Osaka in Half a Day: Walk to Dotonbori — Guide Nori

What's a Rainy-Day Private Osaka Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Osaka Castle, Kuromon Market, and Dotonbori

The guests this time were a group who came to Japan from Europe and were sightseeing while traveling on a cruise ship. Prior consultations, such as deciding which places to visit, were handled through one of the guests. The assignment had been decided more than a year in advance, but there was no contact until this April, which made me a little concerned. However, when I reached out again, I received a prompt reply, and their desired destinations were clear — "Osaka Castle → Kuromon Market → Dotonbori" — so we confirmed those three places as a four-hour course from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Unfortunately, the forecast for the day called for steady rain throughout, and it turned out to be exactly that — the worst possible conditions. We met at the building of the cruise ship terminal in Tempozan, exchanged brief greetings, and discussed the itinerary. I asked everyone once more for their thoughts, saying, "As forecast, it will rain steadily the whole time. Osaka Castle and Kuromon Market have roofs, so there is no problem sightseeing there, but walking between the destinations and touring Dotonbori will require umbrellas, so it will be sightseeing under very poor conditions. We could change to places unaffected by rain, such as an aquarium or a museum — what would you like to do?" The guests replied in unison that they wanted to sightsee as planned, so we set out using umbrellas and raincoats.

Because I wanted to keep both hands free, I wore a raincoat the entire time, while the guests used plastic umbrellas. Since we used the subway for all transportation, we managed to stay dry for most of the travel, but the walks from the starting point to Osaka Castle, from Osaka Castle to the subway station, and from the subway station to Kuromon Market and Dotonbori were, without exaggeration, made in a downpour. Sightseeing at each location was fine inside buildings and in covered arcades, but only the main street of Dotonbori had to be toured in the rain.

Even under these worst-case conditions, the guests listened well to my explanations, asked questions, and seemed to enjoy themselves. Usually in cases like this the schedule tends to fall behind, but this time we completed almost the entire itinerary as planned and were able to finish right on time at 5:00.

(As for photos, I received consent to publish them, but due to the rain it was difficult to take pictures outdoors, so there was only a single snapshot taken at the covered Kuromon Market.)

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.