Osaka Travel Guide

Osaka is Japan with its sleeves rolled up — louder, funnier, and hungrier than Tokyo, and proud of it. This is the nation's kitchen, the birthplace of street food culture, and you come here above all to eat: takoyaki octopus balls, okonomiyaki savoury pancakes, kushikatsu skewers, all best chased down the neon canyon of Dōtonbori, where a giant mechanical crab and the Glico running man preside over the canal. Graze the stalls of Kuromon Ichiba market by day and the alleys by night.

Between meals there's the handsome reconstructed Osaka Castle in its moated park, the retro-futurist Shinsekai district, and some of the warmest, most outgoing people in Japan — Osakans have a reputation for cracking jokes with strangers. Centrally placed on the Kansai region's rail network, it's also the ideal base for day trips to Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe. Skip the polish; come for the appetite.