On Osaka

I started my sightseeing at the Shitennoji Temple, which was founded in 593 A.D. and thus is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan. None of the buildings at the temple are originals but I'd still recommend a trip here.

The other notable sights in the area are Tennoji Park, Festival Gate, and Tsutenkaku Tower. Tennoji Park contains a decent zoo(admission 500 yen) and an excellent, circular Japanese-style garden called Keitaku-en. I'd highly recommend the latter, which has an entrance directly opposite the north entrance to Tennoji Station. Also in the park are an Art Museum and a European-style garden with fountains and flower sculptures.

Nippombashi Den Den Town, Osaka's answer to Tokyo's Akihabara district, is a shopping street of over 300 stores specializing in cut-price electronic appliances. Take the subway to Ebisucho station (on the Sukaisuji line). Exits 1A and 1B will drop you slap bang in the middle of the area.

Osaka Castle is another reproduction well worth seeing.

Quick Tips:

I'd definitely recommend picking up copies of 'Subway Lines In Osaka', the fold-out 'Osaka City Map', and the independently produced 'Kansai Hideaways'. These are available at the tourist information booths at JR Tennoji Station, JR Osaka Station, JR Namba Station, and JR Shin-Osaka station. The latter is written by expats and covers Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe in addition to Osaka, while the two former publications are of great value in navigating the city.

Two good pubs I found were Tin's Hall (next to Tennoji Station, check out their web site here for directions) and the Pig & Whistle, a British pub with bars in Umeda, which is next to Higashi Umeda station and adjacent to the Sinsaibashi subway station.

Best Way To Get Around:

Transport links from Kansai Airport are rapid and extremely efficient. It took 45 minutes and cost 1030 yen on the Rapid JR train from the airport to the Tennoji area where I was staying. Most journeys inside the city itself can be done via a combination of walking and subway journeys.

The subway itself is an excellent way of getting around, with a one day ticket costing 850 yen. The 'Subway Lines in Osaka' leaflet, which is available at all tourist information centers, explains how to purchase tickets and details the location of the button offering English-language guidance. The machines are also useful for getting large denomination notes changed as some give change of 10000 yen.

The Business Hotel Chuo is conveniently located between Tennoji Station and the Shin-Sekai district. Single rooms cost 2100 Yen, with doubles of differing quality available for up to 4500 Yen.

My single room was about 3 x 6 metres in size and contained a single mattress in the middle of the floor, a small fridge, a color TV, a wall-mounted air-conditioning unit, and two coat hangers hanging from hooks on the wall. No meals are served but there are some vending machines in the small lobby containing beverages, snacks, and noodles. Hot water is available from reception and there are two 24 hour convenience stores in the immediate vicinity.

While the Chuo is cheap and in an excellent location there are a few drawbacks to staying here. The doors close at 11:30 pm, there isn't a great deal of English spoken, and showers can only be taken from 4 - 7:30pm and 9:40 - 10:40pm(men) and 8pm - 9:30pm(women). This last point isn't as bad as it sounds as the twin rooms have private facilities and the communal baths are not so much showers as Korean-style public baths encompassing a large, square tub of hot water with shower cubicles attached. That said, it still wasn't much fun trying to wash myself over the sink in the communal bathroom at 7:30 the next morning.

You can reach the Chuo by taking a JR train to Shin-Imamiya Station, which is on a direct line from Kansai Airport. Come out of the East exit, cross at the Zebra crossing immediately in front of you and the hotel is just up the street on the left. Alternatively, take the subway to Dobutsuen-Mae Station, which is on both the Midosuji and Sakaisuji lines. Come out of Exit 3, turn over your right shoulder and the hotel is about 20 metres up the street.

Constructed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1583, Osaka Castle has a long and illustrious history, though the contemporary structure, impressive as it is, is no more than a 20th century concrete reproduction of the old dungeon tower. Despite the lack of original features, the castle remains one of Osaka's best attractions, its curving white, black and gold triangular roofs rising above cherry blossom trees, and its 8th floor observation tower providing wonderful views over the city. The museum and galleries on the lower floors contain folding screens illustrating major battles, an exhibition on the life of Toyotomi and thousands of historical artefacts recovered from the site. The displays are not especially interesting but are nonetheless good value at 600 Yen, while the park that surrounds the castle is wonderfully shaded.

The area around the castle has a number of minor landmarks. Skip the souvenir stands at the foot of the tower and continue past the castle entrance to a mock-Arthurian style building - which houses the City Museum. Following the road to the right you'll come to the Hokoku-Jinja Shrine and the Syudokan, where martial arts demonstrations take place. You could then continue on to the ruins of Naniwa Palace, the site of Japan's oldest capital, by following the signs for the Osaka Peace Centre, though the remains would probably disappoint all but the most avid of Japanese history buffs.

The nearest underground station is Osaka Business Park. Leave by exit 4, continue past McDonald's and the MBS Theatre and cross the bridge. Continue on past Osaka-jo Hall until you reach the castle moat, turn right and cross the little bridge about 50 metres away.

Den Den Town is Osaka's answer to Tokyo's mammoth Akihabara district, a 1km-long shopping street of over 300 stores specializing in cut-price electronic appliances.

Dissected by a four lane road, the two sides of the street form a chaotic vertical jumble of multicolored shop signs, flashing neon and flapping banners, soundtracked by a hundred different advertising jingles, in-store broadcasts and the constant hum of traffic. The sheer array of choice is overwhelming at first - everything from DVDs, computer hardware, plasma screen TVs and games to security equipment, used goods, manga comics, machine tools and, this being Japan, open fronted shops selling pornographic videos.

Prices, while not always amazingly low, were very competitive, though it definitely pays both to haggle and to shop around in Den Den Town, as prices seemed to vary significantly from one shop to the next. A number of the shops, notably the several branches of Ninomiya, also offer tax-free deals to foreigners on production of your passport.

To get to Den Den Town, take the Sukaisuji underground line to Ebisucho station. Exits 1A and 1B both lead directly to the street itself. Namba and Nipponbashi stations are also within walking distance.

Tennoji straddles the fault line of modern-day Japan, a faded idyll of fountains, flower sculptures, and overgrown flora between the glittering high-rise buildings of Osaka’s business districts and the tarpaulin-covered shacks housing the city’s homeless population. Lightly touched by the darkened tops of buildings and the muffled sound of traffic outside, the most visually impressive of the park’s attractions is the Keitakuen Japanese Garden, which starts on the other side of the metal entrance gates opposite Tennoji Station, looping in circles around springs, sculpted fountains, and animal-shaped foliage down towards the Osaka Municipal Art Museum and a small lake.

Tennoji Zoo takes up around a quarter of the total area of the park. Although it has the empty, slightly run-down feel of a provincial zoo reliant on school groups and passing tourists, it’s mildly entertaining for an hour or so, with almost 400 animals and lots of places to escape the heat and dust of the city.

The interior of the park is, to be blunt, a little shabby. Dirt tracks and trampled grass skirt a central lake, cutting through overgrown trees and bushes. It’s a nice enough escape from the bustling city outside, but you can’t quite shake the feeling that a little too much life has been shut out by the high metal fences and walls that surround the place. An interesting stop-off point between the far more interesting Shitenno-ji Temple and the grubby Shinsekai district at the foot of Tsutenkaku Tower, but not somewhere that I’d recommend going out of your way for unless you have far more time than money to spend.

Dating back to the sixth century, Shitennoji Temple is reputed to be the first state sponsored Buddhist temple in the entire country. A 13th-century torri gate stands at the entrance, a sloping construction usually found in Shinto shrines, framing a curving temple building with upturned rectangular ends and a mountain peak shaped roof entrance. The torri gate is the oldest extant structure in the temple grounds, most of the original wooden structures having been rebuilt eight times, most recently with modern materials following their destruction in WWII.

The layout of the temple, which has remained unchanged since its founding, was highly reminiscent of temples I’d previously seen in Korea; a walled courtyard dominated by a five storey green and red pagoda which fronts the Main Hall. Dating back to the sixth century, Shitennoji Temple is reputed to be the first state sponsored Buddhist temple in the entire country. A 13th-century torri gate stands at the entrance, a sloping construction usually found in Shinto shrines, framing a curving temple building with upturned rectangular ends and a mountain peak shaped roof entrance. The torri gate is the oldest extant structure in the temple grounds, most of the original wooden structures having been rebuilt eight times, most recently with modern materials following their destruction in WWII.

The layout of the temple, which has remained unchanged since its founding, was highly reminiscent of temples I’d previously seen in Korea; a walled courtyard dominated by a five storey green and red pagoda which fronts the Main Hall. Round the back is a turtle pond overlooked by leaning pine trees, a shrine dotted with statues dressed in children’s clothes (apparently a plea for forgiveness from women who have had abortions), and outlying buildings across grounds of newly raked gravel, formed into perfectly straight lines that stretch for 50m between one wall and the next. Although it may pale in comparison to the more famous temples in nearby Kyoto and Nara, Shitennoji is undoubtedly the most impressive of its kind in Osaka.

Entrance to the temple grounds is free but there is a charge of 200 yen for the Treasure Hall. The easiest way to get to Shitennoji is by taking the underground to Shitennoji-mae station. Leave via the south exit, cross to the left side of the road, and take the small street that veers off at an angle away from the station. Alternatively, you could combine a visit to the temple with a trip to Tennoji Park by walking from Tennoji station, which takes about twenty minutes from the north exit.