5 January 2026 – Osaka
It was our second day (and first full day in Osaka) and today we were hitting up a bunch of the main tourist attractions. We had purchased the Osaka e-pass for the adults (that includes Astrid) which gave us discounts on a number of things for the day, so we had quite the agenda still to get through.
Soren and I still weren’t feeling great with colds and ear infections but we were hoping for the best with our ambitious itinerary. Luckily the sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a great day.
Shintennoji Temple….
First up was the Shintennoji temple. This was a mere 100m from our apartment and we’d seen it in passing and lit up at night. We set off at about 9am to check it out from the ground. Shintennoji is one of the oldest temples in Japan, and the first ever to be built by the state. It was founded in 593 by Prince Shotoku, who supported the introduction of Buddhism into Japan. The temple’s buildings burned down several times over the centuries but they were always carefully reconstructed to reflect the original 6th century design.
With New Years holidays now over, this was also the first day we weren’t battling huge crowds. In fact the temple was mostly deserted. We had a good look around both the grounds and inside the temple. When we went inside we listened to some of the chanting.
There are no photos in most of the indoor areas but the insides were very pretty and the kids enjoyed listening to the chanting.
Tsutenkaku Tower
Next we walked back to the Tsutenkaku Tower, that we’d seen the day before. The tower only opened at 10am and we timed our arrival for opening, as this time we were going up the tower as it was included on the Osaka pass. The kids had spied the ‘tower slide’ the day before and were keen….. but we had to do the observatory deck first as you had to line up for each activity separately. We got there just after the opening, so there was very minimal line, but plenty of people screaming all the way down the slide, and you could watch them on video monitors inside.
The Tower experience was very Japanese, with plenty of theme park bits and lots of Gashapon (capsule toy machines) you had to walk through before the tower viewing (and a glass lift to the top). This delivers you to the golden observation platform.
Once on the observatory deck, the views across Osaka were very nice, and it was a milder 6 or so degrees this morning and a beautiful sunny day so we could see for quite a distance across Osaka city.
The original tower was built in July 1912 as a symbol of an entertainment facility called Luna Park (not related to the Australian Luna Park!) and was made to look like the Eiffel Tower was on top of the Arc de Triomphe. It measured about 75 meters tall and was the tallest building in Asia at the time, with the name literally meaning “a tall building leading to the heavens.” Due to a fire in January 1943, the original Tsutenkaku was dismantled. Later in 1956, the 2nd Tsutenkaku was rebuilt with the backing of the local residents. The new tower was 108 meters tall, including the lightning rod.
We checked out the views and the kids and some of the other exhibits. The Tower is famous for the ‘Billiken’ statue. This golden statue is said to bring good fortune who all that touch his feet.
The kids were still keen on the slide but we had to skip to the next activity so tore them away, with an undertaking to maybe coming back later that evening if we weren’t too tired.
The streets around the tower were starting to get more busy but we were glad we were out early as the lines for the tower were now much longer.
Osaka Castle and the Gozabune boat…
It was then a train over to Osaka Castle. The kids were continuing to collect their train stamps at every opportunity. Their notebooks were getting filled up at a rapid rate. Astrid was good at researching which stamps were available at every station on JR’s and metros.
Once we hopped off our train we had a bit of a walk to get to the castle. There is a fairly impressive park that forms part of the castle grounds.
Osaka Castle Park (Osakajo-koen) is a 105 hectare public park with free entry. Aside from the iconic reconstructed Osaka Castle tower there is a history museum, and scenic lakes and green space. it is renowned for its 3,000+ cherry blossom trees. Sadly it was not cherry blossom season, but it was still very pretty.
As it was a decent walk to the castle, we stopped by the Lawson for some morning snacks and coffee to power us through our morning agenda. In Japan you are never far from a convenience store!
The park is an oasis in the middle of the city. You can see the historical castle from a fair distance, with it’s gold glittering in the sunshine, as well as the many more modern buildings of Osaka.
The modern Osaka Castle was rebuilt in 1931 and stands above gardens and a large moat. The large stone walls surrounding the castle are impressive. It was now warming up nicely and our jackets were coming off. The lines to get into the castle were fairly long but our Osaka passes didn’t include castle entry but did include the Gozabune (gold boat) ride around the moat. We decided to do that instead of lining up for the castle. I would have been keen to see inside, but in the interests of getting through our schedule and keeping the kids entertained the gozabune ride won!
We head down towards the moat where the gozabunes were departing from. The moat around the castle is quite impressive. The view up the large stone walls to the castle perched on top was worth seeing from moat level!
It was only a short wait until our gozabune left and we had commentary in both Japanese and English. Although a bit was lost in translation so the commentary was quite hilarious at times. We learnt about the castle and the building of the stone walls and moat.
There are some very famous stones within the moat walls, including one that looks like a face. We also got some great close up views of birds catching fish on the moat.
The gozabune ride was a winner, and at 20 minutes long it was the right length for views, some history and keeping us entertained. It was also covered on the Osaka pass, so definitely worth doing.
After gozbune we succumbed to the ‘yen cake’, a viral street-food trend. It was a weird sweet pancake like outer with melted mozzarella cheese. We’d seen them being sold around the castle and decided to give them a go. The chocolate version may have worked better than the more popular (it seemed) cheese version. They get their name from the 10-yen coin design on the pancake, although they are more expensive than 10 yen!
Japanese Curry lunch…
After some more walking we were back in a station it was time for lunch. The meat eaters found a Japanese curry place and had various curries, with cutlets. They though this seemed like a good idea. Apparently, according to the kids the curry tasted like banana, and they ultimately weren’t fans, although Anto didn’t mind it.
As usual there were no veggie options for me so I ducked over to the 7-11 for my standard egg sandwhich. I pretty much lived off convenience store egg sandwhiches, which are disturbingly sweet at times.
The Umeda sky building…..
Next it was another train and we were in Umeda. The buildings here are modern and impressive. We enjoyed our walk around the commercial district and checking out the architecture.
As we wandered towards the Umeda Sky building, it didn’t take us long to pick it out from the skyline of tall buildings.
The Umeda Sky Building is a 173 metre tall building and has 40 stories. It is well known for the ‘floating garden observatory’ that connects the 2 towers.
Astrid thought the tower of the morning was high enough and upon seeing the Sky Building wasn’t convinced. I am also not a fan of heights so the glass elevator to the 35th floor was mildly terrifying and we spent some time staring at our shoes. It felt very high up!
Then to make matters worse, you had a glass escalator from the 35th to 39th floor that went on an angle through the building, with nothing underneath. Astrid and I were reconsidering our life choices. It was somewhat nauseating!
The 39th floor observatory views across Osaka were great. The building itself was very interesting and had fabulous light so I had a great time taking photos, even if we were suffering from a bit of vertigo from the trip up.
On the 39th floor we got some icecreams while enjoying the views. These were our first Japanese soft serves. The kids had soft serve with caramel and Anto got his with whiskey. When in Japan!
Then it was time for some stairs to the 40th floor outdoor observatory and sky garden.
Astrid got to the top and turned around and went straight back down. I braved it with the others. It was windy up there and were were trying not to think about the potential for earthquakes and building swaying (well we had a big one of those the next day).
It was so windy it was hard to stand up at times, but the views were pretty spectacular.
A couple of us were not looking forward to the terrifying trip down. There was a lot more staring at shoes as we descended, trying not to think about high up we were, with Anto laughing at us! The trip down wasn’t fun but it was possibly less bad than the trip up.
We spied a pretty garden nearby while descending, and went and checked that out. It had beautiful colours and a pond with giant koi.
Astrid and voted we’d had enough ‘high things’ for the day. We all walked through more of Umeda on the way back to the station. It was a beautiful Winter’s day and the first day we’d not been battling crowds on this trip, so a pleasant change.
Namba and Dotonbori
We caught a train from Umeda over to the Namba district, famous for it’s many shopping, eating and entertainment options.
After a short walk we were in Dotonbori, the tourist heavy nightlife district that runs along the Dotonbori Canal. It is famous for the vibrant colours and neon signs. It’s famous, but it’s an assault on the senses with all the lights and crowds!
We hadn’t had ridiculous crowds all day but it was predictably packed here. Our Osaka pass included a canal ride, so we booked the 5pm one so we could take advantage of seeing Dotonbori all lit up.
In the meantime we checked out some stores including the huge Don Quijote discount store Astrid wanted to go to. This very famous Don Quijote is marked by the yellow ferris wheel out the front, a landmark of the district.
There are plenty of bridges across the canal where you can watch the Tombori boats going up and down and get views of the neon signs.
Finally it was time for our canal cruise. The cruise commentary was mostly in Japanese but we followed along bits, although Astrid understood a little more when the guide talked slowly.
Most of it was somewhat interpreted through gestures and the odd snippet of English and we learnt a bit about bridges. Our guide was rather funny and did a fair bit of amusing dancing. Our lack of Japanese didn’t really detract from the experience.
We’d timed it perfectly and got to see the sun go down and the neon signs shine even more brightly. Our guide did make sure he pointed out the very famous Glico running man sign (which was installed in 1935) and the giant moving crab sign.
It was a great way to see the lights, even if it was freezing. We all enjoyed waving at the other tourists as we went under the bridges and checking out the crazy lights and atmosphere.
A very tasty dinner….
It was now time for dinner and my friend, Sarah (who is also vegetarian) had recommended OKO which she had visited on a recent trip as it had actual vegetarian options. Finding vegetarian (non sweet) food in Japan can be challenging.
Google maps accidentally took us to the old store, so we did a 2km loop through Dotonbori and the Namba arcades with a million people crowding the streets before we found the new store. When we arrived it wasn’t open and other Aussies were there also waiting, having done the same walking loop for the same reason.
When the restaurant opened it was great. It is run by one lady, who takes orders and cooks. She also shouted down the microphone from the kitchen, which was highly entertaining.
You served your own drinks and could mix your own cocktails on an honesty system. It was very quirky and fun and the food was good, and we had a fair bit of leftovers to take back for another day.
All very tired we caught the train back to our apartment, having racked up about 25k steps (and more than 35k for Zinnia).
In the train station we of course had to get more train stamps and check out the tsunami evacuation plans. Something we hoped not to need to use!
The kids were still asking to go back to the tower for slides (since it was open til midnight) but the adults vetoed that one! We were keen on some sleep before an early start for our day trip to Hiroshima the next day.
We’d covered off a pretty good selection of Osaka tourist attractions in one day and had great Winter weather. The Osaka e-pass had been good value and with a bit of planning we made the most of it and saw everything we planned. Except that slide! We thought Astrid was over tall things for the day 😉
Up next…
A day in Hiroshima where we experienced our first Japanese earthquake big enough to shut down the shinkansen. We enjoyed the beautiful and iconic Miyajima Island and it’s very friendly deer. The afternoon took us to the A bomb dome and the very moving Peace museum.
