Hello everyone,
Me and my wife leave to Japan next week for the first time and I wouldn’t mind someone to look over our Osaka portion of our itinerary, as I have a couple questions! See below itinerary for our 3 days in Osaka. We are coming from having spent 4 days in Kyoto with 1 of those as a day trip to Nara.
Sunday, Oct 15: Osaka
– Wake up 8am ish
– Leave Kyoto hotel by between 9 and 930am
– Get to Osaka hotel by 11am – Drop off bags
– Tempura Daikichi restaurant
– Namba Yasaka Jinja Shrine
– Check into hotel (time will be approximately between 2 and 230)
– Kurumon Ichibi Market
– Umeda Sky Building
– Dotonbori & Shinsaibashi in evening till whenever we want to head back to hotel
Monday, Oct 16: Himeji & Kobe
– Himeji till 2:00pm
– Kobe from 3:00pm till 7 or 8pm
Tuesday, Oct 17: USJ
– Universal Studios all day.
My questions are mainly about the Himeji and Kobe day. I have it broken out in more detail of when we want to leave and what we want to do but left it general on the post because of the below questions:
1) Do you think it is worth using up a full day for Himeji and Kobe, given that we only have 3 days total and one full day is taken up by USJ? The reason we want to go to Himeji is mainly because people have mentioned that it is a must see and for Kobe, it’s mainly to have Kobe beef and maybe the Sake Brewery Museum. We will also be coming from Kyoto where we might be Templed/Shrined out by then.
2) Are we better off using this full day and spending it in Osaka itself as we only have one full day in Osaka right now?
3) Is there kobe beef in Osaka that would taste the same or give the same experience as eating in Kobe which could potentially save us the trip to Kobe as that is one of the main reasons for going?
4) Is our first day doable for Osaka or is too jampacked?
Thank you everyone for your help! I understand there’s no right or wrong answers to the questions above but would like your guys opinions on what you guys would do!
4 comments
Himeji Castle is one of top 3 castle in Japan and in Kyoto you will see temples/shrines, not castle
There are Kobe beef restaurants in Kyoto or Osaka.
Osaka day 1 is reasonable given you are traveling from Kyoto hence no jet lag or fatigue. Yasaka namba shrine is tiny hence unlikely you spend more than 10 minutes there and because it’s in Namba you should do it in late afternoon before going to Dotonbori to optimise travel time
1) it depends. you mentioned “kyoto” and “templed out”. so you might not want to “look up temples in osaka” or similar, and need something else to do. I dont know if I would say Himeji is a must see. maybe sorta, if you are in the area, then yeah, if you have time for it, its a good place to go so maybe one should. I will also say, I found the inside lackluster, seeing it was great, and the garden was the real highlight of the day
you dont need to go to kobe to eat good beef, but, its not a detour. in kobe you can find a lot sake breweries, I dont know about a “museum”, but its no detour so feel free to explore kobe of course!
2) to do what? see a temple? We could find a list of things to do in Osaka that are not temple related. shopping maybe? or gardens? I think himeji is a plan. attempting to find one for staying in osaka is not impossible, but its also not required…
3) of course you can find a place that will sell you “kobe beef” in osaka or kyoto or kobe
4) looks good to me but I did not visit half of these, so I am not a pro
Himeji has quite a few things to offer. It’s worth a full day. https://www.japanquestion.com/city/himeji
I’d say your missing tsutenkaku tower/district and Osaka castle whilst in Osaka. Might be worth checking those areas out and if you prefer, doing them over Kobe…you won’t need to go to Kobe for Kobe beef. Be sure to try the cheesy 10 yen coin at Dotonbori and the octopus balls if you find them south of there too. I can’t really comment on Kobe as I’ve never been, but Osaka is excellent and it saves you a day trip which avoids eating into your time. Have fun. Umeda Sky is incredible!