Manchester, England.

Manchester is one of the largest metropolitan areas and the second most visited city in the UK. It is also the third most visited city in the UK by foreigners. It is situated in the south-central part of North West England. The city is notable for it's culture, music scene and media links, as well as it's sports clubs. 


Culture
Manchester's culture is known for being artistical, architectural and theatrical. 
The city's architecture has Neoclassical and Victorian styles, as well as modern ones; various warehouses now are used for other uses but their external appearances are still the same so the city can keep it's vibe. Manchester is home for various skyscrapers that where built back in the 60's and 70's. 


Manchester is also home of a lot of museums, for example:
Manchester Museum: Owned by the University of Manchester, has various collections divided in different categories form which we can mention Worldwide, New World, Eurasia and Africa, Oceania, etc.


Manchester Museum of Transport: This museum aims to preserve and promote the public transportation herritage of the country, owning around 100 buses, but keeping only 70 in the building, due to their size.


Art Galleries:
Cube Gallery: The Centre for the Urban Built Environment Gallery, or the Cube Gallery in Manchester regularly hosts exhibitions with mostly photography and architectural models; it also contains a book shop.


Whitworth Art Gallery: It contains about 55,000 items in it's collection including watercolors, sculptures, wallpapers and textiles. The gallery mainly focuses on modern artists.


Manchester annually hosts a Gay Pride festival called Manchester Pride, attracting thousands of visitors to the Gay Village. It is a ten day festival with a series of art, music and cultural events; it also includes poetry readings and film showings, finishing with The Big Weekend, a party that lasts 72 hours.

Osaka (大阪), Japan.

Osaka is the third largest and second most important city of Japan, it is located in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu. It's name literally means "large hill" or "large slope". The city was formerly known as  Naniwa, and was once Japan's capital city, the first one ever known.

Osaka works as one of the comand centers for the Japanese economy, being the commercial center of Japan.

Culture

Osaka is knwon as the capital of theatrical arts, you can enjoy manzai, kabuki and drama performances, as well as enka concerts. Manzai is a stage perfomance of comedy between two or three people, and it was born in this city. Kabuki is a a classical dance-drama, known for it's stylization and performers with elaborated make-up. Enka is a Japanese music genre that resembles traditional Japanese music in a stylistic way. 

The city is home for various theatres: National Bunraku Theatre (the fourth national theatre of the country), Umeda Arts Theatre, Osaka Shiki Theatre, and much more. 

It is also home for the largest shontegai in the country. Shōtengai are commercial districts that run along a certain street, they include: supermarkets, game centers, restaurants, book shops, clothes shops, covenience stores, etc.

Amog the various festivals held in Osaka, the Tenjin Matsuri is one of the most important and colorful ones. It is one of Japan's three major festivals, and the world's greatest boat festival. The Tenjin Matsuri is held to drive out evil spirits of summer and as a requiem for Sugawara-no-Michizane, a leading court scholar of the Heian era.

Interesting sites

Kaiyukan (Osaka Aquiarium). One of Japan's most spectacular aquariums; it displays marine life in 15 tanks, each representing a specific region of the Pacific Rim.

Osaka Castle. This castle was built back in 1583, but destroyed 13 years later. It was intended to become the center of a unified Japan. It was later rebuilt in the 1620's, and now holds a museum about the castle's history.

National Bunraku Theater. Osaka has been the capital for bunraku for many centuries. Bunraku is a form of traditional japanese puppet theater.This theater is one of the few places to view the fascinating art from today.

Busan (부산), South Korea.

Busan is South Korea's second largest city, right after Seoul. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the world's fifth busiest seaport. This city has a lot of names, being Busan the most common, but it's original name was Busanpo. It was named after the shape of a mountain behind Busan Port.

Culture and attractions

Busan is a city filled with street vendors, but there are also large and jam-packed department stores with lots of different shops, which commonly include expensive ones. That's why there is one thing that connects all of Busan's people: they all love to shop, and they do it really often.

Jagalchi Market is a market set by the seashore; it sells various sea products and is one of Busan´s prides. It has a huge selection of fresh seafood, which starts to sell since early morning.

The greatest diference between Busan and the other Korean cities is that Busan has ocean tours, this means that you can explore the city and it's surrounding areas by ship.

Busan holds the largest aquarium in South Korea, it is called Busan Aquarium. There are aproximately 250 species with 40 separate exhibits wich include penguins, otters, piranha, sea jellies and much more.

One of the most significant festivals in Asia is held annually in this city, this is the the Busan International Film Festival or BIFF. The purpose of this festival is to introduce new films and fist-time directors, especially those from Asian countries. It includes a film market, various cinema funds, a 17-day film academy and a cinema forum.

Busan is also home of the Busan Biennale, a grand-scale art exhibition with the purpose of exposing local art on an international level and spreading modern art. This festival is held every two years and it consists of a Contemporary Art Exhibition, a Sea Art Exhibition and a Busan Sculpture Project.


Gastronomy
Most of the traditional dishes of Busan are a result from the Korean War, because the city was the biggest refugee destination at that time, so a lot of people went there and adapted the cities recipies. 
Some special dishes we can mention are: dongnae pajeon (savory pancakes with chili peppers and seafood), milmyeon (wheat flour noodle soup) and dwaeji gukbap (pork soup rice).

Zaragoza, Spain.

The city of Zaragoza is the capital of the Zaragoza Province and of Aragon, in Spain. It is situades on the Ebro river, in a valley with lots of different landscapes. It is famous  for its folklore, its gastronomy and various interesting sights. This city was founded more than 2,000 years ago, being home for iberians, romans, goths and moors, who influenced on its culture.

Zaragoza is one the biggest and monumental spanish cities, and it is also economically active because of it hosts important national carnivals.

Culture

Zaragoza is really known because it is linked with the begginings of Christianity in Spain. The legend says that the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint James, standing on a pilar, while he was praying by the Ebro River. She gave him a type of pillar as a symbol, and he built a chapel on the spot where Mary had appeared.

There is a major festival celebrated to this virgin called  'Las fiestas del Pilar', celebrated on October 12th. A lot of activities are made on this day, but one of the most outstanding is the flower offering to the virgin. 

Another celebration of this city is the 'Batallas de moros y cristianos', when everyone dresses up like a moor or a christian with swords, sticks and shields to represent the old fights that these two groups had. Sometimes this representations are perfomed at theaters, alongside with poetical recitals and dances.

Gastronomy

Pepitoria: Is a specific way of cooking meat, people take out the juice of the cooked meat and mix it with egg yolk and almonds.

Ternasco: This is known as a young lamb, and it is typical form this type of food.

Interesting sights

Some distance from the centre of the old city is the Moorish castle (or palace) Aljafería, the most important Moorish buildings in northern Spain and the setting for Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore(The Troubadour).
The most important Zaragoza museums are the Museum of Fine Arts, with paintings by early Aragonese artists, 15th century, and by El Greco, Ribera and Goya, and the Camón Aznar Museum.