Kickstart Osaka: a three-hour crash course

You’ll join your host to learn Japanese, and wait, no, just kidding! You’ll join them to get comfortable in Japan’s friendliest city and pick up the essential tips and tricks you’ll need for the rest of your trip. Think of it as a crash course for everything in Osaka – from discovering the unique local dialect known as Osaka-ben to the local food scene.

Get recommendations on some of Osaka’s most famous street foods, like okonomiyaki, a savory pancake, or kushikatsu, deep-fried skewers of just about anything! Ask your local insider any questions you have, perhaps over a beer in a tiny izakaya bar in Hozenji Yokocho, a historic alleyway that’s right next to the bright lights of Dōtonbori Street but feels like stepping back in time.

You’ll get to grips with an area of central Osaka, more specifically, the canalside neighborhoods of Namba (on the southern bank of Dōtonbori Canal) and Shinsaibashi (on the northern bank).

Why? If you can learn to navigate in Namba, the wildly fast-paced entertainment district that’s a kaleidoscope of neon lights and street food joints, and Shinsaibashi, the city’s shopping district where huge department stores overshadow quirky subculture stores dedicated to manga, you can navigate the rest of Osaka like a pro!

But Osaka is a canal city, after all, so you could even ditch the subway and use the waterways to travel around Nakanoshima, Yodoyabashi, and Dōtonbori.