Compared to glitzy and expensive Tokyo, Osaka is gritty, vibrant, entrepreneurial and fun-loving: the best place in the country for a bar crawl.

Osaka is grittier, more entrepreneurial and more vibrantly fun-loving than Tokyo. It’s also a much more affordable destination, and the best place in the whole of Japan for a bar crawl. It’s got great food, and great shopping, and a reputation for friendliness. Osaka is an historic destination too, though, you probably recognise Osaka Castle? it’s one of the most famous landmarks in Japan, a vast, many-roofed building built on two rock platforms - both with moats? And Osaka also has a number of important shrines, an important history museums, several art museums and galleries, an aquarium, and an outpost of Universal Studios. Accommodation in the neighbourhoods around the castle, and the older parts of town, is a mix of ryokan, luxury and boutique hotels, and aparthotels. While the downtown neighbourhoods, with their sparkling, contemporary bars, restaurants and shopping precincts, offer more in the line of high tech. and contemporary accommodation - including capsule hotels.