Osaka?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Osaka, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Minami.
How do you get to Osaka and get around?
The main ways are Kansai International, Itami Airport and Shin-Osaka. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Osaka, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Osaka that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Osaka for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.