I went away for the weekend to visit Osaka, Nara and Kobe. I took the Willer bus as a cheaper alternative to the shinkansen. I'd recommend it if you're going from Nagoya to Osaka; it's somewhat longer than the train ride but the scenery is nice, if you're not in a hurry. If you book at least a couple of weeks in advance you can get a small discount.
This same bus company does quite a few routes around Japan, including overnight buses, which might be a good option if you want to travel overland without such high prices as the shinkansen.
Osaka, Nara and Kobe are, I think, all places where you could see the main spots in a day each. Of course if you stayed longer you could do them more justice and see more in each, but I felt like I got a good taster of the highlights of each. (As opposed to Kyoto, which is also in the area; I think it's better to give Kyoto at least 2-3 days.)
For three cities that are so near each other - very easy and quite cheap to travel to Nara and Kobe from Osaka - the three are quite different. Nara offers old-style Japanese charm, with lots of little meandering streets with Japanese-style architecture, small cafes, temples, shrines, gardens. Kobe is more of a bright, modern harbour city, which reminded me quite a bit of Yokohama and struck me as a good place to live. Osaka is a lively city of tall buildings, second only to Tokyo as a hub of business, nightlife and energy.
Travelling around there reminded me again how lucky I am to be living in Japan, where I can go out my own front door and see places like these without even taking a plane.
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