Best things to do in Osaka this weekend

One of Kansai’s most vibrant outdoor festivals, Koiya Matsuri celebrates the end of summer by bringing together around 70 dance teams for a weekend of high-energy dance battles. With an open-format concept, the festival showcases a wide variety of dance styles including yosakoi, hip hop and Kawachi Ondo.

At the heart of the festival are dynamic performances from dance troupes across Japan, all competing for the prestigious Koiya Grand Prize. But the event offers much more than dance.

Over at the festival's main site, which is the Fukakita Ryokuchi Park in Osaka prefecture's Daito City, you can also explore around 25 booths offering food, drinks and local goods, along with a photogenic lantern wall. There’s even a night festival happening on Saturday starting at 5.30pm, featuring more dance performances and lessons, community dance-alongs and audience participatory games.

Just 20 minutes by train from Umeda, Kitakagaya Multi Barthe is a temporary, multi-sensory sauna installation that blends wellness with contemporary art, botanical design and sea views. Created by the team behind the popular Osaka Sauna Desse in Shinsaibashi, the project takes place at Creative Center Osaka in Kitakagaya, a former shipyard turned cultural venue. This sauna pop-up is part of the centre’s 20th anniversary program.

Set within a vast post-industrial space, Multi Barthe is designed to rejuvenate the senses through a combination of steam, water, light, sound and scent, while also inspiring creative engagement through immersive artworks. Here, you move through curated grounds dotted with sauna structures, video installations, sculpture and plant-based environments, all intended to create a holistic experience for both body and mind.

On the weekend of September 27–28, Multi Barthe will host Osaka Sound Barthe, a two-day urban sauna, music and art festival held across the site.

Night Park at Grand Green Osaka is billed by its organisers as an ‘urban night economy experiment’. The project features a programme of innovative, after-dark experiences designed to explore the area's potential after sundown.

A highlight of the event is ‘Echo’, an interactive installation by Montreal-based start-up Mirari, found on the first floor of the South Building at Grand Green Osaka. This award-winning multidisciplinary studio is known for their large-scale multimedia works and immersive environments that transform spaces into sensory experiences. Though minimalist in appearance, 'Echo' uses advanced technology to translate sound into pulses of light, creating a mesmerising visualisation of human communication.

Osaka-born Koide Narashige (1887–1931) was a pioneering figure in Western-style Japanese painting, and this comprehensive exhibition at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art marks his first major retrospective in 25 years.

A graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts, Narashige produced a prolific body of work in oil painting, focusing primarily on still lifes and female nudes. It was his portrayals of the female nude, however, that earned him lasting acclaim. 

The exhibition features key works from each period of Narashige’s oeuvre, tracing his contributions to early 20th-century Japanese art. You can also expect to see a selection of sketches, book designs, illustrations and writings that highlight his wide-ranging creative talents beyond painting.

Founded in Osaka prefecture in 1996, POP Circus (whose acronym stands for ‘Pursuit of Pleasure’) is a renowned touring entertainment troupe specialising in world-class human acrobatics. Known for its high-energy, family-friendly performances, POP Circus’s latest show in Aramotokita features top-tier artists from over 10 countries performing jaw-dropping, and sometimes death-defying, stunts, including flying trapeze, aerial acrobatics, high-level juggling and African-style hand voltige.

This marks POP Circus’s first performance in Osaka prefecture in 12 years. The show runs until January 12 2026, in an air-conditioned tent set up in front of the Higashi-Osaka City Hall. Performances typically start at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm, though the number of shows varies by day, and some days (usually around mid-week) have no performances. Each performance lasts approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes, including a 15-minute interval.

Munich’s legendary Oktoberfest comes to Osaka this autumn with the return of Tenshiba Oktoberfest. Just like its Bavarian namesake, for 24 days, a small slice of Tennoji Park becomes a free-to-enter beer garden with covered seating and a rain-or-shine schedule. There will be more than 60 varieties of German beer on tap, from crisp pilsners and pale ales to rich wheat beers and seasonal specials, and even a beer brewed especially for Japan: Alcobräu’s Weissbier Krone.

To match the beer, the gaudy get-together lays on some of the most indulgent food there is, from genuine German pub grub like bratwursts and currywursts to the not-so-Bavarian Hiroshima oysters, steak, spareribs, mussels, pizza and platters of prosciutto and salami. Each Saturday, Sunday and public holiday, the festival atmosphere gets amplified by four performances from the lively Maria & Alpenbuam, a German-style band led by the aptly named ‘Queen of Beer Halls’.

These are troubled times we live in – unpredictable and deeply anxiety-inducing. Just as we begin to move past the shock of a global pandemic, new uncertainties emerge: natural disasters, political unrest and rapidly evolving technologies that blur the line between fact and misinformation. It often feels as though we are living in a constant state of emergency, with no resolution in sight.

In moments like these, however, art offers a means of coping, and a way to imagine something beyond the chaos. Using today’s volatile climate as a starting point, 'Prolonged Emergencies' brings together thought-provoking works by eight artists to explore how we could begin to make sense of this ‘new normal’.

This is not an exhibition that sugar-coats, and there are no answers here. Instead, through a tightly curated collection of video art, photography, immersive and mixed media installations, you’ll encounter a range of perspectives and narratives on the present and possible futures.

One of the most prolific artists of our time, Yayoi Kusama has created a strikingly diverse body of work spanning painting, sculpture, performance art and fashion. Yet across all mediums, her art is consistently defined by themes of obsessive repetition and proliferation, expressions she has described as a form of ‘self-therapy’ born from her hallucinations.

What sets Kusama apart is her ability to continually reinvent these signature motifs in imaginative ways. Her work always feels fresh, even as it remains instantly recognisable. This thematic continuity is on display in the small but curated exhibition now showing at Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka until January 2026. Titled ‘Infinity – Selected Works From The Collection’, the showcase brings together pieces from her early career through to her most recent creations.

The clear highlight of the exhibition is the Infinity Room, which transforms her repetitive motifs into a physical, immersive experience. ‘Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field (or Floor Show)’ (1965/2013) is one of the earliest works in her widely celebrated ‘Infinity Mirror Room’ series. 

Expo ’70 Commemorative Park is home to two of Osaka’s most popular and best-attended flea markets, one in its Festival Square and one in its East Square. The Expo Garage Sale is noted for the wide range of goods its vendors sell. Expect handmade items, accessories, antiques, bric-a-brac, and plenty of second-hand and vintage clothes. 

Most importantly, expect bargains. The organisers pride themselves on the market being a true-to-its-name ‘out of the garage’ sale. That means you’ll need to bring cash, and that bargaining – albeit politely – is encouraged. If you prioritise low prices over being particular about the products, know that in the afternoon, the crowding calms down and many of the amateur vendors lower their prices. 

The market also attracts food trucks, and the park has several cafés and restaurants so there are plenty of options for a picnic in the park.