Hotels in Osaka, Japan

A little about Osaka...

Osaka is a city in Japan, located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, in the Kansai region of the main island of Honshū.

The city is the capital of Osaka Prefecture. Often dubbed the second city of Japan, Osaka was historically the commercial capital of Japan, and to date the heart of Japan's second largest, and the world's ninth largest metropolitan area of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, whose population is 19,220,000.

A unique title that the city of Osaka holds is the first place in Japan for day to night population ratio of 141%, a depiction of Osaka's economic- and commerce-centric character. While at night time the population ranks third place in the country at 2.6 million, in daytime it surges to 3.7 million, second only after Tokyo.

Osaka is traditionally considered the "nation's kitchen" or the gourmet food capital of Japan.

Shopping Districts
American Village (Amerika-mura or "Ame-mura") - fashion for young people
Den Den Town - electronic goods and other aspects of otaku culture
Dōtonbori - part of Namba district and considered heart of the city
Namba - main shopping, sightseeing, and restaurant area
Shinsaibashi - luxury goods and department stores
Umeda - theaters, boutiques, and department stores near the train station.
Nippombashi Den Den Town
Tenjinbashi-suji shopping arcade

Osaka has a vast number of shopping areas to choose from. Not only are there malls everywhere you turn but they also have a large number of shopping arcades which are basically roofed shopping streets, these are seen all across Japan, but Osaka has the longest in the country. Tenjinbashi-suji stretches from the road approaching the Tenman-gu shrine and continues for 2.6km going north to south. It has all types of stores including commodities, clothing and catering outlets on both sides of the arcade. Other key shopping areas are Den Den Town the electronic and manga/anime district which is as good as if not better than Akihbara and the Umeda district which has the Hankyu Sanbangai shopping mall and Yodobashi Camera which is a huge electrical appliance store which also offers a vast range of fashion stores, restaurants and a Shonen Jump store.

Osaka city once had a large number of universities, but because of growing campuses and the need for larger area, many universities chose to move to the suburbs.

Osaka Prefecture's most prestigious university, Osaka University, is located in the nearby Suita.

Kansai University
Osaka City University
Osaka University of Economics
Osaka Institute of Technology
Osaka Jogakuin College
Osaka Seikei University
Soai University
Osaka University of Arts, Minamikawachi District, Osaka
Osaka University of Education

Osaka is known for bunraku (traditional puppet theatre) and kabuki theatre, and for manzai, a more contemporary form of stand-up comedy. Tourist attractions include:

Amusement Parks
Expoland
Festival Gate
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan — an aquarium located in Osaka Bay, containing 35,000 aquatic animals in 14 tanks, the largest of which holds 5,400 tons of water and houses a variety of sea animals including whale sharks. This tank is the world's second largest aquarium tank, behind the Georgia Aquarium, whose largest tank holds approximately 29,000 tons of water.
Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris wheel, located next to the aquarium
Tennōji Zoo
Universal Studios Japan
Umeda Joypolis Sega
Shin-Umeda city - an innovative structure which has the floating garden observatory 170 m from the ground which gives you a 360 panoramic view of Osaka spectacular by night and fantastic by day great for photographs, a superb structure which also houses an underground mall with restaurants and is styled in the early Showa period in the 1920's, a very pretty zen garden is also here.

Nakanoshima Park: In the vicinity of the City Hall.
Osaka Castle Park: About 106 ha. Holds: Osaka-jō Hall, a Japanese apricot garden, etc.
Sumiyoshi Park
Tennōji Park : About 28 ha. Holds: Tennōji Zoo, an art museum (established by contribution from Sumitomo family in 1936) and a Japanese garden, Keitaku-en. Keitaku-en was constructed in 1908 by Jihei Ogawa, an illustrious gardener in Japan. This was originally one of Sumitomo family's gardens until 1921.
Nishinari Park
Utsubo Park
Nagai Park The 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held at Nagai Stadium, located in this park.
Tsurumi-Ryokuchi Park with the Sakuya Konohana Kan: held a flower expo in 1990.

Temples, Shrines and other Historical sites:
Mitami Shrine
Osaka Castle
Sanko Shrine
Shitennō-ji The oldest buddhist temple in Japan, established in 593 AD by Prince Shōtoku.
Sumiyoshi Taisha One of the oldest Shinto shrines; many people go and worship at this shrine on the new year day. It is said this shrine was built in 211 AD.
Tamatsukuri Inari Shrine