Yokohama or Osaka?

Neither is a beach destination, but Yokohama gives the better summer day by the sea. The Shonan coast at Zushi, Kamakura and Enoshima and the Miura Peninsula have broad beaches of grey-brown sand within an hour, and a swim there is easy to combine with temples or the island shrine.

Osaka's beaches, Suma near Kobe and Nishikinohama or Tannowa towards Wakayama, are a similar train ride away but have coarser sand and a more suburban setting. Both have the same short July and August season, so in either city the beach is an outing, not a reason to go.

Osaka is the stronger food city by a wide margin, and eating is the point of going. Its own street dishes, takoyaki, okonomiyaki and kushikatsu, run from the neon of Dotonbori to the tiny counters of Tenma, and at the top end Kitashinchi has kaiseki and sushi counters of the highest level.

Yokohama's best eating has a port-city character instead: the dim sum halls and bun stalls of Japan's largest Chinatown, the rich iekei ramen that was born here and the grill bars of Noge. The everyday food is very good, but much of the region's fine dining sits in Tokyo rather than in Yokohama itself.

Osaka has somewhat more to see, though neither city has a historic townscape. The castle on its original stone walls and moats, the ancient foundations of Shitennoji and Sumiyoshi Taisha, and the ceramics museum and Nakanoshima galleries give it more depth in religious history and art.

Yokohama tells one unusual story: Japan's opening to foreign trade, seen in the Western merchant houses of the Yamate Bluff, the Red Brick Warehouses and the moored Hikawa Maru. Sankeien, with its relocated temple halls and teahouses, is its finest sight. Neither city needs many days, and for both the great temples are a short train ride away.

After dark the gap is wide. Osaka is famous across Japan for being sociable, with the neon of Dotonbori, the standing bars of Ura-Namba, small clubs and DJ bars in Amerikamura, and a habit of chatting to strangers at the counter that keeps people out until the first morning train.

Yokohama is made for a long evening, not a late night. Noge's izakaya and standing bars fill with office workers and Minato Mirai has bars looking over the harbour, but there are few clubs and the city goes quiet early. Anyone wanting a big night takes the train to Tokyo.

Yokohama has the better countryside on its doorstep. Trails run between the temples on Kamakura's wooded ridges, and the Miura Peninsula and Enoshima add sea cliffs and coastal paths where Fuji shows on the horizon in clear winter weather. The Tanzawa mountains and Hakone's volcanic valleys and crater lake offer real day hikes.

Osaka's escapes are gentler and entirely inland: the stream trail up to the Minoo waterfall, the Rokko ridges above Kobe and easy wooded walks on Mount Ikoma. Autumn colour is the best season around both cities.

Both are excellent bases, but Osaka's list is hard to match. Kyoto, Nara, Himeji Castle and Kobe are each within about forty minutes, and Koyasan's monastery stays and Uji's tea houses add more, which puts much of Japan's classical heritage within reach of one hotel.

Yokohama's great asset is Tokyo, half an hour away. It also has Kamakura, the medieval capital with its Great Buddha and Zen temples, along with Enoshima and the hot-spring inns of Hakone. It is a very fine set of trips, just a shorter one.

Both are very easy with children, and the difference is in the kind of day out. Osaka has the bigger headline attractions: Universal Studios Japan on the bay, the Kaiyukan aquarium with its whale sharks, and the Expo '70 park and Kids Plaza museum on top.

Yokohama's outings are smaller and more hands-on: children design their own noodles at the Cup Noodles Museum, there is an Anpanman museum for toddlers and the aquarium and rides of Hakkeijima, and the flat harbour suits pushchairs. Tokyo Disneyland is about an hour away. In both cities the humid summer is the thing to plan around.

Both have the same clean, punctual rail network with English signs and one IC card, so a car is never needed in either. Osaka's Midosuji line runs straight through its main districts, but stations such as Umeda are vast underground mazes, and the flat streets suit a hire bicycle.

Yokohama is the more pleasant city on foot. The harbour walk from Minato Mirai to Chinatown is flat and easy and water buses cross the bay, though the Bluff is a steep climb and Sankeien needs a bus.

Osaka is the better place to spend money. The long covered arcade of Shinsaibashi-suji, the old department stores of Umeda, the flagships on Midosuji, vintage and streetwear in Amerikamura, and Den Den Town for anime and games can fill a day or two, and a kitchen knife from Doguyasuji is the classic thing to take home.

Yokohama is comfortable rather than exciting: station malls, waterfront complexes at Minato Mirai and the Red Brick Warehouses, and Motomachi, the smart old street known for leather goods. For fashion and boutiques, its own residents head to Tokyo.

The two cost much the same: fair-priced Japanese cities where cheap meals are easy to find and the room is the main expense. Osaka is a little more generous at the table, with takoyaki and izakaya cheap even in Namba, but rooms get tight in cherry-blossom and autumn-leaf season. In Yokohama the harbour-view hotels of Minato Mirai are the expensive end, while the Bluff houses, Yamashita Park and the promenades cost nothing.

Osaka has the more distinctive stage. It is the home of bunraku, with full seasons at the National Bunraku Theatre and English guides, and the capital of manzai comedy, though that is only in Japanese. The Takarazuka Revue's home theatre is a short train ride away.

Yokohama's strength is music: the pipe organ of Minato Mirai Hall, opera and dance at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre, and old jazz cafés in Noge and Kannai that carry on from the port's postwar years. For Kabuki and the big musicals, visitors go into Tokyo.

Osaka has a slight edge for bathing, mainly because of Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest spa towns, about an hour away with iron-red springs and traditional inns. The city also has neighbourhood sento and big super sento for a long evening's soak, even if its streets are fast and loud.

Yokohama offers much the same in town, including a hot-spring complex on the Minato Mirai waterfront, and Hakone's mountain inns are about as far away. Its quiet corners are Sankeien's ponds and teahouses and the rose gardens on the Bluff.