Holidays, Hellidays and the Journeys in between....: An ode to Osaka - A love story or things as they ought to be

We had spent almost two weeks in Tokyo, so had plenty of time to discover favourite haunts and get a real feel for the city. On our return visit, we only had four nights there and then divided the rest of the trip between Osaka and Kyoto. Osaka was chosen because we would fly out of there to go home, and for Universal studios. I had allowed 2 other days to explore the city, though one had been to head to Nara.

However, as the earthquake had just happened earlier that week, I was not comfortable to leave the kids in Osaka while we went off without them. (One of the kids is an adult and the other a teen, but they're still kids to me...incase you thought I was leaving toddlers in the hotel by themselves). So we had unplanned time to enjoy Osaka.

This lead me to fall in love with this city. Firstly, it feels like a small town. It is a city of 20 million people but it FEELS small and accessible and very easy to get around. No matter where you go it feels 'low rise' even when it isn't. In the heart of the city is the small scale vintage glory of Nishishinsabashi or the park walk to the Osaka Castle. We sought out an Italian pizzeria (where Italians were the only other diners) in what felt like a neighbourhood of houses, right near one of the busiest stations.

Hidden delights. Yes there is the sensation food offerings on Dontonrobi but there are things to eat, see and do hidden away in every building and on every side street. There's a sense of adventure as you stumble across gems. I had picked this ramen restuarant off the web, but to find it, whe had to venture to the top of an electuacl department store, past robots and gacha gacha machines, decorative displays from Astro Boy to Anime. We arrived at the top to find not one restaurant but a food court of little restaurants. There was even a machine with ice cream and a little space to eat it in. We picked a Hokkaido Ramen place, making the most delicious Sapporo sytle miso based ramen. As fabulous as the food was, getting there had been half the adventure.

The other thing that really endears you to Osaka is the sense of fun. Everything seems set up to have a good time. The streets are festooned with eyecatching vibrant decorations and mascots. In Osaka there are mascots for everything, though Billiken seems to be the most popular. No matter what you do, there is fun to be had. Everyone seems relaxed and happy (as lovely as the people of Tokyo are, they seem busier).

I feel Osaka is a very underrated city on the tourist trail, used only as base to get elsewhere. If planning a trip, have a few rest days here and really get the feel of it. There's a reason their mascot is Billiken, the God of 'things as they out to be'.