Unjetlagging in Sakai

Kansai International Airport is an incredibly convenient airport for central Japan and the bustling city of Osaka and Japan’s venerable old capital, Kyoto, plus a number of other great places to visit in Japan.

I understand most visitors head straight to Osaka or Kyoto, thanks to the great airport train connections – the retro futuristic Nankai Rapi:t for Osaka-Namba and the sometimes cutesy JR Haruka for Kyoto. Both trains are super cool and comfortable, more expensive than regular train, but spracious, fast, with room for luggage…

so why cram into a local train to some other city?

Imagine arriving in Namba after a long flight, which is super busy day and night, with new sounds, smells, lights, a new language… or at the frantic Kyoto Station that is so busy most of the day that you risk being run over with a humongous wheelie suitcase, and there are attendants at the bus stations telling why where to queue for the bus.

Try spending a night in Sakai

Which is why Sakai might be a perfect place to land, rest, eat your first bowl of ramen, then move on. And while you get your bearings after landing in Japan, Sakai has some really lovely things to see and do.

I spent a night and two half days in Sakai on my recent visit to Japan and I would really love to see more visitors to Sakai – so let me sing the praises of Sakai.

Arrived and went and straight into the Traditional Crafts Museum

I arrived at Kansai International Airport (KIX) in May, well after Golden Week, at the tail end of a busy spring tourist season, with immigration still at capacity, but well organised. I was on my local train within 45 minutes, and stepped out of Sakai Station half an hour later to sunshine and a gentle breeze, perfect sightseeing weather. Just walked to my hotel and admired the Japanese things I had missed for a year (drinks vending machines! cool signs! manhole covers!), had a cup of tea and headed out again, straight into the Sakai Traditional Crafts Museum. All within two hours of landing at KIX.

The museum is lovely, and very small and manageable. One large room tells about the tradition of knife forging, something Sakai is famous for, with different types of knives, the production process – very small exhibit but really well executed.

I knew Japanese knives were very famous, and even purchased a couple great locally made knives for my kitchen before when I was in Kyushu, but little did I realise that there is a knife for every cut – mostly based around fish.

I also learned that the traditional knife is carbon steel, with a relatively lightweight interchangeable handle, as seen in the picture below. Oh, and the standard Japanese knife is quite big!

The second rooms mashes up all the other traditional crafts – yuzen dying and, incense making, traditional sweets, carpet weaving and koinobori (carp flag) making…

What really did my head in was the knife shop. There were walls after walls of knifes, neatly organised by producers, type of steel, and price. I was completely overwhelmed after just looking at them for teen minutes to be honest.

However…. the museum is an excellent entry point to learn about Sakai blacksmiths and knife making, and the shop offers some very nice entry-level traditional kitchen knives starting at around 5000 JPY (30 Euro).

Whereas the “Everything Else” shop in the room opposite was irresistible. It had sweets, tenugui (the lightweight Japanese cotton towels), and incense, lots of incense.

The choice was bewildering. I bought the matcha incense sticks in the little round tube (in the middle of the picture) – maybe 5 Euros and it is some of my favourite incense. You get a good choice of different lines from Baieido, a Sakai based producer, but also many smaller manufacturers.

Knives, knives… and some more traditional products

After spending close to 100 Euro on some artisan incense sticks and far too many tenugui than I need, I fled the museum and went looking for a knife workshop. Yamawaki Hamono was just a block away in a quiet side street, and looked like a residence. But the din of grinding and polishing machines, along with some hammering, told me I was in the right place.

And rightly so, I was welcomed and given some house shoes to enter the facility, which is basically a large room with tatami mats where knives are finished, an office and a reception vestibule.

The director himself welcomed me and said ” well, we don’t have a shop but we can sell you a knife” and when I gave him my wish list (santoku, one carbon, one stainless, rather small in size) he went upstairs and returned with a selection of blades on a tray. He also gave me a price list and offered his direct sale prices to me – I would pick ablade, then a handle of my choice would be attached and the knife finished with engraving the company name and( and my name if I wanted to).

So I got to watch my knives being finished and while they were beautifully packaged up, I was also shown around the knife sharpening workshop in another building. It was not like a big guided tour, more like an informal visit, and I think most of these producers are not geared up to visitors wanting tours, but I was happy just to observe their finishing workshop for a bit and be shown whatever they were happy to show me.

Sugawara Jinja, a bowl of Ramen and jetlag

By this point, I was so tired, sweaty and my legs hurt. I could have walked for hours soaking up the Japanese residential area atmosphere with its mini gardens and small shops, but my legs told me enough for today,, and my brain was not far behind.

The area opposite my hotel was full or restaurants according to Google Maps, so I returned, peeking into traditional sweets shops and stopping off at Sugawara Jinja, which at this point, just had a few shy cats in attendance.

Sugawara Shrine is one of many shrines dedicated to Tenjin, the Shinto deity for academic work and scholarship, and this particular one hosts a Tenjin statue that the Heian-era poet Sugawara-no-Michizane made but then threw into the sea in anger… and it has a very beautiful weathered red Niomon (monumental temple gate). To get your efforts worth, there is a side shrine dedicated to Ebisu, so you can pray there for economic success as well.

Outside the shrine, shops were shuttering up and restaurants slowly opening.

It was time to look for dinner and catch up on some sleep.

After I failed to find the pub-style restaurant I had marked in my map and was too hesitant to enter one of the inviting-looking restaurants in the street, I popped into a ramen shop where I knew I would have minimal interaction and not make a tit of myself with my shoddy Japanese – but not even close… as I stood at the customary vending machine trying to choose my dinner, one of the chefs jumped from behind his counter and attempted to explain the menu choices and prompt me to buy a bowl of the porkiest ramen. I opted for soy sauce ramen, since I am vegetarian, hoping for minimal meat exposure, which somewhat failed… but the non-meat bits were delicious.

I only had to cross the street and fall onto my futon at Sakainoma, where I proceeded to read allt he tourist information stuff I had gathered, now unable to sleep, but it was super quiet, with a huge room to myself.

Shichido Old Town and more knives

I woke bright and early, too early to try my own inn for breakfast, so on the retro Hankai Tram I went, right to Family Mart for a breakfast and a bit of cash and then a stroll through Shichido.

Shichido is a traditional area of Sakai where the blacksmiths and knife makers used to reside – with many workshops dating back to the 1600s, but pretty much all have relocated. One traditional hom,e a gunsmiths residence, now a museum, shows the excellently preserved Edo Period Townhouse style.

Sadly, the preserved gunsmiths residence wasn’t open – its opening times are really restricted, but I strolled past a traditional incense shop (also not open), enjoyed the traditional architecture and visited a couple more knife manufacturers – there are many between Shichido and the Traditional Crafts Museum, often a couple blocks away from the main street. Some have proper shops, others just a small front office but all do sell knives.

I first went to Mizuno Tanrenjo, a very elegant small shop established in the Meiji era. The knives were quite high-class and expensive, so I moved on and visited Murata Hamono, a smaller more modern shop with a friendly English-speaking member (Yuri-san) of the artisan family helping me pick another knife… yes. They are not reluctant to have lower-priced knives also, and I picked a nice bread knife (not very traditional I know) and completed my knife array with a smaller knife, telling myself that I would now have enough knives to last me a lifetime. I also had a nice chat with Yuri-san about caring for the knives and got a knife protector for my whetstones. Which you can purchase there as well, but I already have some and it’s not the best thing to haul around the prefecture for a week.

Townhouse History Museum, Hongan-ji Sakai Betsuin and loats of matcha

Despite not wanting to buy much other than food and books on this trip, I never seem to be able to resist smelly things and kitchenware, so with my credit card taken a bit of a beating on the second day of the trip, I would now do only cheap activities – and I would be going to the countryside next, so hopefully not much spending.

As it was getting very sunny and hot, I took a little break in the Yamaguchi Residence, a townhouse probably even older than the gunsmiths house, dating back to the early 17th Century – not bad for a structure constructed mostly from wood! It was a lot more spacious than what could be seen from outside, and, provided a nice respite from the sun and heat.

I needed to think about my onward travel – not a huge distance, but I would need to traverse Osaka, then travel on a small train line to the middle of Hyogo prefecture, so I made a short visit to the peaceful Hongan-ji Sakai Betsuin, a 13th Century Buddhist Temple of the mainstream “Pure Land” sect, with very pleasant wooden structures dating back to the late Edo era, before trying another of Sakai’s traditional offerings.

I may not have made it to the museum dedicated to the work of Sen-no Rikyu, the Buddhist monk from Sakai who revolutionized the tea ceremony – although not in Sakai but at the famous Zen Temple Daitoku-ji in Kyoto, but I would enjoy a lovely cup of tea at Tsuboichi Seicha, a SAkai-based tea manufacturer whose tea comes from nearby Uji, perhaps the most famous tea-growing region in Japan.

I ordered an iced matcha at, suitable for the weather. It was so delicious, I bought a small packet of matcha to take home, and had the first kakigori (shaved ice) this year. This is where I met the only other foreign tourists, so if you are looking for somewhere “away from other tourists” Sakai is a good contender. I strolled back, picked up my little suitcase, already bulging, and went on the long but entertaining tram ride to Tennoji, which propelled me right into busy Osaka streets and the Osaka underground. Since I travelled at lunchtime, it was very pleasant – not crowded at all.

What I missed

By having just under a day in Sakai, I completely missed out on the Eastern part of the city, where you can get a good overview of the city from the observation floor of Sakkai City Hall, then move on to the Shimany Bicycle Museum.

And last not least, Sakai has the Mozu Kofun Tombs, some of the largest known burial sites in the world. They may not be so well known because actually, they are impossible to visit. All you see is a huge keyhole-shaped grove, surrounded by a moat, when you view them from higher ground. They date back to the Kofun era around the 5th Century CE. The largest and most famous is thought to belong Emperor Nintoku, but no one knows for sure because they haven’t been excavated but rather protected to prevent soil erosion in the 19th Century.

There are smaller kofun in the area, but none can be entered. They look most impressive when viewed from above, so the Sakai City Hall is a good place to view them. Afterwards, visit Daisen PArk for a bit of study at the Sakai City Museum or admire the pretty Japanese Garden.

Sakai also has lots of museums. Aside from the aforementioned, there are a Museum dedicated to Sen no Rikyu and Akiko Rosano, two very different people of Sakai, one a monk turned tea master,, the other a 19th Century Poet. There is a museum with illustrations of Alphonse Mucha, a Konpeito (candy) museum, a museum of letters, several historic townhouses… and more. To get an overview of the museums, the City of Sakai has a decent multilingual web site.

Practical Information

Sakai is incredibly easy to get to, as it is on three train lines. The Tourist Office at various locations, one at the Nankai train station, one at Daisen Park near JR Mozu Station, do a great job to entice visitors to Sakai and provide information brochures, cheap bicycle hire and will even store your luggage for you.

How to get to Sakai from Kansai International Airport

Once you are in Arrivals, head to the airport train station, a comfortable 100-metre walk with no steps. Head for a Local or Rapid Service on the Nankai Railway bound for Namba (Osaka). After about 30-40 minutes, get off at Sakai Station.

If you prefer to use Japan Rail, take a Kansai Airport Line train towards Osaka and get off at Mikunigaoka. This will drop you off near the Mozu tombs but far away from hotels and restaurants.

To get to and from Osaka, you have the choice of Nankai Railway (2 lines) to Namba, Japan Rail (a station close to Daisen Park called Mozu, or the busier Mikunigaoka) and the superb nostalgic Hankai Tram to Tennoji.

It’s also an easy ride from Wakayama, for example when you return from Kumano Kodo or Koyasan, on the Nankai Railway.

Where to Stay in Sakai

The place I stayed, Sakainoma, I can absolutely recommend if you are interested in traditional crafts, knife shopping and what’s left of historical (Edo era) Sakai. Sakainoma a tiny inn at the back of a cafe in an old townhouse, all decked out in tatami, with traditional room setup and modern en suite bathrooms. They only have two guest rooms, and there is a lovely cafe out front. The tram stop is right outside, and it’s a 10-minute walk to the Nankai Station.

For the most convenient location, the Hotel Agora Regency is hard to beat as it’s right in the Nankai Station. It’s a large hotel in a modern building with a plush, old school huge rooms and five-star service on a moderate budget.

My third recommendation, Daiwa Roynet Hotel Sakai Higashi, is a upmarket business hotel by Sakai City Hall, about equidistant from Emperor Nintoku Mausoleum and the Traditional Craft Museum and knife workshops. It’s less than 100m walk from the Nankai train station on the Koya train line, and about 5 minutes walk from the Shimano Bicycle Museum. Yes, it’s a chain, but a pretty classy one, with relatively big rooms, aesthetically pleasing interiors and a notch up from the usual business hotel fare.

The Small Print

I visited Kansai in May 2024 on a self-organised trip that I paid for myself. All opinions are my own, all reviews are honest etc. I have included links to my accommodations on Booking.com, which is where I actually found and booked them. If you book through these links, I may get paid a small commission, which helps with cost of running this website. This blog is a hobby, my travel funds come from saving up from my main job!