Osaka in Half a Day: Sightseeing ①: Osaka Castle — Guide Nori

Title: What Happens When a Cruise Ship Runs Late? A Licensed Guide's Osaka Private Tour Report

The guests were visitors from Europe, sightseeing in Osaka while traveling by cruise ship. Prior communication and itinerary planning were carried out between me and one of the guests. As a result of our discussions, the tour itinerary had been finalized as: "15:00 meet at Osaka Port (Tempozan) ⇒ Osaka Castle ⇒ Dotonbori ⇒ Shinsekai ⇒ 19:00 dismissal at Shinsekai."

However, around noon on the day of the tour in March, I received a message via a messaging app from one of the guests, describing an emergency: "The immigration procedures when disembarking from the cruise ship are taking a considerable amount of time, and we will not make the promised 3:00 p.m. meeting time. In some cases, we may be delayed by more than two hours. What should we do?" I immediately consulted the [Japan Guide Agency (JGA Inc.)](https://www.j-g-a.org/) head office, and as a result, it was confirmed that we would "meet at 17:00, two hours later, sightsee only in Dotonbori, and finish at 19:00. However, the guests would not receive a refund for the two hours lost, and the guide fee would be paid for the originally planned four hours."

Based on this course of events, I informed the guests that we would "delay the meeting time to 17:00, tour Dotonbori, and end the tour at 19:00." While apologizing for the sudden delay, the guests were pleased that they could still see something of Osaka even in a short time.

I arrived at the location 30 minutes before the changed meeting time of 17:00. I was able to meet the guests at around 16:50. After a quick greeting, we headed to "Osaka Port Station" to take the subway to Dotonbori, but the station was so crowded with foreign visitors who had come off the cruise ships that we could barely move. Seeing this, the guests suggested, "Let's take a taxi," so we returned to the taxi stand, but there too was a long line of foreign cruise passengers. According to information I obtained later, two large cruise ships were docked that day, and about 8,000 foreign passengers disembarked all at once.

After about 30 minutes, we were finally able to get a taxi, and by the time we reached Dotonbori, it was nearly 18:00. The guests seemed to love Dotonbori, which they had finally managed to reach, and they listened enthusiastically to my explanations and asked many questions. Guiding in Dotonbori usually takes place during the daytime, but this time it was already after dusk, and the dazzling neon lights created a glamorous atmosphere. From time to time they bit into the local specialty "takoyaki," and they appeared to fully enjoy the atmosphere of Osaka. The time passed in the blink of an eye, and after finishing the Dotonbori tour, I guided them to the nearest subway station.

In fact, from the stage of our prior discussions, the guests had expressed the wish to "make a round trip to Kyoto by Shinkansen after the Osaka tour, since the departure is early tomorrow morning and there is time before returning to the ship." While I noted that "the Shinkansen takes only 15 minutes one way from Shin-Osaka to Kyoto, but from southern Osaka (around Minami) it takes about an hour one way, so a round trip would take more than two hours and is not really recommended," I also said, "If you really want to go, I will show you a model route," and taught them a round-trip route between Osaka and Kyoto.

Under the sudden time change and the extreme congestion, the tour turned out to be significantly different from the originally planned itinerary, but at parting the guests expressed their gratitude, saying, "We were very grateful that you accommodated the sudden change. It was fun." According to a message that came later, in the end they decided to cancel the trip to Kyoto and, for the remaining time, went back to Dotonbori to enjoy dining and shopping.

Click here for more details: Osaka Customized Half-Day Tour with Licensed Local Guide

Tour Report by Nori

Hi, everyone! I’m Norifumi Kamon, a government registered guide interpreter. Please call me “Nori”, or “Kamon-san”.
Let me introdece myself. I was born on April 17th in 1952 in Miyazaki prefecture in Kyushu island. I used to be an English teacher of Osaka Prefectural high school. When I retired from a teacher ten years ago, I decided to get a professional guide license. I wanted to play a role of the bridge between Japanese people and the people from all over the world as a second life of mine. After two years efforts, I finally got the guide license. Since then, I have guided several handreds of foreign people mainly in Kyoto and Nara for about five years except Corona Pandemic period. Almost all the tourists were deeply impressed by the beauty of nature, traditoin, culture, and art of Japan. I can surely help you enjoy and be satisfied with the sightseeing in Japan. And I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.