Osaka

The Ebisubashi bridge under the Glico sign only thins out after ten at night. Down at water level a walkway runs beneath the bridges, away from the crush. Twenty minutes is all the canal boat needs for its loop.

The keep is a concrete rebuild with a lift, though the top floors are stairs. The park and the late-February plum grove are free; the keep itself and the Nishinomaru garden both charge. Nishinomaru shuts Mondays, and last entry to the keep is 16:30.

A slide corkscrews from halfway up the tower down to street level, on a separate ticket and with a weight limit. Up top you rub the soles of the Billiken statue for luck. The lanes below are wall-to-wall kushikatsu signs.

Stalls open around 9am; most are shuttered by 5pm. Eating space is folding tables out front, which is why two or three stops is the sensible plan. Sashimi and oysters are shucked to order at tourist prices.

The escalator between the two towers hangs in open air on the 39th floor with nothing under your feet. The rooftop deck has no roof and rain reaches you unfiltered. Good spots go well before sunset.

The arched Sorihashi at the entrance is pitched near 45 degrees, closer to a staircase than a bridge. The Hankai tram stops right at the gate. Over two million worshippers come through in the first three days of January.

Ten minutes on foot from Umeda, a pocket of wooden houses that escaped the firebombing now holds cafes and small shops. Most open at noon; many close on days of their own choosing. Expect a few shut doors.

On the 21st and 22nd of every month a flea market fills the grounds and the place feels entirely different. The inner precinct and garden charge admission, though the outer grounds around the five-storey pagoda are free to walk.

You ride to the eighth floor and spiral down with no way back up. The point of that route is meeting the whale shark tank again from each new level. The last two hours before closing are the quietest.

The tallest building in Osaka: on a clear day Awaji Island sits to the southwest, Osaka Castle to the northeast. You buy on the 16th floor and a dedicated lift reaches the 60th in fifty seconds, onto a gallery floor that is one sheet of glass underfoot.

Opened in 2001, reached on the JR Yumesaki Line to Universal City. On busy days Super Nintendo World needs a timed area-entry slot claimed in the official app once you are inside; an Express Pass covers it instead.

The park on the site of Osaka's 1970 World Expo. Okamoto Taro's Tower of the Sun stands 70m tall and has a black sun face on its back as well as the one in front. The Tree of Life display inside needs booking.

About 2.8km up the gorge from Hankyu Minoo Station stands a 33m waterfall. The path is gentle, two hours there and back. Feeding the wild monkeys breaks a city ordinance, so keep any lunch zipped in the bag.

A narrow stone-flagged lane one block from Dotonbori, lit by the lanterns of small bars and counters. The Mizukake Fudo statue inside is furred green with moss from all the water worshippers ladle over it. Scoop, splash, then pray.

A covered arcade running about 600m from the Nagahoribashi end south to Ebisubashi bridge. Drugstores and clothes shops fill most of it, a good bet when it rains. Over the bridge at its southern tip lies Dotonbori.

The youth quarter locals call Amemura, with vintage clothes and record shops down every side street. Little Triangle Park at its heart is where people meet, and on weekend evenings its steps fill with people hanging out.

Electronics-parts shops, anime stores and figure dealers line Sakaisuji in Nipponbashi. The old second-hand game shops hide on the back lanes. It is quieter than Akihabara, so browsing is slower and easier.

Running straight for about 2.6km from 1-chome to 7-chome, it is reckoned the longest shopping street in Japan. The 1-chome end sits beside Osaka Tenmangu. Midway, a butcher's croquette counter always has a queue.

The shrine to Sugawara no Michizane, patron of scholars, so students crowd in at exam time praying to pass. On July 24 and 25 the Tenjin Matsuri sends around a hundred boats along the Okawa river, with fireworks over the water at night.

A long island between the Dojima and Tosabori rivers. The red-brick Central Public Hall of 1918 and the Museum of Oriental Ceramics are neighbours on the bank. The rose garden at the east tip is fullest in May and October.

The 9th floor holds a life-size late-Edo Osaka street, its lighting cycling from daytime through evening to night, even piping in rain. You can rent a yukata for photos in the lanes. Closed Tuesdays.

It marks the backyard shed in Ikeda where Momofuku Ando made instant ramen in 1958, and rebuilds that shed. Entry is free; only the workshop where you decorate a cup and pick your own soup costs money. Closed Tuesdays.

Step through the JR Tsuruhashi ticket gates and the smell of grilling meat reaches you first. The market lanes by the station are crammed with kimchi, hanbok and banchan sellers, and a walk south leads to Ikuno's Koreatown street.

Giant keyhole-shaped burial mounds in Sakai, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019. The largest, Daisen Kofun, is 486m long and looks like a mere wood from the ground. The 21st-floor observation lobby of Sakai City Hall shows the outline.

About 560m of riverside path inside the Mint opens for a week or so each mid-April. Most trees are double-blossomed late bloomers that flower once Osaka's other cherries have dropped. Walking runs south to north only, and entry rules change yearly.