Osaka

A weekend here might look like

• Morning: Osaka Castle - Osaka's great fortress, rebuilt in gleaming white and green above massive stone walls and a double moat. The tower is a 1930s concrete reconstruction rather than a surviving castle, and inside it's a modern museum telling the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the castle's rise and fall, ending at an eighth-floor observation deck with a 360-degree view. The 106-hectare park around it is free, open around the clock, and worth as much time as the tower: moats, cyclopean stone walls, and one of Osaka's best cherry blossom spots in the Nishinomaru Garden. Book the tower online to skip the queue, and go early or late.
• Lunch: Okonomiyaki Mizuno - A small, family-run okonomiyaki shop on a Dotonbori side street, going since 1945 and a Michelin Bib Gourmand pick every year since 2016. The signature Mizuno-yaki is a mixed pancake with pork belly, pork mince, squid, prawn, scallop and octopus, cooked on the iron plate in front of you. The yamaimo version, built on grated mountain yam, is the one regulars rave about, airy and rich in a way you won't find elsewhere. Counter seats let you watch the whole thing. No bookings, just queue, and you order while you wait.
• Afternoon: Dotonbori - Osaka's neon canyon, running along the canal in Namba, and the place the city sends everyone first. Giant mechanical crabs, 3D signs and screens stacked above the street, and the Glico Running Man looking down on Ebisubashi bridge where everyone stops for the photo. Eat as you walk rather than sitting down for one meal: takoyaki first, then okonomiyaki, grilled crab, wagyu skewers, whatever catches you. Slip into Hozenji Yokocho, a narrow stone alley just off the main drag, for a quieter drink. Come at dusk and stay for the moment the neon switches on. Two or three hours covers it.

More to explore

• Kuromon Market - Osaka's Kitchen, a covered market of around 150 stalls running a few blocks near Nipponbashi, where chefs shop and everyone else eats. Seafood is the headline: grilled oysters the size of your hand, uni in the shell, unagi, and tuna cut to order, with otoro and chutoro at the good counters. Beyond that it's fruit, wagyu skewers, takoyaki, oden, and a long sweet run of daifuku, melonpan and dango. Fully undercover, so it works in any weather. Go early or late to dodge the crush, and know that some fish shops discount after 5pm.
• Shinsekai - Osaka's retro heart, and the city at its most unpretentious. Built in the early 20th century and largely frozen there, Shinsekai is a grid of neon signs, hand-painted billboards and old arcades with the Tsutenkaku Tower at the centre. The food is the reason most people come: kushikatsu, Osaka's deep-fried skewers, sold at counters on every corner, alongside takoyaki, ramen and cheap beer. One rule everyone follows, no double-dipping in the shared sauce. Come at dusk when the lights go on. Loud, gaudy and good fun.
• Umeda Sky Building - Two towers joined at the top by a floating ring, 173 metres above Osaka, and one of the city's most striking pieces of architecture. Getting up there is half of it: a glass lift to the 39th floor, then an escalator suspended through the open gap between the towers, which feels like riding through a sci-fi tunnel in the sky. At the top is the Kuchu Teien, or Floating Garden, a circular rooftop deck open to the sky with a full 360-degree view and no glass in the way. There's an indoor level below with a café and bar, placards naming what you're looking at, and the Fence of Vows for couples. Sunset is the pick, when the city shifts from daylight to lights. Bring a jacket, because it's properly windy up there.
• Kushikatsu Daruma - The name most people mean when they say kushikatsu, and the Shinsekai main shop is the original. Skewers go into the fryer only once you've ordered, so they arrive hot in a batter that's noticeably thinner and crisper than most, closer to tempura than pub food. Work through beef, pork, prawn, mozzarella, lotus root and asparagus, and don't skip the doteyaki, the slow-braised beef tendon in miso. Free raw cabbage on the table cuts the richness. One rule, and it's the rule: dip a skewer in the shared sauce once and once only. Counter seating only, so it's tight, and there's usually a queue. Worth it.
• LiLo Coffee Roasters - The heart of Osaka's specialty coffee scene, on the edge of Amerikamura since 2014. The menu runs to more than 20 single origins, illustrated and annotated with origin, producer and tasting notes, brewed as pour-over, AeroPress or espresso. Head roaster Keita Nakamura knows Latin America and Africa cold and also works with beans from Yunnan and the shop's own farm in Myanmar, so there's genuinely rare stuff here. Tell the baristas what you like and they'll steer you, in English, without any snobbery. Coffee comes in a proper mug with a card about the beans. Tiny inside and more of a grab-and-go than a sit-down, but they stay open late.
• Brooklyn Roasting Company Kitahama - A New York-style roastery café on the Tosabori River at Kitahama, and one of the nicest places in Osaka to sit still for an hour. Industrial fit-out with exposed pipes, wooden tables and Brooklyn signage, and a big riverside terrace looking across to Nakanoshima Park and the Central Public Hall. Drip coffee from a rotating choice of beans, plus lattes, cheesecake, cookies and sandwiches, with oat milk and the occasional vegan cookie. Terrace seats go fast on a good day, and pastries run out early.

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