I’m off to Osaka, Japan to see my daughter this December (Dec 18-Jan 02). Any recommendations on things to see and experience?

I lived in Osaka for a year. There's definitely a lot to see - Dotonbori (for shopping/food), Osaka Castle, USJ (Universal Studios Japan), Tsutenkaku (and surrounding area), Shitennoji, Sumiyoshi-taisha, Tower of the Sun. Honestly, I could go on...but that's a good start! You're not far from Kyoto either, which is popular, or Kobe.

Kyoto is a must at least for a couple of days. And a day trip to Nara to see the dear would be nice, too

Chris I agree on Kyoto and Nara

Osaka spa world. Amazing.

Take the train to Kyoto! It’s a lovely city, lots of history

Eat everything! If your daughter speaks Japanese...let her order and surprise you! Our son also lives in Osaka and speaks Japanese. He would order, we would eat it, then he would tell us what it was...cod sperm...chicken shashimi...
English menu way smaller than Japanese menu....
If you have time...visit one of the Peace Museums...we favoured the Nagasaki museum.
Enjoy!

Not sure what it would be like in December but Mount Koya is beautiful
https://en.japantravel.com/.../mount-koya-and.../36131

And I also recommend Nara

Thank you for the wonderful suggestions everyone! I will definitely look into these....the Osaka Spa World looks very interesting. Has anyone tried the street food? I hear it’s amazing!

Stacey Osaka Street food?

The Street food in Japan is incredible! You seriously can’t go wrong. If you see something that looks good buy it.

I second what Matti says. Street food in Japan is safe - Japan has some of the highest cleanliness standards in the world. It’s safe to drink the water, etc...and street food / food from quick little places is amazing there.

I highly recommend Hana Sake Bar. The sake class was like $25 and really interesting. They also do flights of sake and you can have little glasses of sake. The owner used to work in a sake brewery and is super passionate about sake and sharing it with the world.

I would also highly recommend a Hanshin Tigers baseball game if they are playing. The fans are super lively and it’s a great time! You can buy tickets from the ticket machines at Lawson’s or at the stadium. The outfield seats are cheaper and tend to be a lot more popular than the expensive seats.

Awww the Hanshin Tigers...i had forgotten about them. Baseball is definitely an experience in Japan - saw the Hiroshima Carp play another team back when I lived there. The baseball game experience was so different from American baseball games!

In addition to all the above suggestions, I can recommend a trip out to Himaji Castle. When I was there I got a Kansai rail pass with which you can explore the region.

You can take a short train trip to Kyoto which is very interesting & has a well preserved "old town" section where the architecture is very traditional. You often see geisha & those in training to become geisha (forgotten the term).