Osaka — Sights
A canal of neon, and something hot to eat on every corner.
- Sumiyoshi Taisha — A shrine walk in southern Osaka
- Shitennoji Temple — An ancient temple precinct in Tennoji
- Minoh Falls — A waterfall at the end of a forest trail near Osaka
- Osaka Museum of Housing and Living — Walk through a life-size historic shopping street
- CupNoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda — A noodle museum with a create-your-own cup workshop
- teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka — An after-dark walk through light and sound in a botanic garden
- Expo ’70 Commemorative Park — An Expo park for walking among gardens and the Tower of the Sun
- Kids Plaza Osaka — An indoor discovery museum built for children to move and experiment
- Osaka Museum of History — Osaka’s history told floor by floor beside the castle
- National Bunraku Theatre — Japanese puppet theatre with shamisen and narration
- Dotonbori — The bridge under the Glico runner, where Osaka really starts
- Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Street — 600 m of roofed shopping: drugstores, sneakers and Daimaru
- Kuromon Market — A roofed market where you eat tuna, urchin and crab standing up
- Shinsekai & Tsutenkaku — A 1950s steel tower over retro alleys of kushikatsu joints
- Osaka Castle Main Tower — Eight floors of white walls and gold trim, with a lookout on top
- Umeda Sky Building – Kuchu Teien Observatory — A roofless ring 173 m up: 360° night views in the open air
- Harukas 300 Observatory — Glass on every side 300 m up, nothing between you and the horizon
- Universal Studios Japan — Mario Kart, Donkey Kong and Harry Potter: a whole day gone
- Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan — Spiral down around a giant tank where a whale shark cruises
- Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel — A 112.5 m harbourside wheel, with a few glass-floored cabins
- Tombori River Cruise — Twenty minutes on the canal, right under Dotonbori's signs
- HEP FIVE Ferris Wheel — A red wheel on a mall roof: 15 minutes circling Umeda
- Namba Yasaka Shrine — A shrine with a 12-metre lion's head, jaws wide open
- Nakanoshima Park & Central Public Hall — A river island of red-brick halls, a rose garden and waterside cafés
- Nara Park & Todai-ji (day trip) — Deer mob your rice crackers, and a giant Buddha waits beyond
- Osaka Tenmangu Shrine — Scholarship god at the head of the long arcade
- Keitakuen Garden — Meiji-era pond garden with a tea house
- Spa World — Giant bathhouse with European and Asian zones
- Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka — Black cube museum with river views
- Abeno Harukas Art Museum — A gallery on the 16th floor of Japan's tallest tower
- NAMBA Parks Rooftop Garden — A terraced green park rising above a shopping mall
- Kema Sakuranomiya Park — Four kilometres of riverbank, a picnic mat paradise in cherry season
- Osaka Science Museum — Touch-and-twist exhibits and a domed planetarium
- Osaka Mint Museum — Coins and medals on the Okawa riverbank