Osaka Station — Local services in Osaka

Huge and crowded station with a lot of constructions ongoing (as of today).

🚨HARUKA (Warning) 🚨 • Avoid getting on from this station unless you know the way or really have to. It’s pretty complicated especially now when construction is everywhere. • Haruka platform is accessed from “Haruka entrance” only. You CAN’T get in from any JR Osaka entrances. • Look for “Haruka” sign and follow it. Still easy to get lost as sign comes and goes. • Start from JR Central gate where JR information centre is. Ask staff there & they will show you the map. If still confused, look for Lucua department store, take escalator down to B1, look for Daimaru department store then Uniqlo & you will see Haruka sign. • If possible, before catching Haruka, just survey how to get there so you will not be lost on the day you have to get on. We did the route survey a few days before but yet we still got lost. • Spare time to go there in case you get lost. • There are only 8 chairs on the platform without waiting room, unlike any other stations. If you arrive early and want to sit, don’t pass entrance way too early. Go sit elsewhere.

Don’t rely on google map alone especially when outside the station as many roads and crosswalks were closed and deviated due to road construction … pretty much for coming expo.

Osaka station is too busy and overcrowded for me. If you want to go shopping for Japanese brands like GU, Uniqlo, Daiso, Don Qijote, googling other branches might...

Entering through the west entrance, I used the vending machine to purchase a ticket for the first time. I chose an Osaka-Kyoto one way reserved seat ticket, which costs us around 2000 yen,mistakenly believing it included both the seat reservation and the train fare.

When I tried to pass through the gate, it initially closed on me before reopening. A JR staff in the control room signalled to me and I assumed he had resolved the issue and opened the gate for us.

After passing through the gate, the staff member waved us over and directed us into the control room. To my shock, he began yelling and angrily scolding us, accusing us of forcing the door open (we never force open the gate, the gate simply open automatically). Despite our explanations and our train is leaving in 3 minutes, he continued to reprimand us for about five minutes which caused us missing our train. I asked if we had entered through the wrong station or gate , but he insisted that we needed to purchase another ticket and kept accusing us “forcing” the gate. This was utterly confusing as we believed we had already bought the necessary ticket (given that it’s more than 2000 yen one way), and thought he meant our train has gone and we need to buy new tickets. The staff refused to listen to us and kept yelling for 5 minutes.

This entire ordeal was extremely distressing, and the staff member's lack of helpfulness and patience exacerbated...

Osaka Station (大阪駅 Ōsaka-eki) is a major railway station in the Umeda district of Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It forms the city's main rail terminal in the north.

Although it is officially served by only the JR Kobe/Kyoto Lines (Tōkaidō Main Line) and the Osaka Loop Line, Osaka is the starting point of JR Takarazuka Line service, and serves as the terminal for trains bound for the San'in region via JR Takarazuka Line and the Hokuriku region via JR Kyoto Line, while offering connections to trains bound for Nara, Wakayama and Kansai International Airport via the Osaka Loop Line.

Umeda Station (Hankyu, Hanshin, and Osaka Municipal Subway Midosuji Line), Nishi-Umeda Station (Subway Yotsubashi Line) and Higashi-Umeda Station (Subway Tanimachi Line) are directly connected to Osaka Station, and Kitashinchi Station on the JR Tōzai Line is within walking distance.

Osaka Station and Umeda Station, effectively part of the same complex, together constitute the busiest station in Western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005, and the fourth-busiest railway station in the world.[1]

Osaka Station also houses a large terminal for overnight bus services to other cities in Japan, and until March 2013 also had a nearby freight terminal complex, Umeda Freight Terminal, owned...