People always say that if you’re planning a trip to Japan, some absolute must visit places outside of Tokyo are Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto, all located in Japan’s Kansai region. Because of the deep roots in historical Japanese culture, delicious food, and beautiful sights, these places are beloved among both foreigners and many Japanese. Being aware of this combined with finding out that we had a 4-day weekend coming up, my friends and I planned and successfully completed a trip to all three prefectures!
Osaka
We decided to base our weekend trip out of Osaka. It’s basically halfway between Kyoto and Nara, and we thought we would need more time in Osaka, so we booked our ABNB there (where we paid about $13 per night per person!) and made day trips out of the other two destinations. We got there late on our first night, but we wanted to make the most of our time there, so we decided to head to Dotonbori. This is like Fremont Street of Osaka: tons of neon lights, street vendors, shops, and everything else. Here I ate the best takoyaki (balls of fried, octopus filled batter) I might ever have, for which Osaka is known.
We started the next day off by visiting the southern part of Osaka called Shinsekai. It was similar to Dotonbori but had more of a calm vibe. There were tons of delicious-looking foods, as well as arcades, where we spent an embarrassing amount of money on claw machines (however, some of us were more successful than others).
From there we went back up north to see Osaka Castle. You have to see this place when you come. Pictures don’t do it justice, but it is massive up close, and the museum inside is full of information and artifacts from ancient Japan. It also has not one, but two moats. Think you could sneak in?
Later in the evening we had tickets to Osaka’s aquarium which is famous for the two whale sharks they have in their unbelievably big central tank that spans 6 floors from top to bottom. The ambiance of being there at night made me feel like I was floating through space; this was easily one of my favorite parts of the trip.
Kyoto
The next day, we left the ABNB as early as we could manage to spend as much time in Kyoto as possible. We were all excited to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine, where they have forest paths lined with hundreds of small orange gates, called “Tori Gates,” which you’ve seen pictures of before. It ended up being even more fascinating than the expectations I had set for it. After going through the initial entrance, there are so many different paths you can take to explore various areas within the shrine’s grounds.
From there we went to Kiyo-Mizudera, another famous temple that Kyoto is known for. We spent a ton of time at all the vendors on the way to the entrance, resisting the urge to buy katanas(Japanese style swords) and everything inside a cool Studio Ghibli-themed store. We eventually made it to the temple entrance and enjoyed the view of the city from the top of the hill it was built on.
Nara
Known for its “bowing deer,” Nara ended up being my favorite part of the trip and pretty high up there in my overall Japanese experiences. I’m not sure why we expected deer to greet us as we stepped off the train, but that of course did not happen. However, as we made our way towards the park area, more and more deer started to appear until we were surrounded by them. We spent hours feeding them shika-senbei, or deer-crackers, seeing how many of them we could get to follow us around. I wish I could have stayed longer and gone back the next day too. It was so fun that it ended up being my favorite part of the trip, and for animal lovers, it’s definitely worth going!
Overall, I’m really glad I was able to explore other areas outside of Tokyo, because while it is amazing, Japan has so much more to offer!
Check out some of the other things I’ve done in Japan, and some of my peers’ posts too!