Tokyo or Osaka?

Neither city is a place to plan a beach vacation around, and both have short swimming seasons that cover little more than July and August. Osaka's beaches at Suma, Nishikinohama and Tannowa are coarse-sanded and suburban, so they make a summer outing rather than a reason to go.

Tokyo has a slight edge thanks to the Shonan coast an hour south, where Yuigahama, Zushi and Enoshima have long stretches of dark volcanic sand and Kamakura's temples to go with the swim. Expect those sands to be packed at summer weekends.

Both are superb places to eat, but they are good in different ways. Osaka has a food identity of its own: takoyaki, okonomiyaki cooked at the table and kushikatsu, eaten loudly at counters in Dotonbori, Kuromon Market and the Ura-Namba alleys, with Kitashinchi for refined kaiseki.

Tokyo goes deeper and wider. Its specialists have often made a single dish for decades, it has more Michelin-starred tables than any other city, and its French, Italian and Chinese cooking is serious. The coffee and whisky bars are added reasons to stay, so a long trip will keep finding new places to eat.

Both cities lost most of their old fabric in the twentieth century, but Tokyo has far more to show for it. Senso-ji, the forested Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace moats and the lanes of Yanaka are only the start. Ueno Park's museums, led by the Tokyo National Museum, could fill several days on their own, and the modern architecture is a sight in itself.

Osaka's heritage comes in a few separate pieces: the rebuilt castle on its original walls, Shitennoji, Sumiyoshi Taisha and a fine ceramics museum on Nakanoshima. Two or three days cover it, and for serious temple-going you head out to Kyoto or Nara.

Osaka's night out is about talk, and Tokyo's is about scale. In the standing bars of Ura-Namba and the lanes around Umeda, strangers at the counter fall into conversation easily, and a late bowl of food is part of the evening.

Tokyo simply has more of everything. Golden Gai's two hundred tiny bars and whole buildings of whisky, vinyl and cocktail bars give it endless variety, and Shibuya and Roppongi have a stronger club scene than Amerikamura's small rooms.

Neither city is green at its core, but Tokyo's rail lines reach more serious country. Mount Takao and the Okutama gorges are in Tokyo's own far west, and Hakone and the Fuji Five Lakes give the classic views of Mount Fuji, which you can climb in summer.

Osaka's escapes are gentler: the forest trail to the Minoo waterfall, ridge walks in the Rokko mountains above Kobe and easy wooded paths on Mount Ikoma. They are lovely half-day walks, but there is no high mountain country nearby.

This is where Osaka pulls ahead. Kyoto is under half an hour away and Nara about forty minutes, while Himeji Castle and Kobe are just as close. Koyasan's monasteries, Uji's tea houses and the Lake Biwa towns could fill a second week.

Tokyo is a very good base too. You can reach Kamakura's Great Buddha, Nikko's Toshogu shrine, Yokohama, the merchant streets of Kawagoe and Hakone's hot-spring inns. The difference is that Japan's two great old capitals are an easy day from Osaka and out of comfortable range from Tokyo.

Both are safe, clean and easy with children, with lifts and baby rooms in the stations. Osaka has Universal Studios Japan, the Kaiyukan aquarium with its whale sharks, and the Expo '70 park, plenty for a week.

Tokyo has more again. Disneyland and DisneySea give you two parks rather than one, and the Ghibli Museum and Miraikan's hands-on science are big draws. Spotless public toilets everywhere make long days easier, though families should avoid the rush-hour trains.

Both are easy without a car, with one rechargeable card, English signs and punctual trains. In Osaka, the Midosuji line runs through every central district, the same card takes you to Kyoto and Nara, and the flat streets suit a hire bike. The weak point is changing lines in the underground maze of Umeda.

Tokyo's network is denser still, and almost every sight is a short walk from a station. Between stations, its neighbourhoods are a pleasure to walk, from Shibuya up to Harajuku or through Yanaka.

Osaka shops on a practical, generous scale, with the long Shinsaibashi-suji arcade, the Umeda department stores, Den Den Town for electronics and anime, and kitchen knives along Doguyasuji. Traditional crafts are thin on the ground.

Tokyo is one of the great shopping cities of the world. Ginza's luxury houses, Omotesando's flagships, the vintage racks of Harajuku and Shimokitazawa, books in Jimbocho and real lacquer, ceramics and washi give it far more range, and it does crafts much better too.

In both cities, eating is the bargain and rooms are where the money goes. Osaka is easier on the wallet overall. Its street snacks and izakaya stay cheap even in Namba, and staying a stop or two outside Namba or Umeda makes a real difference to the room rate.

Tokyo's central rooms are smaller and dearer, and taxis and cocktail bars add up quickly. It rewards visitors who live on ramen, set lunches and convenience-store meals the way residents do.

Osaka has one thing Tokyo cannot match: it is the home of bunraku, and the National Bunraku Theatre stages full seasons with English guides. Its manzai comedy theatres are lively but entirely in Japanese, and kabuki only comes in seasonal runs.

Tokyo has far more on overall. You can drop into a single act at the Kabuki-za, see noh at dedicated theatres, hear several orchestras at halls such as Suntory Hall, and catch opera and ballet at the New National Theatre. Every night there is jazz and live music in Shimokitazawa and Koenji, so finding a show takes no planning.

Bathing is part of daily life in both cities, but Tokyo offers more ways to slow down. It has hundreds of neighbourhood sento, some fed by dark natural hot-spring water, a strong sauna culture, and formal gardens and temple grounds that give real calm. Hakone's onsen inns are about ninety minutes away.

Osaka's super sento make for a cheap evening's soak, and Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest spa towns, is a little closer than Hakone is to Tokyo. The city itself is fast and noisy, though, and quiet moments are rare.