Osaka has been developped as international commercial city historically. People have developped the special culture in food, entertainment. This tour covers the historical sight-Osaka castle, Downtown-Dotonbori, and new Osaka station area with Umeda Sky building. We may add somemore spots depending upon the interests of the customer.
At Osaka station or the hotel in Osaka
Osaka Castle: Symbol of Osaka, Originally this castle was built in 1583, and reconstructed after firing twice.(Castle museum@600 yen)
Dotonbori: Hot spot with billboard of Gloco, Kanidoraku, etc. Variety of local foods and sweets are available for your try.
Hozenji-Yokocho Alley: Located at Dotonbori. Good old world of original Namba, downtown. Many good restaurants.
Umeda Sky Building: Floating garden observatory to view whole city of Osaka. @1500 yen. B1 is restaurant arcade with retro Osaka.
At Osaka station
- To enjoy the local gourmet dining, entertaiment, and historical sights.
You will catch the energy of Osaka people as the international city.
- To understand the Japanese castle history and construction with the visit on Osaka Castle.
- If the weather is good, you will see the best sunset view at Umeda Sky Building.
guide fee, hotel pick-up in Osaka
Transportation fee (you and guide): About 1000 to 1500 yen for train/subway
Entrance fee at Osaka Castle Museum, and Umeda Sky Building
-Osaka Castle tour will take two to three hours and need to walk through the castle garden.
-Depending upon the interest of the customer, the following place may be considered to add the tour.
In this case whole schedule will be reviewed/adjusted for the review of the customer.
*Osaka sightseeing cruese: AquaLiner --- One hour river cruise @ 1700 yen
*Osaka Museum of History --- Many exhibits showing the history of Osaka back to 1400 years ago to date.
*Shitennoji temple ---- Famous historical temple. Originally this temple was built more than 1400 years ago
*Shinsekai & Tsutenkaku tower --- Norstagic street with restaurants and entertainments
I highly recommend Mac as a guide and translator. We spent two days with Mac who very efficiently handled transportation and time schedules for us. After describing what we wanted to see and do in Kyoto, Mac came back with detailed itineraries, explaining what was possible to accomplish within our time frame, and then was flexible with our unexpected schedule changes. Most wonderfully for us, he kindly contacted a second cousin whom I had never met and translated Japanese to English and back again during our meetings. This meant so much for us and was a highlight of our time in Japan. Thank you, Mac!
Dear Grace, Thanks so much for the nice review comments. I have not learned Buddhism seriously before but this time I have learned much especially about the human bond,and the importance. I hope that your relationship with your second cousin and her family to be continued in the future including your children. Thanks again for your choosing me of your guide. I really enjoyed the conversation and visit of Arashiyama with you. Mac
We really enjoyed our day with Makoto. We would thoroughly recommend him. He was prompt, well prepared, well organised, helpful, friendly, flexible, very knowledgeable and speaks good English. He was also great company. We could not fault him!
Dear Martin, Thanks for your nice review comments and I am so glad that you have enjoyed the tour. I have enjoyed very much being with you and guide the spots in Kyoto. There was unexpected surprise at Arashiyama, where autumn festival is being prepared. We could take pictures with many ladies costumed for the festival. That was really surprise to me and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the festival. Thank you very much for your choosing me of your guide. MAKOTO
We spent a full day with Makoto (Mac). He got to our hotel for pickup early as we needed to get a very useful KOYA-San Heritage Pass at the station prior to the touring. It was a great way to get the transportation needed as well as discounted entrances to our sites. Good value and definitely saved us money. As far as the tour, we saw what we had wanted to do, lead by a mature, very professional and pleasant guide. He used the time we had efficiently and he got us to every locale in an very timely manner. He knew what the sites and areas had to offer and explained them to us. His command of English was superb and there was never a communication problem. We had a very good traditional lunch near the next site we were to visit and when it came time to leave, we were escorted back to our point of origin which for us was our hotel In Osaka. No reservations in recommending Mac for the Koya-San tour and I’m sure whatever others he leads will be worthwhile too. Thanks for a great day.
Dear Alan, I am so glad that you have enjoyed the tour, I also enjoyed this famtastic opportunity being with you and enjoyed the conversation, The weather was perfect and autum leaves were turned to be so beautiful. This was the most enjoyable day in Koya toir i have ever done. Thanks for your ni e comments and choosing me of your guide. I hope that you come to visit Japan again. Mac
We spent a day with Mak in Kyoto yesterday visiting Sanjyusansendo Temple, Nijo Castle, Kinkkuji Temple and Fusimi Inari Shrine. Mak is fantastic – friendly and helpful and full of insights. What was I particularly impressed by was that he brought some useful background charts of Japanese history which were very helpful as we visited 800 years of buildings in a day. I would thoroughly recommend Mak to other visitors to Kyoto.
Dear Hamish. Thanks for your prompt review and nice comment. I am so glad that you have enjoyed the tour. I also enjoyed being with you and the conversation as I have so much good memory in England. This is my "Ikigai" to support the guests from foriegn countries and receive good feed back. Thanks again for your choosing me of your guide and we will see again when you bring your family to Japan. Mac Yokoyama