Travel Guide & Tour Reviews

Osaka is lively seaside city in Japan, frenzied even, protean. In disorderly mixture of styles, large-scale architectural works stand tall above tiny tradinional residences surrounded by a tange of rail lines, shopping malls sparkling with neon lights and factories.
Osaka offers quite an original image and atmosphere: an unusual mixture of old and new. The impression that one gains is that of a city often far removed from the rigour of Tokyo life: in the capitals’s underground, for example, the queue is orderly, and citizens are careful not to upset the calm, while the streets of Osaka are populated by noisy, cheerful people.Life in Osaka undoubtedly has a different flavour compared with the rest of the country, and if you look at the history of this city you can see the reasons why.
The third largest urban centre in Japan, Osaka has a very long tradition as a sea port and a city known for its cultural exchanges with the continent even in remote times, as well as an important commercial and industrial pole in more recent times.
The city’s food culture is also original. While the kitchens of traditional restaurants and inns in Tokyo do not give out any odours - because dishes are mainly raw - those of Osaka are dense in pefumes of food cooked on scalding hot plates, and eating is always accompanied by animated chat.