VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Osaka or San Jose, Costa Rica?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Osaka for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’s own page.

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose, Costa Rica’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Osaka 34, San Jose, Costa Rica 12: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Osaka leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Osaka leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: Osaka leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Osaka leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, San Jose, Costa Rica 30: Osaka leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: Osaka leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Osaka leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Osaka leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Osaka leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaSan Jose, Costa Rica

Where the figures come from

San Jose, Costa Rica's station stands 241 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation20 m1,161 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population2,751,862335,007
People per km²12,3407,511
Museums within 10 km449
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Osaka or San Jose, Costa Rica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.