7 Day Itinerary Osaka

A 7 Day Itinerary Osaka travel guide for you to make the most out of your  trip 

If you’ve been wondering what to put on your Osaka itinerary for your upcoming trip, an Osaka travel guide for you. This was the exact Osaka itinerary I followed when I visited Japan in 2019. 

This was my first time in Japan and I loved it. I didn’t want to leave, and my first international trip since the pandemic was in Tokyo. 

Japan is clean, the food is delicious and the people are polite and disciplined. Osaka was a nice first place in Japan to visit particularly since there are many activities to do not just in Osaka but nearby. 

This is exactly what I’ll be sharing with you in my 7 day itinerary for Osaka especially geared for first timers. Just like I was back then. 

7 Day Itinerary Osaka Overview

Day 1: Arrival

Day 2: Dotonburi, Shinsaibashi 

Day 3: Kyoto

Day 4: Nara

Day 5: Umeda Sky Building, Osaka Station North Gate Building  

Day 6: Universal Studios Japan

Day 7: Shopping day at Yodobashi Umeda & Departure 

Travel Preparations 

To prepare for our trip, we prepared our visa. Luckily we were granted multiple entry visas and we applied for this ourselves (meaning not through a travel agency like my previous trip to Oxford or my first trip to South Korea). 

Aside from that, I purchased a portable pocket wifi through Klook which we picked up upon arrival in Japan. 

This pocket wifi was going to be super important as it would help us navigate around the area. 

And of course, we brought pocket money for food and shopping. 

Day 1: Arrival

What I like to do when I travel is to allot the first day as a day of traveling meaning the main focus is to get to the airport, take the flight and get to our accommodations. 

This means we usually take an afternoon flight so that we can arrive early in the evening and get settled in like buying our breakfast from a convenience store so we can start fresh the next day. 

For this trip, we arrived in Osaka around 8pm. 

One of the first touristy things I did was to take a photo with the Nintendo wallpaper at the airport. Talk about excited because I was. Haha! 

However, the line in immigration was so long and it took us almost two hours to get through. It was hardly moving. We were so tired! 

By the time we finished, I had to run to claim the pocket wifi and then look for our bus. 

It was an airport bus I booked through Klook that would take us to a bus station in Osaka. 

The bus stop wasn’t in front of our hotel so we had to look for a taxi. My mistake was that I showed the name of the hotel in English so it took a while for us to understand each other. 

Tip for you when you travel is to use Google Translate or Papago. I used Papago during my trip to Osaka and it was really helpful. 

We stayed in Umeda Ibis, which was very near the subway station. 

After settling in, it was finally time to sleep so we could officially explore Osaka the next day. 

Day 2: Dotonburi, Shinsaibashi

The first priority of the day was to hear mass since it was a Sunday. If you’re Catholic, you can visit the Holy Family Catholic Church in Umeda. We opted to go to the 9am mass then head to Dotonburi for Ichiran. 

If you’re Filipino like me, a lot of people recommend that you should try Ichiran ramen. 

If you haven’t tried Ichiran, try it for the experience. Some people love Ichiran and others don’t. I had high expectations for Ichiran since it was so overhyped, but it was different from the taste I was expecting. I tried it once, but I like my ramen to taste different. 

It was a cool experience though since Ichiran was my first time ordering using a vending machine and eating at individual booths. 

From the church, we took a taxi to Dotonbori since we were still very tired from the night before. And we got lost in the subway station beside our hotel. 

It took a few days to finally figure out and memorize the right way back to our hotel from the subway. 

After our lunch in Ichiran, we went to Shinsaibashi, a well-known shopping area in Osaka. It’s a long indoor street filled with lots of shops. 

You’ll be overwhelmed with the choices. I was, but I made sure to enter the Disney store a couple of times. 

We entered many stores, and even walked around the side streets surrounding that famous hallway of shops. 

After an afternoon full of mostly window shopping and exploring the side streets of Shinsaibashi, we had dinner in Shake Shack. 

During the time we visited Osaka, there were no Shake Shack branches yet in the Philippines. And Shake Shack is one of my favourite burger restaurants. 

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, but as usual we kept on getting lost in the subway, particularly after exiting the train station proper, which lanes to take to end up at the street where our hotel was. 

The Higashi Umeda station is a huge station with lots of underground streets (or lanes), shops and restaurants. Subway stations in Japan are like tourist attractions of their own. I mean this in a good way. 

Day 3: Kyoto

Our main agenda for our third day in our 7 day Osaka itinerary was Kyoto. 

Since we tend to start our day late, we opted to buy food at the station before going to Kyoto. 

One of my cousins recommended trying the dumplings from Horai 551 and they were the best dumplings I’ve tried in my life. I’m not exaggerating. 

I would definitely go back to Osaka just to eat Horai 551. Because our train to Kyoto was at lunch time, we opted to buy a box of dumplings, water and milk tea and eat lunch on the train to save time. 

 What we noticed is that we were the only ones eating. And I later on learned that Japanese normally don’t eat in the train unless it’s on a long-distance train. I’m not sure if our train to Kyoto counted as long distance or not though. 

Thank goodness we were quiet while eating our dumplings and it also didn’t have a strong smell. 

When we finally arrived at the train station, we had to take a bus to the Kiyomizu-dera temple area. 

However, the bus can’t take you right beside the temple. You get off at a stop and then you have to walk uphill–it’s a tiring walk–until you reach the area where the temple is. 

We spent most of our afternoon walking around the area. Since we were tired we weren’t able to visit the Arashiyama bamboo grove because we would have to take another train ride–an hour or so–away. 

There was a lot to see anyway in the Kiyomizu-dera temple area. On our way downhill, we stopped by a restaurant to eat. I wish I had taken down the name of the restaurant because their gyudon was so good. The next time I go back to Kyoto, I’m looking for that place and making sure to write down the name. 

By the time we were finished eating and had arrived at the bus station to go back to Kyoto Station, it was almost 5pm–and rush hour. There were more people riding the bus at this time so it took us a while to be able to board a bus that wasn’t so full. 

After that, we took the train back to Higashi Umeda, had dinner and rested. The next day we would be heading to Nara. 

Day 4: Nara, Dotonburi

For our fourth day in our 7 day Osaka itinerary, we went to Nara. 

Learning from our train trip yesterday, we did not eat lunch on the train to Nara. However, since we arrived past lunch time, we were hungry. 

From the station, we had to take a bus to Nara park which is known for its deer. We decided that we would eat lunch there so at least we were already in the area and wouldn’t have to worry about the transportation going to the park. 

As soon as we got off the bus, we were greeted by the deer. 

One particular deer went straight for one of my jean pockets.

Since people feed the deer and they’re so used to people, the deer thought I would have food there. It was a pretty aggressive deer, but I wasn’t scared. Just startled. 

We then found a place to eat lunch near the park. I got the tempura noodle dish. After lunch, I found a stall that sold ice cream and bought one. It was so good! It’s called Cremia. 

Then it was time to roam around the park, and I went to the Todai-ji Nandaimon (Grand South Gate) to take as many photos as I could. I was too shy to ask someone to take my photos so I tried using my timer on my camera app, but it was still hard. 

Everywhere you go, there are so many deer. And people were either taking photos with them, feeding them or petting them. They were so cute, but again also quite aggressive if they’re hungry. 

Of course I also took a couple of photos with the deer. What I didn’t know is that these deer know how to bow!! I only found out after. It would have been cute to see that in action.

After going around Nara Park, we headed to Dotonbori for dinner. And since it was the day before my birthday, an early birthday dinner treat. 

We walked along the river by Dotonbori, took a couple of photos, and then finally settled on eating at Botejyu! We tried their beef and it was so delicious. 

We walked around some more after dinner, and then on the way back to the hotel, I found a milk tea shop that had a really long line even at 10pm! 

I snapped a quick photo before heading back to the hotel so I could refer back to it and try it the next time. 

Day 5: Umeda Sky Building. Osaka Station North Gate Building  

For my birthday, and our fifth day in Osaka, we visited the Umeda Sky Building. 

It was a little tricky to get to via subway. On day 5 we were still getting lost haha! But that’s the adventure of traveling although it does make you more tired. 

I was excited to go to the Umeda Sky Building because of the views. I was a little nervous since it was so high but the view was so worth it. 

I couldn’t remember how much we paid so I did some research. 

According to their official website, here are the rates: adult is ¥1500, children 4 to 12 is ¥700, while any child younger than 4 is free. 

You can also click the link above  to check for updates on their opening hours. 

Entrance passes can also be purchased online through a link in that page. 

We entered through the Fun Fun Plaza and then had to take an elevator to go up. We spent about over an hour exploring the Umeda Sky Building before finally going down. 

Outside the building, you can also take photos at the beautiful garden. 

We then took a cab to get lunch at the Osaka Station North Gate Building

 since it was past 1pm. 

After lunch, we headed back to Shinsaibashi where we explored more side streets and found a milk tea place with a really long line. The milk tea shop was called Sinanju and it’s near Daimaru Shinsaibashi. 

I went back to the main hallway of Shinsaibashi and re-entered the Disney store because I still really wanted to get something. Though I still came out empty-handed. 

For dinner, we headed to Dotonbori and ate at a casual tempura place. It was really good! 

By 8:30pm we were tired and headed back to the hotel. I was excited for the next day since I would be going to Universal Studios Osaka! This is what I’d been looking forward to the whole trip. 

Day 6: Universal Studios Osaka

The Universal Studios Osaka was a birthday gift to myself. I went solo since my mom isn’t into theme parks. The game plan was to savour and spend as much time as possible at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and ride as many times as I could. 

I got up early so that I could make it to the theme park by 9am since I heard lines could get long and I wanted to head straight for the Wizarding World to avoid long lines. 

Thankfully, there’s a subway line that goes straight to Universal Studios so it was easy to get there. However, what was not easy was figuring out which was the correct lane to enter the park. 

There were many people at the entrance when I got there. I had tried to ask a Japanese couple where the line was. They were very nice but we couldn’t communicate that well. Turns out I was at the right place, the lines were really just long and there wasn’t one single line. 

By 10am, I was at the Wizarding World and headed for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It took about an hour to ride, but I enjoyed it. 

After that, I went around the park to use my interactive wand and cast spells throughout the park. I had first bought my wand at the Wizarding World in Hollywood so I made sure to bring it this time around. 

I then went to try the “mini-rollercoaster” Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike adventure and ended up seated beside a fellow Filipino! What a small world. 

At around 12:30 pm, I went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch and ordered the roast chicken platter. 

Of course I also tried the butterbeer at one point while at the theme park, but I will admit I’m not a fan of butterbeer. It’s just not my cup of tea. I wish I liked it! 

Though I did grab a cup of chocolate ice cream at one of the stalls too. 

I rode the rides a couple more times before exploring the rest of Universal Studios at 4pm where I dropped by and rode the Minions ride. I walked around the rest of the theme park, took photos as best as I could, and called it a day at 7pm. 

Day 7: Shopping Day at Yodobashi Umeda

On our last and seventh day of our Osaka trip, we decided to go shopping. I spent most of the day exploring Yodobashi Umeda and the surrounding malls around it. I regret exploring the malls since I found a couple of cute items like a shirt and a backpack. I didn’t do much shopping during this trip, so I went all out on our last day. 

Our flight back to Manila was past midnight, but we decided to go to the airport early and eat dinner there. The rest of the time we spent walking around the airport or seated at the benches waiting to board our flight. 

And that was it! I hope you enjoyed this 7 day Itinerary Osaka travel guide based on my trip in 2019. 

Have you been to Osaka?