"A Place to Pass Through" a Osaka Travel Page by AKtravelers

Osaka is not a city for tourists, except if they're passing through on the way to some place else. Many people stop over at the new airport, a spectacular facility built on a man-made island in the bay. Others pass through on the way to the many world-class tourist sites in Kyoto, Nara and Himeiji. Osaka offers very little incentive for a tourist to stay, but on one trip I decided to stay anyway.
Why? Well, I did want to spend a day in a Japanese city that didn't cater to tourists, for one. But mostly it seemed to be a convenient place to stay for a few days off at the end of a business trip, allowing me to visit Kyoto in one direction and Himeiji in the other. It was also the only city in the area with a major league baseball game, which would entertain me during what could have been a lonely evening (and I learned that Hanshin Tigers fans are the best baseball fans anywhere!). My minimal free time only gave me an afternoon and an evening to explore Japan's second largest city, but that was enough.