Photo Tour of Osaka

A Photo Tour of Osaka

Osaka is not a city of many tourist attractions and hence it is generally skipped on tours of Japan. While I'd agree that's the best idea, there are a few things to see. To begin with there's Osaka Castle, once the castle of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the two most powerful people in Japan at his time (he was later defeated).
	Around April Japanese all go to see the cherry blossoms. The Ministry of Finance Building is said to have the best cherry trees in Osaka, but Osaka castle is also well known.
Less well known are the Ume (Japanese plum) blossoms, there are always lots of people at Osaka Castle in February to see the Ume.
	If you want to get a good view of Osaka then one place to go is the Osaka Tower, near Tennoji in South Osaka.

For some nature you can visit the park surrounding the Mino Waterfall. The monkeys attract a lot of attention, but if you get too close they'll steal your food or bags.
	The summer festivals are lots of fun. The most famous in Osaka is the Tenjin Festival. You can see floats being carried around and there are Dragon Boat races on the river.

If you head a bit south of Osaka you'll see Osaka City University. The designer of the campus must have lived in LA or else he liked the tropics, the many palm trees here were the only ones I saw anywhere in Osaka.

If you're interested in finding out more about Osaka then you might also want to check the links on my Osaka Page.

Last modified: December 12, 1998