Osaka Municipal Housing Museum "Osaka Museum of Housing and Living"

This guide to the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living walks a full-scale recreation of the Tenjinbashi neighborhood as it looked around 1830, from timber-framed machiya townhouses to a public bathhouse, kimono shop and pharmacy. It follows the museum since its 2001 opening, the volunteer guides in period dress who explain a shop's tools or a household's daily rhythm, and the recreated street's link to the Tenjin Matsuri festival still celebrated nearby each summer. Watch for the lighting itself, which drifts from dawn through a bustling afternoon toward dusk as you walk.