Osaka Travel Guide: What to do in Osaka, Japan

Japan has been on my travel bucket list for ages, and in October Nick and I finally had a chance to visit.

Our Japanese adventure lasted two and a half weeks, and our itinerary consisted of Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. Visiting this many cities gave us a fantastic overview of Japan, and the many things that it had to offer.

My first impressions of Osaka was that it was very fashion forward. People were quite trendy, and like many other Asian cities, had a lot of shopping opportunities.

Nick and I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Ana Osaka, which was my favourite hotel out of all the hotels we stayed in whilst in Japan.

It was located within a shopping centre, and every morning and night the staff left sweets in our room.

We were only in Osaka for a couple of nights, so on our first night we went to Dotonbori, which is an area situated along a canal and full of neon lights, billboards, restaurants, and shopping.

There were quite a few restaurants here that had an English menu. This came in handy to learn that some of the food items on offer included third stomach, tongue with salt, heart sashimi, and even high quality diaphragm!

On our first day in Osaka we visited the Umeda Sky Building, where we walked along the floating garden observatory, which was a tunnel with an open-air deck.

The highlight of this attraction for me was definitely my Halloween themed ice cream.

We spent the rest of the day walking around a few of Osaka’s shopping areas, including Osaka Station, which was where The North Gate Building and The South Gate Building shopping centres were, which both had department stores, cinemas, sports clubs, and gardens in them.

We also went to Namba, which as well as having a lot of restaurant options, also had a lot of shopping places, we were only here for a hour, but quickly realised that we’d need the better part of a day to take the entirety of this area in.

As we were discovering Namba, we came across another huge shopping area called Shinsaibashi, which had even more food, clothing, and accessory shopping opportunities.

On our second day we escaped the madness of the streets and did a day tour of Nara.

Our first stop was Todaiji Temple and Deer Park, which was one of Japan’s most famous Temples. Its surrounding grounds were expansive, it was full of historic structures and lanterns, and lots of free roaming deer.

The best part of this attraction for me was the giant bronze Buddha, as giant Buddha’s are one of my favourite tourist attractions.

The Buddha was located in The Daibutsuden (Big Buddha Hall), the largest wooden building in the world. I would revisit this attraction, as it was fantastic.

The scariest part of this attractions for me were the deer that roamed free, I was told there were over 1,000 of them, who were very tame, and who you could feed with food you purchased at the gate.

The second attraction we saw in Nara was the Kasuga Taisha (Kasuga Shrine), which had around about 3,000 stone and bronze lanterns dotted throughout the grounds. It was a beautiful Shrine where we were able to leisurely take in the garden views.

Unfortunately that’s all we had time for in Osaka, but I’d love to revisit and explore some of the quieter areas.

If you’d like to read posts on other Asian cities I’ve visited then please visit my Asia travels page. Or, if you’d like to read posts I’ve written on other places then please visit this travel page.

Do you have any Osaka recommendations?