Tennoji
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Located in the southeast of central Osaka, the Tennoji Ward is one of the popular districts of the city.
There are four major shopping centers near Tennoji Station: Mio, a fashionable, upscale mall; Kintetsu Department Store, Hoop, and Abeno Cues Town - targeted primarily at younger shoppers, but also home to a large number of restaurants and eateries. Tennoji Station is one of Osaka's largest transportation hubs, served by multiple JR and subway lines. Kintetsu Osaka Abenobashi Station is just across the street. |
Tennoji Station Vicinity
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Mio Tennoji is a luxurious mall consisting of a main building and a plaza building, and is directly linked to Tennoji Station.
This shopping center boasts some 380 shops, with globally popular Japanese brands, supermarkets, drugstores, cosmetic stores and household goods stores. Many of the shops offer tax-free shopping. The main building offers twelve floors of shopping with two floors of restaurants, while the plaza building has eleven floors of shops with the top four floors occupied by an electronics chain shop, schools and clinics. |
Mio Tennoji
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Abeno Harukas which opened in the March of 2014, is currently the tallest building in Japan at 300 meters in height.
It includes the Osaka Abenobashi Station on the ground floor, the Abeno Harukas Kintetsu Department Store, the Abeno Harukas Art Museum on the 16th floor, as well as the roof top garden space which is on the same floor. It is also house to 5-star, 360-room Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel and an observation deck on the top floors with incredible views out over Osaka. |
Abeno Harukas
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Abeno Cues Town is a popular shopping mall boasting the largest-class shopping area in Osaka prefecture. It consists of Via Abeno Walk and Abeno Q's Mall.
Abeno Cues Town offers five floors of shopping with a wide variety of stores. There is Q's kitchen "Food Court" on the third floor and Q's dining "Restaurants" on the fourth. It is home to 250 stores including Tokyu Hands, Ito Yokado, Uniqlo and Shibuya 109. This shopping area is connected to Tennoji Station by an underground passage. |
Abeno Cues Town
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The Tennoji Park immediately west of the Tennoji station, is home to the Tennoji zoological garden, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, a Buddhist temple and a pond.
This sprawling park is a pleasant oasis of green and open space in the middle of a crowded city. Tennoji Zoo houses some 1,500 animals of 300 different species. The zoo features adjacent savannah zones for herbivorous and carnivorous animals, which are arranged so that the animals appear to be sharing the same space. |
Tennoji Zoo
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Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts was opened in Tennoji Park in 1936. The original main building rises 3 stories above ground and newly-added exhibition rooms fill 2 stories below ground.
The museum houses over 8,000 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, and crafts produced in China and Japan, and pieces donated by temples and shrines. Some of these are designated National Treasures and Important Cultural Assets. The museum also offers seminars on art history, gallery talks, and classes for elementary and junior high school students given by professional artists. |
Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts
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Another nearby attraction is Shitennoji Temple. It is one the oldest and the first Buddhist temple in Japan built by the state government in 593 AD.
Although the current buildings are recent concrete reconstructions, still it’s a pleasant place to explore and to soak up the spiritual vibes of the place. The outer temple grounds are free to enter but admission charges apply to enter the inner precinct. The site is only a ten-minute walk from Tennoji Station. |
Shitennoji Temple
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West of the park lies Shinsekai "New World", a uniquely Osakan dining and entertainment district that was established in the early part of the last century and still teems with scores of eateries.
Shinsekai is one of Osaka’s most colorful neighborhoods, but only truly come alive when the lights come on at night. In 1902, the area was developed for the 5th Japan National Industrial Exhibition, to promote industrial growth and the fine arts. The Exhibition’s success gave birth to the "The New World", and it was aptly named Shinsekai. |
Shinsekai
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Kushikatsu is one of Osaka's best known specialties. It is a dish, composed of various seasoned, skewered, covered with bread crumbs and deep fried foods. Varieties on offer range from chicken and beef to seafood and veggies, usually no more than 100-150 yen per skewer.
This is one of Shinsekai's famous fast foods. Locals say you have not been to Shinsekai if you have not tried the Kushikatsu. Osaka’s three most famous foods are Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki and Kushikatsu. Many of Shinsekai's kushikatsu restaurants are open 24 hours. |
Kushikatsu
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Tsutenkaku Tower stands at the center of Shinsekai in Naniwa Ward, and was designated a registered tangible cultural property of Japan. The tower is patterned after the Eiffel Tower.
The Tsutenkaku Tower is 103 meters high, with the main observatory on the 5th floor at a height of 91 meters, with fine views of the city and Mt. Rokko in the distance towards Kobe. Tsutenkaku is illuminated at night and color-coded lights at the top display the weather forecast. |
Tsutenkaku Tower
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Shinsekai is also home to Spa World, a huge bath complex "enjoyed naked and gender separated" with a large number of pools.
Though the city of Osaka has several natural hot springs, Spa World has the answer for an unforgettable Onsen experience. It’s an enormous bathhouse with eight floors of Onsens, pools, fitness center, a restaurant and a hotel with Japanese and Western style rooms. The complex features baths resembling Ancient Rome, Greece, Spain, Italy's Grotto Azzura, Persian and Japanese style among others. |
Spa World
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Access
From Osaka Station – take JR on the Osaka Loop Line to Tennoji Station "takes about 20 minutes".
From Umeda Station – take JR on the Subway Midosuji Line to Tennoji Station "takes about 15 minutes". From Namba Station – take JR on the Subway Midosuji Line to Tennoji Station "takes about 8 minutes". |
Tennoji Station
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Tennoji-ku - Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture
