Osaka
Japan
Japan's kitchen, and the one city where people talk to strangers
Photo by Fredrick Suwandi on Unsplash
Photos by Juliana Barquero, Paul Cuoco, Laura Barry and Samuel Berner on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Japan
March to May, and October to November (August is 34°C and humid)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 185mm in Jun
Where it is
34.69°N, 135.50°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Eat your way along Dotonbori after dark, standing up
- Do kushikatsu in Shinsekai and obey the sauce rule
- Go up Umeda Sky Building at sunset
- Take the fifteen-minute train to Kyoto and come back for dinner
- Watch sumo at the March tournament, which is held here
Osaka travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Japan
Mid-rangeCards are far more accepted than they were and IC cards — ICOCA, Suica — pay for trains, vending machines and convenience stores. Small restaurants and the older shops in Shinsekai are still cash, and there is no warning.
ATMs & cards
7-Eleven and Japan Post machines take foreign cards; most Japanese bank machines do not, and some close at night. There is a 7-Eleven every few hundred metres, which is the answer.
Avoid these
- most Japanese bank machines, which do not take foreign cards at all
Use these instead
- 7-Eleven (Seven Bank)
- Japan Post Bank
- FamilyMart (E-net)
The 7-Eleven machine is the reliable one and there is a 7-Eleven every few hundred metres. Some bank machines close overnight, which surprises people.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Japan
Very safeExtremely safe, including alone at night. Osaka has a slightly rougher reputation than Tokyo which is mostly about volume rather than crime. The touts on Dotonbori who offer to take you to a bar are the one thing to walk past. Cycling on pavements is normal and the collisions are real.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Japan visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
A pre-travel electronic authorisation (JESTA) is being introduced — check the official link for whether it applies to your dates.
Other passports
Visa required in advance
How to get it: Nothing to arrange for visa-free entry. Use the Visit Japan Web service to pre-file immigration and customs and skip the paper forms.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
Visit Japan WebOptional
Any time before you fly. Register the account early; the trip details can wait.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- the full address of your first night
Not compulsory, but immigration and customs both have a QR lane for it and the other queue is long.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Japan
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Japanese encephalitis only for long rural stays in summer
Getting treated
Superb, and ambulances are free. Treatment is not: visitors pay in full up front, and hospitals routinely refuse cards, so carry cash and real insurance. Finding English-speaking staff outside major cities is the harder problem — the JNTO medical directory is worth bookmarking before you go.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingThe word here is kuidaore — eat until you fall over — and it is the city's own description of itself. Takoyaki, okonomiyaki, kushikatsu in Shinsekai, where the rule about not double-dipping the sauce is enforced by everyone. Kuromon market is for eating, not for shopping.
Nightlife
Loud, cheap and friendly — the city that describes itself as eating until it falls over, and which drinks the same way.
- Dotonbori — the canal, the signs, and the standing bars
- Shinsekai — kushikatsu, and the oldest drinking streets
- Ura-Namba — the small bars behind Namba, where Osaka goes
- Kitashinchi — the expensive district, and the hostess bars
Closing: Many places until 05:00; the subway stops around midnight.
A beer in a bar: ¥400–700
In Shinsekai the rule against double-dipping the kushikatsu sauce is enforced by everyone in the room.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- GOWorks here
- DiDiWorks here
- S.RIDEWorks here
- BoltNot here
- GrabNot here
GO the big taxi-hailing app, and the one to install · Uber which dispatches ordinary taxis here · DiDi taxis again · S.RIDE Tokyo
- Against a taxi
- Identical — every app in Japan hails a licensed taxi on the meter.
Japan legalised a narrow form of ride-sharing in 2024, but in practice what arrives is still a taxi with a white-gloved driver.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Tokyo — 13 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 20:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 20:00–04:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Japan
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.3× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at about the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Japan, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Japanese
- Helloこんにちは — Konnichiwakon-nee-chee-WA
- Pleaseお願いします — Onegaishimasuo-neh-gai-shi-MAS
- Thank youありがとうございます — Arigatou gozaimasua-ri-ga-TOH go-zai-mas
- Yes / Noはい / いいえ — Hai / Iiehi / EE-eh
4 more phrases
- Excuse meすみません — Sumimasensoo-mi-ma-SEN
- How much is it?いくらですか — Ikura desu ka?ee-KOO-ra des ka
- The bill, pleaseお会計お願いします — Okaikei onegaishimasuo-KAI-kay
- Cheers!乾杯 — Kanpai!kan-PIE
Sumimasen does double duty as excuse me, sorry and to get a waiter’s attention. It is the single most useful word here.
Religion
Shinto and Buddhist, practised together
Most Japanese observe both without conflict — Shinto for birth and marriage, Buddhist for funerals. Few describe themselves as religious. Purify hands and mouth at the shrine basin before approaching.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Take shoes off wherever you see a step up or shoes lined up
- Carry your rubbish until you find a bin — there are almost none in public
- Stand in the queue markings on platforms and let passengers off first
- Receive business cards and change with two hands
Don't
- Do not tip — it causes confusion and can be refused as insulting
- Do not talk on the phone on trains, and keep conversation quiet
- Do not stick chopsticks upright in rice or pass food chopstick to chopstick; both echo funeral rites
- Do not photograph geiko and maiko in Gion — some streets ban it outright and fine offenders
Where to stay in Osaka
No Holistay rentals in Osaka yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Osaka on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Kansai International KIX
50 minfrom the airport· 37 km as the crow flies
50 min on the airport express.
Also worth pricing: Itami ITM — domestic only, and 30 minutes from the centre.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
