Osaka, Japan

Jennifer
Sep 30, 2024
7 min read

David and I wanted to experience life outside of just Tokyo, Japan. We wanted a central location to Kyoto and southern Japan with an airport for further travel that was more affordable than both Tokyo and Kyoto – and so, we decided we would stay is Osaka. The second biggest city in Japan, Osaka has almost three million residents and sprawls from a port inland to mountains. It is located between the deer parks of Nara, the cultural heritage sights of Kyoto, and the mountainous region of Kobe. This made it exceptional for traveling to other places. Being within Osaka was, well, an interesting experience.

Osaka is a pretty standard feeling Japanese city, though many Japanese residents think some parts of the city are quite unsafe. The area we were staying in was one such area, filled with day workers, backpackers, and a bunch of tourists in low-cost accommodations. Having lived in the Bible Belt and more recently Baltimore, I couldn’t disagree more. It is simply that within Osaka, you are more likely to encounter vagrancy and prostitution. To this end, David and I took a Backstreets Osaka Tour* to learn more about the city, its history, and its current perception. The tour was probably one of the most interesting I have ever been on, and I highly recommend it.

Osaka, as the second largest metropolitan city and a port with many opportunities, you would think it doesn’t have akiya (abandoned houses), but it has surprisingly many of them. This goes hand in hand with the perception problem. I never thought of Japan as having a caste system, but it did from the 1600s to the late 1800s. This caste system, according to our guide, has remnants even today.

Samurai (士, "shi"): The warrior class, including daimyo (lords) and their retainers.
Farmers (農, "nō"): Considered essential for producing food and were highly regarded.
Artisans (工, "kō"): Skilled craftspeople, responsible for making goods.
Merchants (商, "shō"): Traders, considered the lowest class because they profited from others' labor.

Much of Osaka was occupied by Merchants and some subsections by “untouchable” Merchants or burakumin, such as butchers, funeral workers, or leather workers. While it was abolished, association with areas owned by this class is still frowned upon today, to the point where some companies will refuse to hire a person if they can trace property ownership in that area back to them. This has led to very cheap areas in Osaka and areas full of abandoned lots and homes.

Osaka also has one of the last remaining red-light districts in Japan. These businesses are operated as “restaurants” in spite of anti-prostitution laws. A person can buy very interesting confections and the waitress might fall madly in love with them for approximately twenty minutes; that's all perfectly legal. This district and its legal workarounds contribute to the controversial reputation of Osaka.

Another interesting thing we learned, that I mentioned briefly in other posts, is the divorce of Shintoism and Buddhism. Our tour guide enlightened us to the political reasoning behind the divorce; during the Meiji Restoration, the emperor Meiji claimed to have divine right to rule which required an established, native (Japanese) religion. And so, the two religions were separated, an action known as Shinbutsu bunri. This reinforced Shinto as the state religion and backed up the emperor’s divine status. The previous shogunate was also Buddhist, and the division may have economically helped Japan, but I won’t go too much into that.

So, what is actually in Osaka and not the surrounding area? For starters, Osaka has many parks, shopping areas, and historical sights. Here were my favorite things from our time there… (For David's top one list, please see his Onigiri post.)

Osaka Top Five List:

Minoo Park
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
Universal Studios Japan
Osaka Museum of Housing and Living
Dotonbori Shopping Street above ground and Namba Walk below ground

Minoo Park is on the northern outskirts of Osaka. It is a wonderful forested park with trails that lead from the station into the mountains. The main hiking trail is around two miles or three kilometers long and follows the Minoo River, eventually leading up to a beautiful, giant waterfall. The waterfall has benches and small shops at the base where you can get a yuzu beer and enjoy the sights. I love this trail because it’s not incredibly challenging and one feels simultaneously emersed in nature and surrounded by a small Japanese village. I think one of my favorite things about my travels is meandering deep into nature and having a place to sit and relax where my nearest neighbor is not Shelob**, but instead someone selling some sort of delicious street food.

The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan was an unexpectedly good time. Having lived in Baltimore with the National Aquarium, I wasn’t convinced that another aquarium was really going to be that enjoyable. However, I read that they have whale sharks, and I was sold. Whale sharks are incredibly gigantic and require stupid accommodations, so they’re quite rare to see in captivity. I figured I would enjoy seeing them at the very least, and I was not disappointed. Not only was the aquarium rather enjoyable, they had a little upstairs rainforest that reminded me of the National Aquarium with little Japanese otters! And the whale sharks were just as absolutely derpy and majestic as I was hoping for. If there was only one thing I could change, I likely wouldn’t have gone for the evening lights; it’s nice to be around feeding time and seeing them dim the lights in preparation for sleep, but the surrounding town is dead at night and the animals don’t behave that differently.

Universal Studios Japan (USJ) is a bit infamous right now for it’s very crowded and difficult to get into Super Nintendo World. We ran into a friend from Baltimore while wandering in Osaka, and decided spur of the moment to join him on his trip to USJ. Because of our last minute decision, we were unable to purchase (and did not want to shell out the money for) the express tickets. So we entered with normal tickets, and once we got in, we got free timed entry to both Super Nintendo World and Harry Potter World. The former was much more entertaining to us than the latter. The Harry Potter area was an interesting jaunt through a re-imagining of what Hogsmead village would be. It was quite crowded and not much stood out to us overall. It was also snowy themed, which didn't sit well with the waves of sweat pouring off of me. Super Nintendo World was a completely different story. Upon walking in, we were greeted with an entire visage of Super Mario nostalgia, from the music, to the multi-layered areas, and goombas and blocks galore. Honestly words do not do it justice, so this video will have to suffice.

The rest of USJ was also quite spectacular. Being in Japan, their local themed attractions were: Demon Slayer 4D experiences, the Chainsaw Man opening song blasting during a roller coaster, paraphernalia from many anime as (surprisingly high quality) souvenirs, and even food to match. While we did not get to do every experience due to long lines, it was a fantastic time. Do keep in mind that most of this was outdoors in 100+ degree weather, but we are blotting that part from our memory as best we can. Hindsight is SPF 90.

On another way too hot day, I walked entirely around the block where google maps insisted the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living was located. David stopped me before I chucked my phone and Google Maps with it into the abyss. Google Maps has been sabotaging me this entire trip, but that’s a rant for another day. David told me to let him give it a try; we went back around the corner and into the very corporate Osaka municipal building. Low and behold David found the museum – on the eighth floor. Please understand that the reason I was not looking in a building was because I was looking for a historical replications of Osaka businesses and architecture from the Edo period. However, there it was. Buildings included. On the eighth floor. FULL SIZED BUILDINGS. The museum features recreations of a toy store, kimono shop, bath house, and more with a fake sky ceiling that changes from day to night every so often, and even included a digital fireworks show. Beyond the area housing the recreated buildings is a small museum with more detailed depictions of Osaka historically and how it’s grown and changed over the last several hundred years. If you love architecture and urban design and planning, I would recommend this place.

It has been so hot this trip. With humidity taken into account, it's been well into the hundreds almost every day we've been out of the United States. So, understandably, we found a wonderful underground refuge from the heat - Namba Walk. Namba Walk is best described as, what if you took an entire shopping mall in the United States, compressed it to two parallel pathways 715 meters long, and put it underground. It was filled with clothing shops, food, more food, and other random shops. This was one of our regular stops for "wanting to get out of the house and explore, but not be in 100+ degree weather." Sort of connected to this was Namba City, which was an above ground section that was more like a traditional strip mall, so it was still cool, although sometimes we found ourselves having to go outside to reach another part. At the opposite side of all of this was Dotonbori street, famous for its billboards and lively shopfronts, and well worth a stroll when the weather wasn't feeling particularly apocalyptic.

Japanese castles are very architecturally interesting, especially in how they differ from other castles around the world, but they aren't necessarily my favorite thing. I do think it is worth a mention that Osaka's Castle is still very enjoyable to visit, even if it doesn't make my list. David and I visited Nagoya Castle previously, which was under construction and which had a newly reconstructed palace on premise. Osaka Castle is open and within it is a several-story museum of the history of Osaka Castle and the surrounding area. This is much more interpersonal history than the aforementioned architectural history in the municipal museum. There are several dioramas with intriguing displays of battles and rituals and voice-overs in both Japanese and English. The top of the castle has a wonderful viewpoint of the city and a small gift shop with postcards and other knickknacks.

7/10 - Amazing food, proximity to activities, and daily living, but they don't sell tea and biscuits to ladies here***

Bonus: We also visited the Osaka Sewerage Museum. It’s not as shitty as it sounds, I promise. That would be the Unko Museum, and that’s bizarrely more of an Instagram backdrop than a museum. This museum legitimately teaches about Osaka’s modern, ground breaking (tee-hee) sewage system and how it’s the foundation of a truly modern city. It also has super neat stamps to collect.