Osaka Ride-Along

Yuta

A local taxi driver named Yuta and his passenger Emma explore the hidden history of Osaka, one ride at a time: place names, old stories and spots even locals miss.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Shinsekai: Half Paris, Half Coney Island

    Yuta drives Emma through Shinsekai, the Osaka entertainment district created in 1912 with its northern half modeled on Paris and its southern half on New York's Coney Island. Their conversation traces the story of Tsutenkaku: the original tower that stacked the Eiffel Tower on top of the Arc de Triomphe, its loss to fire in 1943, and its rebirth in 1956 through a campaign by local people.

  2. 6d ago

    RIHGA Royal: Osaka's Guest House

    Yuta picks up Emma at the RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka in Nakanoshima, where she is staying tonight, and her question about the hotel's 'RR' logo opens up the story behind the name RIHGA itself. The drive traces the hotel's roots from the Shin Osaka Hotel of 1935 to this building, opened in 1965, and on to its new chapter as the first hotel in Japan to join IHG's Vignette Collection in 2025.

  3. 6d ago

    Nipponbashi: From Radio Parts to Ota Road

    Yuta and Emma explore Nipponbashi, Osaka's Den Den Town: how postwar radio-parts shops grew into an electronics district to rival Akihabara, and how the street one block west turned from furniture stores and PC parts into Ota Road, the otaku street of anime, figures and maid cafes.

  4. Oct 29

    Amerikamura: The Warehouses That Sold America

    Yuta and Emma explore Amerikamura, Osaka's youth-culture district: from its Edo-period days as Sumiyamachi, Charcoal Town, and a quiet warehouse quarter behind Shinsaibashi, to the nineteen seventies, when young surfers turned empty warehouses into shops selling American vintage clothes, jeans, used records and surfboards.

  5. Oct 28

    Shinsaibashi: The Man Who Built the Bridge

    Yuta and Emma explore how one merchant's wooden bridge over the Nagahori canal gave its name to Osaka's biggest shopping district, from a German iron bridge to the Eyeglasses Bridge.

  6. Oct 27

    Dotonbori: The Man Who Dug the Canal

    Osaka Ride-Along episode 2: driver Yuta tells passenger Emma how Dotonbori got its name, from Yasui Doton, the merchant who started digging the canal in 1612 and never saw it finished, to the theater district, kuidaore food culture and the neon signs.

  7. Oct 26

    Umeda Uncovered: Swamps, Graves and Skyscrapers

    Driver Yuta goes deeper into Umeda, from buried fields and one of Osaka's seven burial grounds to the two-name station maze and the new Umekita park.

  • 7 Episodes

About

A local taxi driver named Yuta and his passenger Emma explore the hidden history of Osaka, one ride at a time: place names, old stories and spots even locals miss.

Information

  • Creator
    Yuta
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Yuta
  • Show Website
    Osaka Ride-Along