Visit Osaka

Osaka is a town in the Kansai region of Japan, 340 miles east from Tokyo. It is an ideal destination if you are visiting Japan, less crowded than Tokyo and the recognized gourmet capital of Japan. Geographically it is also a good choice as it is located roughly in the centre of Japan making it easy to travel around the country. For example, Tokyo is 340 miles East from Osaka and it is easily accessible by different forms of transport, it takes less than 3 hours by high speed train to travel from Osaka to Tokyo.

How to get there?

The easiest way to travel to Osaka is by plain to the Kansai International Airport (KIX) only 30 minutes to downtown Osaka. There is another airport, The Osaka International Airport but it is mainly for domestic flights.

Both airports are connected to major cites and are convenient for business and tourism.

• Osaka Castle: a magnificent construction that towers over the city standing on a stone rampart. This is one of Japan's most famous castles; it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. The Castle grounds cover approximately 60,000 square meters (15 acres).
• Osaka’s two major city centres Kita ("North") around Osaka/Umeda Station which is a shopping and business area and Minami ("South") around Namba Station, the entertainment district.

• Osaka Aquarium, one of Japan's most impressive aquariums and the world's second-largest aquarium tank.

• Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris wheel, located next to the aquarium. The wheel has coloured lights that provide a weather forecast for the next day.
• The National Museum of Art, a subterranean museum for Japanese arts.
• The Osaka Museum of History, a museum opened in 2001, located in a thirteen-storied modern building.
• Utsubo Park a large public park with a beautiful rose garden, situated at Utsubo-Hommachi in Nishi-ku.
• Shin-Umeda city – an innovative structure that has a floating garden observatory 170 m from the ground, which offers a 360-degree panoramic view of Osaka. There you also find an underground mall with restaurants styled in the early Showa period in the 1920s.
• Shitennō-ji , the first Buddhist and oldest officially administered temple in Japan.

Japanese is the official language but Osaka’s dialect is widely spoken because people in Osaka take special pride in the dialect which can express one’s delicate feelings.

English is also widely spoken as a second language.

Economy, some curious and interesting facts:

• Historically, Osaka was the centre of Japanese commerce, especially in the middle and pre-modern ages.
• Today, several major companies, such as Panasonic, Sharp, and Sanyo, are still headquartered in Osaka.
• The gross regional product of Kansai (where Osaka is nestled) amounts to almost the same as GDP of Canada.
• Recently, the city began a program, headed by Mayor Junichi Seki, to try to attract domestic and foreign investment.

Cuisine:

Osaka is traditionally considered the "nation's kitchen", the gourmet food capital of Japan. It can offer you all kinds of Japanese and international dishes of exquisite taste at a reasonable price in a friendly atmosphere.

There is nothing you cannot find in Osaka, from inexpensive goods to hard-to-find specialties.

The Den-DenTown is the place to go if you are looking for manga related products and electric appliances; more than 200 shops are waiting for you with the latest technologies.  For luxury goods and fashionable department stores head towards Shinsaibashi.  For some good restaurants head towards the Namba area where you will also be able to shop ‘til you drop.