Osaka is the second largest city in Japan, the central metropolis of the Kansai region and the largest of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto trio. If Tokyo is Japan's capital, one might call Osaka its anti-capital. With what you will call it so, however, is left much open to your own findings upon the visit to the city. Veiled much with a commercial-centric city touch, you may as well start from picking up the lively intonation of Osaka dialect, heard from the people as you ride on the escalators standing on the right, instead of the left in Tokyo; then discovering the contrast of popular food to eastern Japan, as you look for places to lunch. The deeper you get inside, and at the end of your stay, it is not completely impossible that you may have compiled your own original list of reasons covering from history, culture, sports, to business. Osaka is traditionally considered the "nation's kitchen" or the gourmet food capital of Japan. http://wikitravel.org/en/Osaka