Top Osaka Hotels

Took JTB Sunrise one day tour to Kyoto. You have to get into the hotel nearest Osaka Station, which is the Granvia. Probably easier to take the airport limousine bus to Shin-Osaka station (only about 440 yen.)

We stayed at this hotel on completion of a cruise that ended in Osaka. The cruise line provided transfers only to Kansia International Airport (KIX) and not to Itami (ITM) so we took a cab. It costs approximately US$70 (7,000 yen) and took about 35 minutes from the pier. You can also get there by train, but we had too much luggage to use that option. The airport opens at 6am and we were told to be there at that time in order to check-in for our 8 am flight. In practice there were only short lines and we could have waited at least until 6.30 am.

Visited Osaka Castle, the Osaka Aquarium (fantastic), Kyoto (about 25 minutes by train), went to Gion district and saw a Geisha show, tea ceremony, there are over 1,500 temples to see in Kyoto. The cherry blossoms in April are something you should not miss. Nara is a remarkable city, bring food to feed the deer that walk around free. Plenty of museums, shopping. Wear your walking shoes as you do plenty of walking. In Kyoto, get an all day bus pass so you can get on and off the bus at different locations for one price. Trains and subways are pretty easy to learn. Food is great almost everywhere. Don''t miss the shopping underneath the Hanshin Dept store. The pastries made each day are beautiful. Fun to see all the different food.

Ate at the Kintetsu food floor. Similar to other department store food floors. Seattle''s Best Coffee located adjacent to hotel. Took the subway one stop from Ue-Hommachi stop (hotel) to Nipponbashi (Den-Den Town electronics area). The large Kuromon food market is also in the area.

Reaching the destination from Kyoto with the Japan Rail West pass was a little adventure! But being there we discovered that the city bus to Itami gave good connection with JR, so our wives could fly from Itami, while we (the boys) needed just two hours to catch our plain at Kansai, seeing each other again after safe flying in Amsterdam!

Osaka''s sights are well-documented but one attraction relatively close to the airport is worth noting (especially if you have a lazy day to spend watching planes). Skyland Harada is a park where you get great views of planes landing at Itami Airport, great place to people-watch or enjoy a practice game of softball.

Best way to get to the centre of Osaka is by the airport express bus from the airport.

Great location for restaurants and shopping.

Osaka is a lively city - but it''s edginess might wear you down a bit after a while. At night, wander around the overhead bridges or train stations and listen to passionate Japanese musicians performing ''live''. From Osaka, take day trips to beautiful Kobe (try Kobe beef - it ain''t that expensive if you scout around - about $10,000 Yen for truly scrumptious teppanyaki steak meal at "SteakLand"). Or venture out to Kyoto, just 30 minutes away - in Spring and Summer, you can easily spot geishas and maikos trotting about the lovely streets of Gion.

Some travel directions is needed for this hotel. I was tired, this being my last night for the 3 week vacation I had (solo). I jumped into a cab and he was unable to find it, so asked another driver then went into a Police Station for advice. If you at the Osaka JR station walk north or south (unsure) when you come out, go left pass the tourist info centre and a Burberry Shop, you see an overbridge for the pedestrian walk - walk on it (there are escalators and staircase), once on top go left. You would walk straight and walk past the other rail station (not JR) and maybe some homeless selling wares on the pavement, you would also walk past KFC fast food restaurant.<br> <br> A half minute or less walk, you come to a corner at the traffic lights. Across the road there is a mall and in front of that, an adult shop with color posters on its walls etc .. walk towards that, then turn left and walk straight keeping an eye on the left side which is an enclosed mall with restaurants, pachinko parlors, etc etc. The hotel is in there if unable to get map. Get the map from info tourist centre and there is a KFC centre south east of the JR station, then follow the instructions above - makes following my directions a lot easier. Hope this helps. Reason I wrote so much is the info here on this site was insufficient and hence I went to those troubles with the cab driver et al..