Our family has visited Japan multiple times, and we prefer Osaka to Tokyo
Yes.
Glad you stopped by. 🙂
In all seriousness, the question deserves consideration.
We first visited Japan in 2013. Telling people we were going to Osaka, and were so excited about it, led to confused looks.
“Why do you want to go to Osaka? It’s all business. And it’s ugly.”
We couldn’t disagree more. Osaka is delightful, full of verve and beauty, and has a more open culture dedicated not only to friendliness, but to deliciousness.
Tokyo is a world-class, phenomenal city. It exists in a realm occupied by similar iconic cities, such as New York, London, and Paris. Tokyo is the city the late Anthony Bourdain would choose if he could only live (and eat) in one city for the rest of time.
Yet our family still would choose Osaka.
Since 2013, we’ve visited Japan multiple times, including both Tokyo and Osaka. So let’s break down why we’d rather spend more time in Osaka than in Tokyo.
“Osaka just can’t help but bring out the best of Japan.”
1. Popular but less crowded
As of 2025, the population of the Greater Tokyo Area is about 37 million people. Those numbers also give Tokyo the crowded streets award for the world’s most populous urban area. Tokyo’s combination of attractions, culture, dining, and more has also made the city one of the most popular global destinations for tourism.
Tokyo is an amazing city. It’s also an amazingly crowded one.
In contrast, Osaka’s metro area population is about 18,922,000. At half the size of Tokyo, the overall Osaka area is Japan’s second-largest metro area. It’s still one of the world’s most populated urban centers.
Yet while Osaka has its own crowds, plenty of people, and no shortage of popularity, the city is often far less crowded than Tokyo.
We typically find that we encounter fewer lines, less squooshed trains, and an overall easier time finding accommodation or going to attractions in Osaka. The city’s got plenty going on and plenty of people having an amazing city, but Osaka manages to feel less crowded than Tokyo.
In our experience
In 2025 while staying in Osaka’s Nishinari area, Jodie and I learned there was an annual summer festival at the nearby Ikune Shrine. Leaving the kids home, she and I nipped out to the festival.
Was it crowded? Ish. Sure, it was popular. But we only had to wait a couple of minutes for any of the food stalls, and we had no problem finding good places to watch the drumming and song performances that define the festival.
2. Fly in and/or out of KIX, Osaka’s own international airport
While Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports are the most common entry points to Japan, Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX) is worth considering too. KIX can be more convenient for flying into and out of Japan.
Or, you can consider flying into Tokyo, but flying out of Kansai when you leave. Not having to double back to Tokyo can free up a whole day of your precious Japan vacation time.
Personally, we’d rather check out one more attraction or get in one more meal instead of having to block in more travel time just to get to the airport.
KIX is roughly 45-90 minutes from most parts of the Osaka area, and you can get to the airport via car or from multiple Osaka area train lines.
For example, instead of your itinerary being a round-trip flight between your home airport and Tokyo, consider:
- Home airport
- Fly into Tokyo’s Narita or Haneda airports
- Fly out of Osaka KIX back home
You might consider this in reverse too: Flying into Osaka could have you starting your Japan trip in a slightly smaller urban area, then you finish with the big city of Tokyo, when you’ll be more experienced traveling around Japan.
In our experience
Also during our 2025 visit to Japan, we flew into KIX. The smaller airport was easier to get around, and we could quickly find our way to the train platform. Within an hour, a ride on the Nankai line had us just a few minutes walk from our accommodation.
Bonus points: From KIX, you can also catch ferries to areas such as Kobe.
3. Faster to reach other destinations
From Tokyo, it’s about 3 hours by Shinkansen to Osaka. That’s 3 hours more you could be doing what you want to do.
From Osaka’s central location on Honshu, highways, train lines, and air routes make it easy and fast to reach other destinations throughout Japan. Kyoto, Nara, Shikoku, Hiroshima, Kyushu, and more can be more accessible for easy day trips, or when heading to the next stays of your Japan vacation.
For example, compare these train travel times when leaving from Tokyo versus leaving from Osaka for some of Japan’s most popular destinations:
- Kyoto: From Tokyo, 2 hours 59 minutes; from Osaka, 24 minutes
- Nara: From Tokyo, 4 hours 20 minutes; from Osaka, 51 minutes
- Hiroshima: From Tokyo, 4 hours 51 minutes; from Osaka, 1 hour 21 minutes
- Fukuoka: From Tokyo, 5 hours 50 minutes; from Osaka, 2 hours 28 minutes
- Kumamoto: From Tokyo, 7 hours 11 minutes; from Osaka, 3 hours 5 minutes
We find it easier to base in Osaka for many popular destinations.
The cute deer that you can feed in Nara? You can be in Nara Park, or at the large Buddha and wooden temple at Toda-ji in less than 45 minutes. Kyoto is less than 30 minutes away by train.
It can be much easier to find affordable accommodation in Osaka, then day trip to Kyoto, than follow the typical recommendation of staying in Kyoto and day tripping to Osaka.
In our experience
During a 2023 visit to Japan, we stayed in Osaka for a month. One day during a Worldschool Popup, we and our group daytripped to Nara.
It took about half an hour to get there.
Instead of spending hours on the train, we enjoyed more time watching mochi pounding, feeding the famous Nara deer, and wandering the deep history (to mention marveling at the huge Buddha statue) of Tōdai-ji temple.
4. Osaka’s physically smaller footprint makes it easier to get around town
On one trip to Tokyo, we stayed in Sumida City, near Tokyo Skytree. While we could catch convenient buses and trains to Asakusa, Odaiba, and more, we still had long transit times. That’s okay: Tokyo is so big, that rides across the metro area are just part of visiting one of the world’s most vibrant cities.
For day-to-day getting around, however, we much prefer the smaller physical footprint of Osaka.
For example, when staying in the Sumiyoshi area south of central Osaka, our longest transit was about 45 minutes, when we visited the Cup Noodle Museum way on the northern end of the city.
Between local trains and Osaka’s tram service, typically we could get anywhere we wanted to go in Osaka in less than 20 minutes. Plus, many areas of town have cafes, restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, train stations, and other amenities, within minutes of where you’re staying.
When we go to Tokyo, we expect to dedicate more of our day to getting around town. In Osaka, we find that we can spend less time in transit and more time doing what we want.
In our experience
That first trip to Japan in 2013? We stayed in the Takarazuka area, a suburb pretty much closer to Kobe than to Osaka itself. Yet a 20-minute train ride was all we needed to travel with toddler Connor from these outskirts right to the takoyaki stalls and okonomiyaki restaurants of Central Osaka.
5. Osaka’s love of food makes it even easier to enjoy day-to-day foods, street food, and high-end cuisine
I’m sure that you can find a bad meal in Japan.
I’m equally sure that in the time and pavement pounding it would take to find one bad meal, you would have to pass by 20 delicious ones.
Tokyo’s range of food, from neighborhood eateries to high-end dining, puts the city in the same culinary hierarchy as Paris or New York. (And yet still surpasses them: Compared to the New York City area’s 17,000+ restaurants, the Tokyo metro area has over 160,000.)
Osaka, however, has a different love of food.
The city’s food culture and gusto for appreciating any good meal goes back centuries. In years past, laws prohibited Osaka’s wealthy merchants from ostentatious displays of decor or fashion. So the Osakans put their money, time, wealth, and sheer zest for life into eating and drinking.
That love of food carries forward today. Combined with the city’s proximity to prime Japanese agricultural areas, Osaka provides easy access to the best food in Japan.
Even better? Sure, Osaka has incredible high-end dining, but the good stuff isn’t reserved for big spenders. Whether neighborhood udon shops, a takoyaki stall near Osaka Castle, or jiggly cheesecakes, you can enjoy amazing food in Osaka, even on a modest family budget like ours.
In our experience
Our 2023 visit to Osaka coincided both with sakura, or cherry blossom season, and Jodie’s birthday. We waited in line for about 15 minutes for a jiggly, iron-branded light-textured cheesecake from world-famous Rikuro. Then we wandered over to an area park with friends. There, over cheesecake, we sat on plastic mats on the ground, shared time together and watched the white blossoms as they ended their season.
Two years later, we haven’t gotten to see those friends in person since. Other sakura seasons have come and gone. Yet we savor those memories—and the light, sweet, slightly citrus flavor of that incredible cheesecake.
6. Osakans are typically less rushed, more open to talking with foreigners, and more light-hearted than Tokyoites
Any city moves at a faster pace than towns or villages, and Osaka is no exception. If Tokyo has a lightning pace of life, we find that Osaka’s gear can be speedy, but not in a rush.
Osaka knows how to slow down, take a moment, and appreciate life, whether that’s cherry blossoms in spring, a sniff of a seasonal delicacy in autumn, or anything from beef skewers to shaved ice at a summer festival.
Of all the places we’ve visited in Japan from Tokyo to Kumamoto, we find it easiest to strike up conversations in Osaka.
That’s especially since Osaka is where local people have been the most likely to strike up conversations with us.
Osakans generally have a reputation for being more light-hearted, approachable, and willing to talk with folks. Perhaps it’s something to do with the city’s long history of trade, business, and being a port area.
Either way, we find that when we are in Osaka, we have a much easier time connecting with the folks who live there.
In our experience
One night when our Sumiyoshi area favorite ramen shop’s 6 seats were full, Jodie found a nearby udon shop instead. The husband and wife who ran it practiced their English with us, and they seemed appreciative of our fledgling skills in Japanese.
They invited us to come back the following week. There, a local get-together brought together people from across generations, over chicken curry, rice, and the universal language of kids around the world: Minecraft.
None of that wouldn’t have happened if that couple hadn’t been so welcoming and friendly when we were nothing more than another table of four wanting some udon for dinner.
7. Start in Osaka to get used to traveling Japan, then bring your bigger and better travel skills to Tokyo
A bonus of Osaka? If you start your Japan trip in Osaka instead of Tokyo, you can hone your Japan travel skills at a smaller scale.
Since Osaka moves a nick slower and people can be more approachable, we find that Osaka helped us get better at traveling in Japan. We could take our time to figure out signs, directions, and cultural differences that we needed to learn.
Osaka has all the conveniences and options of Tokyo. If you can start in Osaka, you may find it easier to get around Tokyo later in your trip. That’s been our experience, and it just might be yours too.
In our experience
Throughout our multiple family trips to Japan with kids, we work to get better at public transportation. With trams and trains, getting around Osaka taught us to be much better at coordinating different types of transport, assessing schedules and routes in Google Maps, and mastering the quick use of our transit cards and apps.
BONUS 8. Osaka brings out the zest of life that runs throughout Japanese culture
Japan has a reputation of valuing tradition, order, and quiet. That’s all true. Underlying those appreciations, however, is a deep appreciation for the good things in life. We find that in Osaka, Japan’s zest for life doesn’t just run under the surface of the culture, but is front and center.
Yes, we love the quiet serenity that you can find throughout Japan. But we also love that a gleam in the eye and a big belly laugh are just as at home in Osaka.
Osaka: Better than Tokyo for convenience, gusto, and the logistics of getting around easily
We appreciate Tokyo, Kyoto, and destinations throughout Japan (especially Kumamoto, with its volcano, castle, and One Piece statues). But no matter where we go in Japan, our hearts are in Osaka. Not to mention our laughter, zest for life, and the little things that make our eyes shine and our memories grow with stories.
Plus, Osaka wins us over not only on a heart level, but a practical one.
Flying in or out of Kansai can be easier than Haneda or Narita.
Osaka’s smaller footprint and comprehensive public transportation means we often spend less time getting around and have more time to enjoy the Japanese destination we love returning to above all others.
The best part? Enjoying Osaka more doesn’t take anything away from Kyoto, Tokyo, or other parts of Japan.
It just means that when it comes to destinations that combine amenities, convenience, and access to other parts of Japan, not to mention a fun culture centered around food and drink, Osaka just can’t help but bring out the best of Japan.
Before you go to Osaka with kids
Before you go to Osaka with kids, or anywhere in Japan for that matter, consider a few things first:
What are your top 3-5 priorities for visiting Japan?
If they’re all in Tokyo, you might want to spend more time in Tokyo than elsewhere in Japan. If most of your priorities are outside Tokyo, consider taking a day or two for some jet lag recovery and Tokyo essentials, then booking it elsewhere in Japan, such as to Osaka.
Learn more with our 4 days in Tokyo itinerary, and our guides to day trips from Tokyo and day trips from Osaka.
How much time do you have for your trip?
The more time you can spend in Japan, the better (and that’s just for the jet lag recovery from what’s probably a long flight).
When you have more than a few nights, that’s all the more reason to consider more time in the Osaka area. Osaka’s central Honshu location alone can make it more convenient to visit other parts of Japan.
If you’re more time-limited, Osaka also merits consideration. The city’s smaller size means you can spend less time getting around and more time doing the things you want to do.
Can you fly in and/or out of Kansai International Airport (KIX)?
KIX can replace or complement Tokyo’s Narita or Haneda airports. You could also consider flying into Tokyo, but flying out of KIX. If it can work for your itinerary and departure/return airport, definitely try out routes that include KIX.
Today’s online flight planning tools make that pretty easy, too. Along with trying out round-trip routes to and from KIX, select the “multi-city” option. That way you can try out combinations of your home airport, Tokyo, and Osaka.
Let’s go to Osaka
From themed cafes to vending machines, theme parks to deep history, culture, and tradition, Osaka has all the same great stuff that Tokyo has. But Osaka has its own flair, personality, and conveniences. Here are our reasons why the Kitchen of Japan has taken up such a dear place in our travel hearts.
Plan your trip to Osaka and other parts of Japan
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Where to stay in Osaka with kids
Check out our guide on places to stay
Where to day trip from Osaka
Check out Osaka day trips guide
