Getting Oriented in the Kansai Region

Osaka sits between Kobe to the west and Nara to the east and has the Kansai region's main international airport, which serves all three cities. Travel to either Kobe or Nara from Osaka takes about 30 minutes, and it's about an hour from Kobe to Nara, and vice versa. Kyoto is the other major tourist destination in the Kansai region, and it is covered separately.

• Osaka. The people’s eccentric friendliness in Japan's third-largest city plays against its rough-and-tumble urban background.
• Nara. Visitors come for Nara's expansive parks and temples only to be enchanted by its rustic side streets and quiet sense of history.
• Kobe. The city's relaxed cosmopolitan vibe blends into the waterfalls and onsen (thermal spas) of Arima.