2 Best Sights in The Kansai Region, Japan

Jihei Ogawa, master gardener of the late Meiji period, spent 10 years working the late Lord Sumitomo's circular garden into a masterpiece. The woods surrounding the pond are a riot of color in spring, when the cherry blossoms and azaleas bloom. Keitaku-en is adjacent to Shiritsu Bijutsukan in Tenno-ji Koen.

Originally the site of Expo '70, the garden-filled Senri Expo Park still draws visitors thanks to the presence of the National Museum of Ethnology, the Japan Folk Art Museum, and the enormous statue by Taro Okamoto called Tower of the Sun. Located outside the city center, the park offers an interesting look at how Osaka has blossomed in the postwar years in the Expo '70 Pavilion.