This unsolicited review was posted on YouTube on December 19, 2022. You can see the original on YouTube.
My wife and I had the privilege to enjoy a city day walking tour on 28 Nov, led by affable Kevin. Kevin has shown great ability as an experienced guide and an engaging storyteller, there’s never been a dull moment. In fact we’re so busy taking in interesting sights and nuggets of interesting tidbits from Kevin about the location that we forgot to pause and take picture, only had to be reminded by concerned Kevin “Do you want to take picture here?”. The only regret is we worked Kevin too hard without stopping for a break (except for delicious okonomiyaki lunch), we’re very sorry Kevin.
And do remember to follow Kevin’s fantastic Instagram, not only you get to see glimpses of some of the locations, it also serve as a convenient mean to keep in touch and communicate quickly during tour. We had Kevin and wife worried about us during an unexpected subway service disruption, as we were corresponding via email only. Again, we’re very sorry Kevin and Mrs Riley .
Without spoiling too much, we had our tour customised to include 2 locations which interest us greatly. We started by exploring a sprawling shopping district that resembles a labyrinth of tiny covered streets, ranging from bustling wet market to retro shopping street that seems to suspend in Showa period (there’s a street that resembled the alley set piece of ‘Midnight Diner’ tv series).
Then we had a relaxing stroll in the quaint neighborhood shown in Only in Japan Go’s ‘Osaka Neighborhood Adventure w/ Kevin’. I finally had my wish to touch the building which housed the studio where the magic of Kuma’s Kitchen is baking.
Came noon we had a FANTASTIC lunch at Ono brothers’ restaurant with bright and vibrant interior with hint of nostalgia that is quintessential Osaka! Kevin features kimchi okonomiyaki in his video and it’s really good! There’re also other delicious flavor to choose from, and we topped it off with yakisoba. (For those who are wondering why a korean ingredient in a japanese cuisine, it’s pretty much self-explanatory when touring the restaurant’s vicinity)
Next we walked to a huge buddhist temple of long history, had fun trying to decipher Kanji depicted on various areas there with our own knowledge of chinese characters despite our lack of understanding in nihongo. Oh yea, Kevin shared a hilarious tidbit about his involvement in a improvement project there, be sure to ask Kevin about it.
We walked past a picnic ground and were blessed with sights of families having a great time under the clear sky, and again Kevin shared some interesting tidbit about old zoo and its surrounding area as we walked past them.
Then we explored the “New World” in daytime, that seem to suspend in again Showa period, and saw rows of retro arcades, shogi parlour, a (working) retro movie theatre that has black and white movie posters on its ‘now showing’ board, a glimpse of risque topless performance theatre/s and many more. As we grow up in Singapore since 70s, all these sights invoke waves of nostalgia in us. Thank you so much for allowing us to revisit parts of our childhood, Kevin.
To end the tour, we’re brought to a small yet important shrine that is not well known to tourists, for us to pray for health. This is probably our most favourite part of the tour, we’re amazed at how a humble but well maintained shrine can remain hidden quietly in a business district full of modern buildings housing mostly corporate HQ that are associated with the deity worshipped in the shrine. In fact there’re permanent fixtures along the main road next to the shrine which are meant for hanging up decorations during celebration of shrine’s matsuri!
We like to take this opportunity to once again thank Kevin for providing a memorable day at Osaka and sharing with us intimate and little known info about the city. We will come back again for another tour!
Posted by Hidden Möbius on YouTube