Umeda's New Openings: The Umekita Forest Park and Osaka Station's Character World

The forest opens 20 November

Umekita Forest sits on the western side of Grand Green Osaka's North Park, a few minutes' walk from the Umekita underground exit of JR Osaka Station. It's free and there's no gate to get through. The waterfall drops about three metres into shallow ponds, with young native woodland, maples and Japanese irises planted around an open lawn. Umeda's glass office towers stand straight up behind the tree line, which is the strange and good part of it. This is the first piece of a bigger park due around spring 2027.

The opening programme runs from 20 to 23 November, with plant-dyeing and herb-basket workshops, a morning plant tour and outdoor Mölkky. There's a free drop-in session on 22 November. The drone show on opening night runs twice, at 18:00 and 20:00, and it's the first one staged at Osaka Station.

If you arrive with an hour before a train, go here. Nothing else green is this close to the platforms.

What's on at VS.

VS. is the pale hall standing on its own on the lawn in Umekita North Park, about a seven-minute walk from the Central Gate of JR Osaka Station. Inside it's one tall exhibition room, with a large concrete hall underneath for concerts and festivals. It's open 9:00 to 21:00.

The underground hall has UMEKITA SOUND BAZAAR on 21 to 23 November, with live performances including Tyondai Braxton, a book and zine fair, talks and a listening space. A free opening talk about city soundscapes is on Friday 20 November, and you need to sign up for it. The International Students Creative Award 2026 is shown here from 4 to 6 December. Check what's programmed before you walk over, as there's little to see between runs.

Inside KITTE Osaka

KITTE Osaka is joined to the west side of JR Osaka Station. Its basement, うめよこ, is a narrow lane of Osaka eateries and standing bars under red lanterns, and drinking there in the daytime is normal. One sake counter opens at 09:00. Restaurants are open 11:00 to 23:00, shops until 20:00. Allow an hour or two if you want to hop between a couple of counters.

Three floors up, Chiikawa Bakery OSAKA bakes bread rolls into the faces of Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi, and sells merchandise you can only buy in Osaka. The bakery itself currently lets in priority-ticket holders only, and tickets are sold online. The pop-up shop immediately next door carries the same goods and takes same-day walk-ins, so head straight there if you have no ticket. It's open 11:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:30, and it closes on irregular days.

Eating around the station

Time Out Market Osaka is in the basement of the Grand Green Osaka South Building, connected to JR Osaka Station. You order at whichever kitchen counter you like, then carry the food back to a long shared table, so sushi, kushiage and takoyaki can end up side by side. There are bars and a stage running DJ and live sets. It's open daily 11:00 to 23:00, with last kitchen orders at 22:00. Allow an hour, and expect a queue at busy times.

Takonotetsu on the second floor of Grand Green Osaka's North Building hands you the grill and makes you do the work. The takoyaki plate is set into your table, and staff come over to show first-timers how to turn the balls. Reckon on around ¥1,300 a head at lunch and ¥2,500 at dinner, and give it an hour and a half if you're cooking. It's table seating only and entirely non-smoking, and there's a children's menu. Open 11:00 to 23:00.

Two floors at LINKS UMEDA

Grillpia LINKS UMEDA opened in April 2026 on the 13th-floor roof of the LINKS UMEDA South Building, connected to Umeda Station. You grill your own food over charcoal in the open air, with the lit office towers standing close around the deck. The seat charge is ¥2,000 per adult on weekdays and ¥2,400 at weekends and holidays, which covers the table, the grill and the clearing up. You can carry in food bought downstairs, though not your own cooking kit. Set menus start at ¥2,300 a head and must be booked three days ahead. All-you-can-drink is ¥1,700 for alcohol and ¥500 for soft drinks, and the whole table has to order it.

Booking is online in fixed sessions. Weekdays have a lunch and an evening sitting, weekends three a day. You can still book up to an hour before a session starts. It runs year-round, with a winter season from 1 December to 28 February. There's no cover over the deck, so move indoors if the forecast is wet.

Indoors is one lift ride away. LINKS DINING, the eighth-floor restaurant street in the same building, finished a full rebuild in 2026, and several of the new arrivals are first branches in Kansai. You'll find robata grilling, premium yakiniku, a dim sum buffet and conveyor-belt sushi along the same lane. It's open 11:00 to 23:00 with last orders at 22:30. Walk the floor and take whichever door has a free table.

A bath beside the station

Umekita Onsen Ren is a hot-spring bathhouse on the third and fourth floors of the Grand Green Osaka South Building, beside JR Osaka Station. Admission is ¥3,190 on weekdays and ¥3,740 at weekends and holidays. That covers the baths, the sauna, the gym, the indoor pool and the rest area, and towels and robes are included. The outdoor heated infinity pool looking over Umekita Park is charged on top. One admission lasts up to 12 hours, with a surcharge between 00:00 and 05:00. It's open 24 hours, which makes it the obvious move before an early flight or after a late train.

Visible tattoos are refused, nobody under 12 gets in, and under-18s need an adult with them.

Rooftop drinks and a room

!JaJa!Bar is the open terrace on top of the Canopy by Hilton Osaka Umeda, a few minutes' walk from JR Osaka Station. The hotel is in the North Building of Grand Green Osaka. You drink outside with the park's trees below you, and there are games to play while you do. The kitchen does braised-beef okonomiyaki, furikake fries and octopus hushpuppies. A weeknight set for two is ¥3,500 including service and tax. The terrace is uncovered, so skip it in the rain or at the peak of Osaka's summer humidity.

HOTEL GEOMETIQ Osaka Umeda opened in July 2026 about six minutes' walk from JR Osaka Station, in a renovated eleven-floor building with Art Deco interiors. The useful part is the door straight into the Whity Umeda underground shopping mall at exit 7-75. You can get most of the way around Umeda without surfacing. All rooms are non-smoking.

Before you go

Book the rooftop grill session and the Chiikawa bakery ticket in advance, and look at what's programmed at VS. before you cross the park. KITTE Osaka closes on New Year's Day. See the Osaka guide and the Osaka hotel search.