Osaka

Osaka is Japan’s great city of appetite and spirit, long called the nation’s kitchen. The lights of Dotonbori, the castle, refined kaiseki and street food alike, and an easy, generous character set it apart from Tokyo — and make it a natural base for Kyoto and Nara.

Osaka grew as the commercial heart of Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his castle here in the late sixteenth century, and through the Edo period the city’s rice brokers and merchants set prices for the country. That trading culture shaped its character: direct, humorous and devoted to the table, summed up in the local word kuidaore — to eat oneself into ruin.

The city divides into Kita, around Umeda station and the new Umekita district, and Minami, the theatres and canal-side lights of Namba and Dotonbori. Between them, the island of Nakanoshima holds museums and Meiji-era stone buildings. Osaka is also the home of bunraku puppet theatre, and Kyoto, Nara and Kobe are all well under an hour away by train.

Late March and early April bring cherry blossom to the castle park and the riverbanks, and November brings autumn colour, both ideal for side trips to Kyoto and Nara. These are the busiest weeks of the year, and the most rewarding. Winter is mild and mostly dry, a calm season for food, theatre and temples.

Summer is hot and humid, with rain in June, but it is also the season of the Tenjin Matsuri in late July, one of Japan’s three great festivals, when a procession of boats fills the Okawa River and fireworks light the sky. September brings the Kishiwada Danjiri, where wooden floats are hauled at speed through the streets south of the city.

The Ritz-Carlton, Osaka in Umeda has been the city’s classic address for a generation, and The St. Regis Osaka stands on Midosuji, the great boulevard between Kita and Minami. Conrad Osaka occupies the upper floors of a Nakanoshima tower. The newest arrivals are Four Seasons Hotel Osaka in Dojima, with its own contemporary ryokan, and Waldorf Astoria Osaka in the Umekita district.

LVXE books The Ritz-Carlton and The St. Regis through Marriott STARS & Luminous, Four Seasons through Four Seasons Preferred Partner, and Conrad and Waldorf Astoria through Hilton for Luxury — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. Osaka also combines naturally with a stay in Kyoto.