Osaka

Osaka is the place you come to eat, drink and stay out late, and the city plays to that. The action splits cleanly into two halves: Minami in the south, around Namba, Dotonbori and Kuromon Market, where the neon and the takoyaki stalls are; and Kita in the north, around Osaka and Umeda stations, where the rail links and the calmer hotels are. Pick Minami if you want the energy on your doorstep and don’t mind noise until the small hours, and Kita if you’d rather sleep and run smooth day trips. The Midosuji subway line ties the two together in minutes, so neither choice strands you.

Two nights is enough for Osaka itself. One day handles Osaka Castle’s park and moats, the Umeda Sky observatory at sunset for about ¥2,000, and an evening grazing your way down Dotonbori — a ¥500 plate of takoyaki and an ¥800 bowl of ramen is the meal you came for, not a compromise. A second day goes to Universal Studios Japan if you have children or Mario fans in tow, which is the one Osaka outing that genuinely needs a dated ticket and, on busy dates, an Express Pass to avoid 90-minute queues. Everything else in the centre you can largely turn up to.

Where Osaka really earns its keep is as a Kansai base. Kyoto is about 30 minutes away, Nara around 35, and Kobe and Himeji within easy reach, so you can sleep in one well-connected hotel and day-trip outwards rather than packing and re-packing across the region. Coming in from Kansai Airport, the Nankai Airport Express to Namba is the cheapest sensible route at roughly ¥970 and 45 minutes; take the JR Haruka instead if you’re heading straight to Kyoto or staying up in Kita. The structured planning below — neighbourhoods, airport options, costs in pounds and the best months to come — picks up from here.