Tsutenkaku Tower

Tsutenkaku Tower rises 108 meters at the heart of Osaka's Shinsekai district, a retro entertainment quarter that holds onto the city's postwar working-class identity better than anywhere else. The current tower was rebuilt in 1956, and its neon-lit profile has become inseparable from Osaka's image. Inside, you can rub the feet of Billiken, a grinning luck deity whose golden statue is said to grant wishes. The real reason to come, though, is Shinsekai itself: the surrounding streets of kushikatsu shops, game arcades, and faded signage feel like an alternate timeline where modern Japan never arrived.