Osaka: Osaka Castle by private car & Doguyasuji shopping — Guide Nori

Title: What Is a Private Day Tour of Osaka Castle, Dotonbori, and Doguyasuji Like? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group visiting Japan from North America on a cruise, traveling for an extended period. On the day of the tour, I learned that the guests were of Asian heritage now living in North America. Prior arrangements regarding the itinerary were handled through one person who acted as the leader of the group. Through those discussions, several considerations became clear, including that one of the guests needed a wheelchair for getting around. Also, some of the guests had visited Japan many times before and said that places like Osaka Castle and temples were not necessary. However, since some of the guests were visiting Japan for the first time, we settled on the following destinations: Osaka Castle, Dotonbori, Doguyasuji, and Kuromon Market.

The weather was good on the day as well, and although it felt a little hot, it was perfect tour weather. The most challenging part of the itinerary was visiting Osaka Castle with a guest who used a wheelchair. Fortunately, the main tower of Osaka Castle has a priority elevator for people with disabilities, and the staff were well positioned throughout, so we were able to move from the observation deck on the top floor down to the exhibition rooms on each floor. Of course, the guests took turns pushing the wheelchair. However, as it was the last day of a holiday period, the building was more crowded than usual, so it was unavoidable that it took extra time. As a result, the visit to Osaka Castle took an hour and a half, exceeding the planned one hour.

The second challenge was shopping along Ebisubashi-suji and Shinsaibashi-suji after lunch. After lunch, we began heading south along the Ebisubashi-suji shopping street, which connects directly to Doguyasuji, but partway through there was a request to be guided to a particular shop they wanted to visit. When I searched for it, I found it was in the opposite direction from the Ebisubashi shopping street and would take more than 15 minutes on foot heading north. I confirmed with the guests, asking, "It will take nearly 20 minutes one way, is that all right?" and the reply was "We'd like to go," so we headed to that shop. We walked for nearly 20 minutes through the crowded shopping street, but they apparently found what they were looking for, and the guests were pleased.

The delay at Osaka Castle and the delay at the shopping street definitely made the latter half of the itinerary tight. So I proposed, "Because of the delays in the first half, it has become difficult to visit both Doguyasuji and Kuromon Market in the second half. Please choose one of them." The guests unanimously agreed that "Doguyasuji would be best," so in the end we spent an hour shopping at Doguyasuji.

Click here for more details: Osaka Customized Private Tour by Car with Licensed 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.