I left my beloved Taiwan and I moved to Japan, more concretely to Osaka.
When talking about Japan normally Tokyo get all the attention, however Osaka has nothing to envy its biggest sister. It is the third most populated city in Japan (just behind Yokohama and Tokyo) and, besides its own attractions counts with many easily day trips to many other interesting cities such Kyoto or Nara.
There are two spots in Osaka which you definitely should not miss even if you are not staying more than a day in the city: The Osaka Castle & The Dotonbori Area.
Dotonbori is my favourite place and is the neuralgic center of the Osaka nightlife. Here you will find not only bars and malls but many good places to confirm the well deserved reputation of its food. And you won’t enjoy it just with your palate but with your eyes as many of the restaurants are adorned with extravagant decorations outside.
One of the reasons why I love Dotonbori is because it’s such a nice photogenic area, overall during the night when all the lights create that Blade Runner type atmosphere.
If you don’t feel like walking you can always take one of the boat tours in the canal that surrounds the area
The other must see in the city is the Osaka Castle. It is even better if you are lucky enough to visit it during the Sakura season as it’s surrounded by cherry trees. Those days you will see thousands of people having picnics under the cherry blossom.
As you might already know from other posts, I’m always looking for a high building where I can get an unbeatable view of the city. In Osaka I went up to the Umeda Sky Building but I was not really lucky as it started soon raining so I couldn’t take many pics…
Another spot where taking pics from above is the Tsutenkaku Tower which, though it was considered a big tower when it was built , nowadays it is not much higher than many other buildings in the city.
It is close to Den Den Town which is the place to go if you are into manga, video-games and electronic in general.
Finally, if you get tired of the crowded city you can breath some fresh air in a surrounded mountain like Mt Kongo where you can visit some temples around the way and enjoy/suffer the weather conditions depending on the season.
What I love about Osaka is that you don’t really need to go to any specific placeto take interesting pictures…just get lost and look around you!
More pics here
