*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2026.
Kon’nichiwa, my travel loving friends! Hello! I hope this post finds you in the mood for a spot of armchair travelling, because I’m here to share my penultimate Japanese guide with you: Four Days in Osaka, Japan! In case you missed it, Husband and I went on honeymoon to Japan in January and the land of the rising sun weaseled its way well and truly into our hearts. I’ve already shared a whole heap of guides, including Japan Travel Tips / Our Honeymoon Itinerary / Four Days in Shinjuku / A Morning in Asakusa / 36 Hours in Shibuya / Four Days in Kyoto / and most recently A Food & Drink Guide to Kyoto. After today’s post, I have just one more coming – an Osaka food guide! – and then we’ll be done with Japanese content until our next visit 😉 Shall we dive in?
Osaka, upon reflection, gets a bad rap. Kind of like the Pisa of Japan, it just doesn’t get the love that it deserves. Everyone is quick to go on and on about how brilliant other cities are, but Osaka is often left off the list of favourites. Well, not in our household; we loved Osaka! It was a wonderful mix of crazy, modern, into-the-future technologies meets tranquil pockets of calm, traditional Japan. You could be walking down a winding teeny alley, like the one below, make a turn and then boom: you’re in skyscraper central or there’s a giant lobster hanging off the building or there’s so much neon you don’t know where to look, etc. It’s a little overwhelming at times, but, if you’re anything like us, we’re positive the chaos of the city will charm you.
Similar to my Kyoto blog post, this guide will deal exclusively with all things tourist-ing. Well, there’s also a fun fact section, tips for getting to Osaka, and a teeny-weeny tidbit about our accommodation — but, by and large, we’ll be discussing the best places to get your culture on.
fun facts
A fun fact or two to keep up your sleeve!
Osaka is the food capital of Japan! The city is so well known for its culinary delights that they’ve adopted this saying: kui-daore no machi, or in English, eat yourself into ruin. As in, you’re going to spend so much time in Osaka eating every! single! thing! that you’ll keep eating until a. you drop or b. you’re financially ruined. I love a good quirky saying!
related: popular traditional foods from the city include okonomiyaki, Takoyaki and kushikatsu. Okonomiyaki – which you can try regional variations of around the country! – is a lusciously thick savoury pancake made of cabbage & eggs, usually with some meat and hella condiments on top. Takoyaki are deep-fried octopus balls – which, also, are usually topped with hella condiments – and Kushikatsu is a skewered stick of deep-fried meat/veg/fish. Of the three, we were only brave enough to try okonomiyaki, which was surprisingly delicious!
Osaka is the third largest city in Japan. Tokyo is number one, obvz, followed by Yokohama, which I’ve literally never heard of before this very second(?), and then Osaka. According to the 2020 census, the population of the city rests in and around 2.7 million!
Shitennō-ji, a Buddhist temple in Osaka, is the oldest one in the whole country! It dates back to the year 593 and was the first ever temple to be built by the state!
