Osaka

Kita and Minami, two days in Osaka and a base for Kansai

Spend two full days on Osaka and use it as a base for Kansai. The city has two poles joined by the Midōsuji subway line: Kita around Umeda and Osaka Station, and Minami around Namba, where the city eats. Stay in Namba for food or in Umeda or Shin-Osaka for early trains to Kyoto, Hiroshima and Tokyo.

• Day one: Osaka Castle and its park in the morning, with the Osaka Museum of History next door for the backstory, since the castle tower is a modern concrete rebuild. Lunch at Kuromon Market, then spend the evening on Dōtonbori's canal under the neon.
• Day two: Shitennō-ji, among the oldest Buddhist temples in the country, then the retro streets of Shinsekai below Tsūtenkaku tower for kushikatsu. Alternatively give the day to Universal Studios Japan, and book timed entry or express passes for the popular areas in advance.
• Kansai side trips: Kyoto is 15 to 30 minutes away by train and Nara about 45. Kobe's Sannomiya is around 20 minutes on JR. Himeji's white castle is about 30 minutes by shinkansen from Shin-Osaka, then a 15-minute walk up from the station.

Keep half a day for the bay. The Kaiyukan aquarium, with a whale shark among its residents, sits beside the Tempozan Ferris wheel, and a ferry crosses the water towards Universal Studios. Compare hotels in Namba and Umeda.

Driving in town is a poor idea because streets lack names and parking costs a fortune; rent a car only for the countryside. Long-distance ferries sail from the port to Okinawa as well as to Kyushu and Busan.

Mild winters, the June rainy season and Osaka's hot Augusts

Visit Osaka in spring or in October and November. Winters are mild, with January highs near 9.7°C, while the rainy season runs from about 7 June to 21 July and August highs average 33.7°C.

The rainy season starts on average around 7 June and ends around 21 July. Then the heat peaks, with nights near 26°C. September and early October bring a second wet spell, when typhoons can arrive from the south.

Spring is the favourite season. Blossom fills the grounds of Osaka Castle in late March and early April, and the avenue of cherry trees by the Japan Mint is one of the city's best-loved flower walks. The spring sumo tournament is usually held in mid-March at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. October and November are the calmer alternative, with highs dropping from 24°C to 18°C and far less rain.

The summer highlight is the Tenjin Matsuri on 24 and 25 July, run by Osaka Tenmangū shrine. On the second day about 100 groups join a procession of boats on the river, and fireworks begin at around 19:30, lasting roughly 90 minutes. Universal Studios Japan is at its most crowded at weekends and in school holidays, so aim for a weekday.

Takoyaki, okonomiyaki and kuidaore in Dōtonbori's lanes

Eat your way through Osaka, whose motto is kuidaore, eat yourself into ruin. Dōtonbori and the lanes of Hōzenji-yokochō and Sōemon-chō are almost all restaurants; buy takoyaki from the street carts that appear at nightfall and okonomiyaki in small hole-in-the-wall shops.

Shinsekai is the place for kushikatsu: skewered meat and vegetables, battered, deep-fried and dipped in a runny black sauce. Look between Dōbutsuen-mae and Ebisuchō stations. The sauce pot is shared: dip once, never after biting. Order doteyaki on the side: beef tendon stewed in miso until it falls apart. Kuromon Market near Nippombashi sells seafood and snacks to eat at the stalls. For a train picnic, buy battera (mackerel pressed onto rice in a wooden box) from a department store or station kiosk.

Osaka also claims kappō cooking, where you sit at a counter while the chef prepares a run of raw and cooked dishes in front of you. For drinking, Dōtonbori is the centre of the action, while Kitashinchi, south of Osaka Station, is where companies entertain clients in small, expensive bars.

People here are louder, chattier and quicker with a joke than in the capital, and the dialect is famous across Japan for its comedians. The old merchant greeting mōkarimakka means roughly "making any money".