At a Glance
- Location: Kansai region, western Japan – 2.5 hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen
- Best time to visit: March to May (cherry blossoms) or October to November (autumn colours)
- How long to stay: 5-7 days – can be used as a base for Kyoto and other day trips (although we stayed in Kyoto for 2 nights)
- Best for: Families who love food, culture and a more relaxed vibe than Tokyo
- Budget (family of 4): Slightly less than Tokyo – 30,000-40,000 Yen per day (USD$185-250)
- Getting there: Kansai International Airport or Shin-Osaka by Shinkansen from Tokyo
- Getting around: Metro is efficient and less complex than Tokyo’s but still massive
- Best area to stay: Namba or Shinsaibashi for food and nightlife or stay in a quieter residential area like we did, in Midoribashi, a quiet local suburb.
- Family friendly rating: 9/10 – good food, great day trips, more manageable than Tokyo
The bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka takes two and a half hours – one minute leaving a mega-city of 40 million, the next rolling into a much smaller mega-city of only 19 million. Practically a village.
Osaka has a reputation as Japan’s most fun city – smaller (just), louder, more colourful, more food-obsessed and more relaxed than Tokyo. They say Tokyo people are ruled by their heads, Osaka people by their stomachs. Spending seven days there with two kids who are also fundamentally ruled by their stomachs, we fit in perfectly.
This is our honest guide to Osaka with kids.
In This Article:
- What is Osaka like for families?
- When to visit Osaka with kids
- Getting to Osaka
- Getting around Osaka with kids
- Where to stay in Osaka with kids
- Where to eat in Osaka with kids
- Things to do in Osaka with kids
- Day trip: Nara and the bowing deer
- Day trip: Minoo Waterfall
- The Osaka Station Locker Incident
- Costs and budget
- Is Osaka worth it for families?
- Frequently asked questions
What is Osaka Like for Families?
Osaka is widely considered Japan’s most fun city – and having spent seven days there with kids, we’d have to agree there was lots to do and it was more manageable than Tokyo.
The Dotonbori area – Osaka’s neon-soaked riverfront – is bustling and spectacular at day or night and a brilliant family experience any time of day. The food is legendary: Osaka has been called the world’s kitchen, and the takoyaki (octopus balls) and okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes) alone are worth the visit.
Our first stop on arrival wasn’t a temple or a castle. It was the character stores. Pokemon. Kirby. Sylvanian Families. Ghibli. Sega. By the time we’d finished the morning traipsing between them, us parents were already exhausted. The kids were just getting started.
Our honest take: Osaka was a great city to visit. More accessible than Tokyo, with better food, more relaxed atmosphere, and excellent day trips to Nara, Minoo Waterfall and a 2-day trip to Kyoto. It’s not to say we think it’s better than Tokyo. Tokyo was an incredible experience and wouldn’t change it – Osaka is just a different experience.
When to Visit Osaka with Kids
Spring (March to May) – Cherry Blossoms
Osaka Castle Park is one of the best cherry blossom spots in Japan – spectacular in late March to early April. Book accommodation months in advance as it gets busy. Temperatures are perfect for sightseeing. We went in mid-late March and temperatures ranged from cool (needing a jacket) to very warm (shorts and t-shirt).
Autumn (October to November) – Our Recommendation
Apparently more pleasant temperatures, beautiful colours, manageable crowds. October is particularly good for families – warm enough for comfortable days out without the summer humidity.
Summer (June to August) – Very Hot
Apparently Osaka summers are hot and humid – even more so than Tokyo. Manageable with good planning (early mornings, afternoon retreats to air-conditioned attractions) but not ideal for families with young children who need to walk extensively.
Getting to Osaka
By Shinkansen from Tokyo
The Nozomi bullet train covers Tokyo to Osaka in 2 hours 22 minutes – a genuinely brilliant experience worth doing at least once. Our kids were impressed. If you want to see Mount Fuji on your way from Tokyo, sit on the ‘right hand side’ (if you were driving the train – facing inland). Buy tickets in advance to make sure you get a seat although trains are regular, like every ten minutes and walk-ins are ok – prices do not increase last minute, apparently, they are fixed. We didn’t buy a JR Pass for this trip and found it wasn’t necessary for a single Tokyo-Osaka journey.
Book your train here.
By Air
Kansai International Airport handles international flights to Osaka. Good connections from across Asia and some direct European routes. The Haruka express train connects the airport to central Osaka in about 50 minutes.
Book a flight to Osaka here.
Getting Around Osaka with Kids
Osaka’s metro is more manageable than Tokyo’s – fewer lines, but still busy, and English signage throughout. An IC card (Suica, Pasmo, or the Osaka-specific ICOCA) works on all lines.
Or you can book various tours here.
Where to Stay in Osaka with Kids
Namba Area – Best for Families
The Namba area in central Osaka puts you within walking distance of Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi shopping, and excellent food in every direction. Well connected by metro for day trips. However, you will pay more for being more central. If travelling on a budget, there other decent options.
Where we stayed
We stayed at an incredibly clean, spacious 3-bedroom apartment around Midoribashi metro station. It was residential area but just a 25-minute metro ride to the centre.
You can book Osaka accommodation here.
Where to Eat in Osaka with Kids
Osaka is Japan’s food capital and around the central areas, there’s options to eat everywhere.
Dotonburi is the place to be for food options – the neon lights give this place a real buzz, as do the thousands of people. Heaps of places to eat.
We also ate at Kuromon market which had many great options for street food – seafood and great ramen.
The local specialities are awesome:
Must-Try Osaka Foods
- Takoyaki – octopus balls, the definitive Osaka street food. We all loved watching them being made on the griddle
- Okonomiyaki – savoury pancake with various fillings. Loved by the kids.
- Kushikatsu – deep-fried skewers of meat and vegetables. Everything is better on a stick for the kids (except vegetables)
- Ramen – Osaka has its own style, lighter and sweeter than Tokyo ramen but we all enjoyed
Things to Do in Osaka with Kids
1. Dotonbori
Osaka’s neon-soaked entertainment district along the Dotonbori canal – the giant Glico running man sign, the mechanical Kani Doraku crab, restaurants and street food stalls in every direction. Brilliant in the day or in the evening when everything lights up. Walk the canal, eat everything, let the kids soak it in.
Our kids also couldn’t stop going in the UFO catcher stores (those claw machines where no one ever wins anything). They seem to be every other store around this area.
Our two scraped every coin they could find from under arcade machines, built a small fortune, spent it all on UFO Catchers, and won absolutely nothing.
Be warned.
2. Osaka Castle
Impressive, stunning castle in a large park – the castle itself houses a museum of Osaka’s history. The park surrounding it is enormous and great for kids to run around in, particularly during cherry blossom season. We managed to walk there from our accommodation. It was a great couple of hours out.
Book Osaka Castle ticket here.
3. Character Stores: Pokemon, Kirby, Ghibli, Nintendo, Sylvanian Families
Our kids had a list before we even arrived. Osaka has an extraordinary concentration of character stores. The Pokemon store here was more accessible than the Tokyo ones – being able to walk straight in. The Kirby café required booking months in advance. The Ghibli store was pretty cool.
4. Nakazakinishi
Tucked away from Osaka’s neon and noise, Nakazakinishi is the city’s bohemian quarter – a neighbourhood of vintage clothing shops, independent cafes, quirky galleries and tree-lined streets that feels like it belongs in a different city entirely. A lovely contrast to Dotonbori’s chaos and worth an hour or two of aimless wandering.
5. Lego Discovery Centre
If you have young LEGO fans, which his highly likely, the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Osaka’s Tempozan harbour area is worth a visit. It’s all indoors with a few small rides, a really cool 4D cinema, many interactive play areas and a miniature LEGO version of Osaka all under one roof. Not a full theme park but a solid half-day activity that guarantees smiles. 8,000 Yen for 2 kids and 1 adult.
Day Trip: Nara and the Bowing Deer
About an hour from Osaka by train and one of the best day trips in Japan.
Nara Park is home to over 1,000 wild deer who roam freely among the temples and visitors. They are incredibly tame.
They bow. Yes, bow.
Either they’ve been trained or they instinctively know that in Japan, if you don’t follow the rules, something bad will happen.
We assumed Nara would be quiet. We were wrong as it was heaving with visitors, particularly around Todai-ji temple (housing a giant bronze Buddha). But the deer were brilliant. We spent the day wandering, feeding deer, dodging deer, eating delicious food and spending heaps of cash in tacky souvenirs shops. The kids loved the day out.
Just to be absolutely clear: the deer bow. This is remarkable. Don’t miss it.
Practical tips:
- Shika senbei (deer crackers) are sold throughout the park for feeding – do not feed them anything else. Rules are to be obeyed in Japan.
- The deer will pursue you aggressively once they know you have crackers – just like bowing, they seem to understand human actions – if you show both hands are empty in front of them, they will leave you alone and move along to their next victim
- Todai-ji temple (the giant Buddha) charges entrance but is worth it
- Go early to beat the crowds – by midday it gets very busy. Although we got there mid-morning and it was still very busy.
Day Trip: Minoo Waterfall
After a few days of neon, noise and claw-machine heartbreak, we desperately needed nature. Several trains later we arrived in the outer suburb of Minoo which felt like a small village compared to Osaka’s busy streets.
A 45-minute forest walk took us to Minoo Waterfall. It was glorious. The kids were back where they belong – being in nature, climbing rocks, splashing in rivers, attempting to build a dam that absolutely did not work. It was simple, peaceful, and exactly what we needed.
This was a great experience for us and very much needed or the soul to reset.
The Osaka Station Locker Incident - a word of warning
We went to Kyoto for two nights and to keep things light in Kyoto we stored our big bags in a locker at Temmoji Station and travelled with day packs.
Leaving Kyoto, we headed back to Temmoji Station, on our way to the airport, to retrieve our bags. This is where things went wrong.
Japanese train stations are enormous – multi-level shopping malls, underground tunnels, overground platforms, escalators going in every direction, thousands of people moving with purpose. We followed signs to Lockers. None were ours.
Time ticking. Airport contingency shrinking.
Luckily I had taken a photo of the locker and Google maps and a very helpful station staff member saved the day, we found our locker which was seven minutes away, on another floor, across a road, nowhere near where we’d been looking.
We grabbed our bags, sprinted to the train, and made it to the airport. Just.
Locker tip: Take a photo of your locker number AND its location on the station map the moment you store your bags. You will thank yourself later.
Costs and Budget for Osaka with Kids
- Accommodation: 9,000 to 20,000 Yen per night for family of four – depending on your location and budget. We paid 9,100 Yen (USD$56) per night for very new/clean, spacious 3-bedroom apartment, but was about 25-30 minutes by Metro to central Osaka station
- Metro: 180-400 Yen per journey per person
- Meal at ramen or local restaurant (family of 4): 3,000-4,000 Yen (USD$20-30) – hard to find but we managed to sniff out some cheaper places
- Takoyaki (per portion): 500-800 Yen
- Osaka Castle: 600 Yen per adult, under 15 free
- Overall daily budget (family of 4, excluding USJ): 30,000-40,000 Yen (USD$185-250) – travelling on a budget
Is Osaka Worth It for Families?
Yes – absolutely.
More relaxed than Tokyo, with better street food, more manageable scale, and excellent day trips to Nara and Minoo (& others possible including Kyoto but we went to Kyoto for 2 nights). The character stores and UFO Catchers may bankrupt you if you’re not careful (just get your kids rummaging on the floor for coins). But the food alone – the takoyaki at Dotonbori, the okonomiyaki, the endless ramen options – justifies every yen.
Seven days was perfect. Long enough to explore Osaka properly and do day trips to Nara and Kyoto without feeling rushed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Osaka better than Tokyo for families?
A: In our experience, yes. Osaka is more relaxed, more food-focused and more manageable in scale. Tokyo is extraordinary but exhausting. Osaka delivers most of the same highlights with less metro stress and better street food. This doesn’t mean that we did not enjoy Tokyo – we all loved it and think it’s absolutely worth the experience, but Osaka was just more manageable and the two day trips really helped break up the city life.
Q: How do you get from Tokyo to Osaka with kids?
A: The Shinkansen (bullet train) is the best option which takes 2 and a half hours or slightly more subject to which service you get. Buy tickets in advance but you can walk-in too. It’s an experience in itself and kids love it.
Q: Are the deer in Nara safe for children?
A: Generally, yes. The deer are very accustomed to people and rarely aggressive. However, they will pursue you if they know you have deer crackers (shika senbei). Young children holding food can get overwhelmed by several deer approaching at once. Keep small children close and be ready to eat/discard crackers quickly if needed. Remember to hold up both hands to show they are empty and the deer will walk away.
Q: What is the best food to try in Osaka with kids?
A: Takoyaki (octopus balls – just don’t tell them what’s in it until after if they’re not into seafood), okonomiyaki (savoury pancake), and ramen are all reliable kid-friendly options.
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