“Osaka is the WORST!” | Professional Tour Guide on Why He NEVER Recommends Visiting OSAKA
[Music] Do you have any negative reactions from the locals sometimes? Cuz I’ve heard that Japanese people are getting especially like Kyoto Tokyo and stuff that they’re getting a little bit pissy sometime. Osaka is the worst. Really? Yeah. Oh wow. I feel bad cuz I’ I have Tokyo versus Osaka is always a thing, right? Yeah. And I love Osaka, by the way. Like Oh, do you? I’m a Tokyo white like through and through. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, 100%. I’m a I live in Tokyo and I’m always like, I should have chose Osaka. No, no. Uh Osaka is much more western and people people are uh much more open to just speaking their mind, which is cool. I get that. Yeah, I like that. One time I was walking in uh Shinsukai. Have you been to Shinsukai? No. Great. Put it next time you go to Osaka. Shinsukai. My favorite place in Osaka. Shinsukai. What is it? Uh it’s like Doenbury. So Doenburur is the downtown of Osaka. Yeah, it’s where tourist spots. Gross. I hate going there. It’s terrible. Go to Shinsukai. Shinsukai is a small dotenbury. The buildings are still 3D with artwork and stuff. It looks absolutely stunning. It’s where uh Osaka’s viewpoint tower is. So, you know, like every big city has like their own viewpoint tower. We have the sky tree and Tokyo Tower. We have two. Um they have the Tsutenako Tower, if I pronounce it correctly. Um, but Shinsukai is this beautiful neighborhood like Doenbury, smaller. They have arcade games and they have food and all these things. I brought some guests there in the afternoon to have lunch and show them it. And I’m walking on the side street. There’s no traffic here because it’s Shinsuka. It’s a walking area, right? And I’m walking towards the main street to find the bus that’s parked. And I hear ding ding ding ding. And it’s a bike belt. And I’m like, “Bro, there’s no one on this road. Like, you can bike around me.” But I, you know, I walk to the left and I start I’m like, “Where’s this person with this bike bell?” Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And this guy is biking towards me. And I look at him kind of like, “Okay, like I’m out of your way. I’m on I’m on the left side.” And now that I’m I make eye contact, he’s just like I’m like, “Yo, flipping you off.” Yeah. He like was ringing his bell to get me to look at him just so he could flip me off. Just cuz you’re what? Yeah, just cuz I’m guessing cuz I’m a foreigner. Like there’s no way he would do that to a Japanese person. He was just some old really old Japanese guy. And usually the the older population in Japan is much more like racist, right? Um so uh yeah, and I just like at the same time now that it’s been a while is like that’s comedy in Osaka, you know, like like hook line and sink or like yo get look here, look here, you, you know? And I was just like great joke. Nice dude. Um I’ve been spit on in Osaka. No way. In Dobury. Yeah, that’s next level. Yeah. Changing my camera lens. I put my bag down. I made sure I was not in front of the door of a building. I made sure I was not on a on the road cuz cars come down this walking street and there was a vending machine and I made sure that there was still space for someone to use the vending machine. I I’m always very mindful, right? And uh I open my bag to change my camera lens because I was going to take photos for a customer. And uh this guy comes over and he’s like, “Leave now. Leave now.” And he starts raising his voice every time. And then he spits at me with his gum and I’m just I just look at him. Did you have like customers? Yeah. Yeah. I had like three customers with you. Jesus. So I just like look at him and then I just like cuz I’m like crouched down, right? And he’s like standing over top of me. He’s like missing a bunch of teeth and stuff. So I just I slowly continue what I’m doing. I just like ignore him. Um cuz like what do you do? And it was that’s crazy for Japan. You know Dotenbury’s party street? Yeah. Yeah. Where all the clubs and stuff are. It was there. So my whole thought was like I know the neighborhood. This is where like there’s tons of foreigners. Not just that, but like the bar scene always has the rougher crowd, right? Like the late night people usually can have gang association and stuff like that. And for him to in public around like a hundred other people yell at me and spit on me just told me like any reaction would result in me probably having more issues than him in terms of like him having friends around even if police came then it would be like oh like the the foreigners the issue you know so I was just like okay guys like let’s just go and it was just like that was that was before I was even here a year and immediately medately you ruined Osaka for the rest of my life. Like you that’s not a good first impression. Yeah. You immediately like you just ruined Osaka for me and now I tell people that story and I you didn’t know like I deal with over a thousand people a year and now they if I don’t always tell the story because I don’t want people to have that image. I love going to Osaka for tourism. It has some great spots to see. Um but now I also think of like it doesn’t feel as safe. it doesn’t feel as welcoming, right? Um I would recommend a hundred other places before I would say go to a soccer. Okay. You know,
When visiting Japan, Osaka is a staple for most tourists. But should it be? It’s true, the biggest city in the Kansai region offers many famous tourist attractions, such as Dotonbori, Osaka Castle and Universal studios. However, professional tour guide Mike wages your time will be better spent elsewhere (for example in Tokyo). He believes Osaka has simply become too unfriendly, too crowded and too touristy. The shocking experiences he had there himself certainly didn’t help to leave a good impression. Check out the full convo for more!
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