Osaka

Japan's merchant city. Kyoto had the court and Edo had the government; Osaka had the rice exchange, the warehouses and the money, and the culture that grew out of that is still the most obvious thing about the place. The old greeting here was not how are you but are you making any money, and the word for the local approach to eating, kuidaore, means to ruin yourself through food.

Osaka Castle is the historical anchor. Hideyoshi built it in 1583, the Tokugawa destroyed it in 1615 and it burned again in 1868. The keep you see went up in 1931, one of the earliest concrete reconstructions in Japan and now a listed cultural property in its own right. The surrounding park is the best free space in the city.

Everything else is neighbourhoods. Dotonbori for neon and the Glico sign, Shinsekai for kushikatsu and the retro tower, Umeda for the sky building and department stores, Amerikamura for the teenagers, Tenjinbashisuji for the two and a half kilometres of arcade.

Eat. Takoyaki from a street window, okonomiyaki cooked on the counter in front of you, kushikatsu with the one-dip rule, kitsune udon, which was invented here. The city is cheaper than Tokyo and less formal about all of it.

Two local details. Osakans stand on the right of an escalator, as most of Kansai does and the rest of Japan does not, apparently a habit that started at the 1970 Expo. And the dialect is a comic instrument: Osaka produces most of the country's manzai double acts, and people here will tell you Tokyo humour does not really count.

Kyoto, Nara and Kobe are each within an hour by train.