Osu Kannon and the Osu shopping streets
1 / 9Osu Kannon and the Osu shopping streetsPhoto: Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 9 photographs, every one credited.
Osu Kannon’s main hall is open 6:00–19:00, free, with no closing days, right outside exit 2 of Osu Kannon station. The Osu shopping streets begin beside it; hours vary by shop, and Kamimaezu exits 8 and 12 are 2 minutes from the other end. An antique market fills the temple on the 18th and 28th of each month, so it falls on Saturday 28 November. Yabaton’s Yabacho main shop, 11:00–21:00 with no closing day, is in the same quarter, between Osu and Sakae.
- Free to visit — carry cash for small stalls.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "Yes" — rail in, the temple and a lunch of miso-katsu or street food, rail back. about two hours on the ground.
- It is not only a photo stop: eel in three rounds, pork in dark miso, and toast with red beans at breakfast.
- Main hall 6:00–19:00, no closing days — temple office 9:00–17:00. shop hours and closing days vary.
- 3 hr 30 min door to door means a 2–3 hour stop ashore cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Osu Kannon and the Osu shopping streets is famous
Eel in three rounds, pork in dark miso, and toast with red beans at breakfast
Osu Kannon has no closing days and charges nothing; the main hall opens at 6:00 and closes at 19:00. On the 18th and 28th of each month an antique market is held at the temple, which puts one on Saturday 28 November 2026. The shopping streets run from the temple towards Kamimaezu, and Yabaton’s miso-katsu main shop is at the Yabacho end of the same quarter.
Nagoya sells its cooking under one name, Nagoya-meshi. Most of it runs on dark soybean miso, and most of it has a known shop and a known year behind it.
Osu Kannon is a Shingon temple, formally Kitano-san Shinpukuji Hoshoin. Tokugawa Ieyasu moved it here in 1612, from Osu village in what is now Hashima, Gifu, as he built Nagoya. Its library holds about 15,000 volumes of old texts, among them the oldest surviving manuscript of the Kojiki, a National Treasure. The main hall burned in 1892 and again in 1945, and the present one is a concrete rebuild of 1970.
Around it are the Osu shopping streets, which Visit Nagoya puts at more than 1,200 shops and restaurants: electrical goods, second-hand clothes, cafes and food. Yamamotoya Sohonke was founded here in 1925 and Yabaton's main shop is nearby. It is the best place in the city to eat your way through an afternoon, and on the 28th there is an antique market at the temple.
Flat noodles in tamari broth; the likeliest date is the mid-Edo period
A restaurant in the Tokaido post town of Atsuta; hitsumabushi grows out of its delivery trade
Credited to Cafe Matsuba in Sakae, now closed
Founded in Osu; salt-free noodles in a single clay pot
Eat by the map. Hitsumabushi near Atsuta Jingu (Honten on Tuesdays), miso-katsu and miso-nikomi in Osu and Sakae, kishimen inside the shrine, and the morning service anywhere before 11:00. Tebasaki is mostly an evening dish.
Things worth knowing
- Come on Saturday 28 November if you can: it is the 28th, antique market day.
- Kamimaezu Station, Exits 8 and 12, is 2 minutes from the shopping streets; Osu Kannon Station Exit 2 is at the temple gate.
- A 2-hour Osu street-food walk meets at the 7-Eleven by Osu Kannon (Viator listing).
- Yamamotoya Sohonke's Honke in Sakae is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so on 10 November eat miso-nikomi at its Matsuzakaya or Towers branch instead.
- Nagoya-meshiなごやめし — Nagoya food: the city's own dishes, promoted under one name since 2015.
- Hitsumabushiひつまぶし — Chopped grilled eel on rice in a wooden tub, eaten in three rounds. Atsuta Horaiken's registered trademark.
Osu Kannon and the Osu shopping streets and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Where the 3 hr 30 min goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
24 minutes each way is the measured figure for aonami line to nagoya 24 min, then the higashiyama line to fushimi and the tsurumai line to osu kannon, about 10–12 min (journey planner); exit 2. taxi 16.4 km, about ¥7,300 each way, our estimate, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 2 hr 42 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Questions people send us
When is the Osu Kannon antique market?
On the 18th and 28th of every month. In November 2026 that includes Saturday 28 November, when the Norwegian Jade is in port 08:30–19:00.
Is Osu Kannon free?
Yes. The main hall is open 6:00–19:00 with no closing days and no admission charge.
How do I get to Osu from the cruise port?
Aonami Line to Nagoya (24 min, ¥360), then the Higashiyama Line to Fushimi and the Tsurumai Line to Osu Kannon, about 10–12 minutes in a route planner. The temple is right outside Exit 2. A taxi from the berth is about 16.4 km, roughly ¥7,300 by our estimate.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~4hNagoya Castle and the Hommaru Palace
The main keep is closed, so the visit is the Hommaru Palace, about 10 minutes on foot from the Main or East Gate, and the grounds.
See the detail →
See · ~3.5hAtsuta Jingu and the Kusanagi-kan sword museum
The shrine grounds are free; no official opening hours are published.
See the detail →
Eat · ~3.5hHitsumabushi at Atsuta Horaiken
Hitsumabushi is grilled eel on rice, and Atsuta Horaiken is the name for it.
See the detail →