With fantastic food and nightlife, great connectivity and accommodation options in every price bracket, it makes a great base for exploring the entire region. Many districts in Osaka derive their names from the Tokugawa-era bridges that were built during the city's reign as transportation hub for the country.
If Tokyo is Japan's capital, one might call Osaka its anti-capital. Ask a local, and they'll proudly tell you that while Tokyoites are reserved, polite and boring, Osakans are warm, friendly and colorful, in speech, clothing and spirit. Osaka dates back to the Asuka and Nara period. Even after the capital was moved elsewhere, Osaka continued to play an important role as a hub for land, sea and river-canal transportation. See " Bridges" infobox. Hence it was also the city where merchants made and lost fortunes and cheerfully ignored repeated warnings from the shogunate to reduce their conspicuous consumption.
During Meiji era, Osaka's fearless entrepreneurs took the lead in industrial development, making it the equivalent of Manchester in the U. Osaka Info is the official multilingual guide site, jointly run by the city and the prefecture. From Shin-Osaka, you can connect to the city center by using the Midosuji subway line, or connect to the local JR network for other destinations. Look for hayatoku fares, which can offer big savings on trips purchased at least three days in advance.
If travelling from the east without a rail pass, you can take advantage of the Puratto Platt Kodama Ticket now in Japanese only , which offers a discount for Kodama services if you purchase at least one day in advance. You get a reserved seat and a coupon for a free drink including beer which can be redeemed at a "Kiosk" convenience counter inside the station.
There is only one Kodama service per hour from Tokyo, and a few early-morning Kodama trains cannot be used with this ticket. During travel periods when the Seishun 18 Ticket is valid, you can go from Tokyo to Osaka during the day in about nine hours using all-local trains. See the Seishun 18 Ticket article for more information. If you are coming from Kanazawa , you will need to take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Tsuruga and transfer to the Thunderbird. Stations with the same name but belonging to different railway companies are sometimes in different locations.
