Experience modern Osaka’s less visited underbelly with a cruise through the hip and gritty neighborhoods of Tenma, Juso and Nakazaki-cho. Explore Osaka’s growing Street Art scene where talented local and international artists express themselves on the city’s urban canvas.
As well as the art, you can also expect extensive urban landscapes with a maze of train lines, rivers, bridges, graffiti, street art and gorgeous modern skylines.
Among the frequent stops we make, you will also sample specialty coffee, old school Japanese standing bars and a slice of locally produced pizza!
Posted By : 7Amor7
Cool tour. There were only two of us guests that day, so it was practically like a private tour. You see a lot of areas that are completely non-touristy and the breaks for coffee and food are also very nice. However, you spend a lot of time sitting on the bike, which can be tiring for non-regular riders. I would have liked a few more short stops with explanations. So it was mainly a panoramic ride with a handful of street art works. Overall, though, it was very interesting to get to know this side of the city.
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Posted On : 2024-06-18 12:31:25 
Posted By : alexunrein
The Urban Backstreets Tour with Erik was absolutely fantastic. He was super fun, friendly and incredibly patient even when I took yet another picture 😅… Erik is an active part of Osaka’s graffiti & street art community and is therefore super knowledgeable about Osaka’s street art scene in general and naturally about each and every mural that we stopped at.
The tour was also an absolute time saver. The murals in that area of Osaka were rather spread out and it would have taken us a long time trying to locate them all by ourselves on foot. And if that wasn’t already marvellous enough, we also stopped at a cool little café with fantastic drip coffee, “Haiku Coffee”, an old-school Japanese neighbourhood standing bar where we had some yummy local snacks and further refueled at “Hughes Pizza”, a cool pizza place with delicious pizza (and cool design T-shirts which make for a great souvenir).
The bike ride itself took us along the river, across cool bridges, past traditional houses and into quaint as well as hip neighbourhoods. To sum things up, I can only highly recommend this awesome tour. Thanks Cycle Osaka and Erik for an awesome experience.
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Posted On : 2024-06-18 12:30:45
Posted By : A1586CPstephaniel
We did the Urban Backstreets Cycle Osaka tour and it was fabulous! Really well planned out with: 1. a terrific overview of street art in the area; 2. great rest stops along the way (coffee, standing bar and pizza), 3. an interesting route through back streets that we would never have seen ourselves, and most importantly, 4. our tour guide Erik who was extremely knowledgeable and engaging. Can’t have asked for a better experience.
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Posted On : 2024-05-18 19:39:33
Posted By : 90amandinep
Great time with Eric. Great tour, taking you away from the busy areas on to part of the town I would not have found on my own. Great urban art. Great coffee, snacks and pizza along the way too. Hope on a bike with no hesitations.
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Posted On : 2024-05-17 21:24:48
Posted By : MattandBlair_W
We had an amazing time touring Osaka with Eric and our group. Not only did we get a great overview of the city while biking around, but the street art was very cool. Being an artist himself (and creating one of the pieces!), Eric had awesome insights into the art we saw and made it a more enriching experience. We also had tasty drinks and eats from places we’d otherwise not go. Everywhere we went people stopped Eric to say hi, so I get the sense he is very embedded in the city! We’d recommend this tour to anyone looking for a fun day in Osaka.
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Posted On : 2024-04-07 22:42:48 
Posted By : christophercT2995FC
These guys really went out of their way to make our day fun - saw a bunch of things we would not find by our self. The guide knew many of the artists and had personal stories about them - highly recommend
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Posted On : 2024-03-23 06:24:43
Posted By : 871carltond
The chance to see Osaka off the beaten path was an experience I didn't know I needed, but so glad I did.
My guide Erik's knowledge of street art in Osaka is top-drawer. Cycling around some of the many neighbourhoods, getting a glimpse of the real Osaka is something I can't recommend highly enough.
Along the way we stopped a few times to eat and talk at a couple of terrific places only someone with proper inside knowledge could have taken me to. Erik is a lovely, warm guy with a great sense of humour and an infectious lust for life and love of Osaka. His knowledge of the various artists, their work and the Osaka urban art scene in general is a must for anyone intrigued by what's really going on in this wonderful city.
There's a reason Cycle Osaka are always booked up. They run memorable, memorable tours. I look forward to joining them again.
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Posted On : 2024-03-07 04:14:37
Posted By : gabes616
Had such a great time on this tour! My husband and I have been to Japan four times now and this was a highlight of every trip! Eric was super friendly and took us to places we would never have found on our own and had such great knowledge of all the pieces of art he showed us.
Only suggestion is to offer fixed gear bikes! Haha 😉
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Posted On : 2024-02-20 01:01:46
Posted By : I7228RAgeorgeb
What an awesome tour! I had a fantastic time. It was a good balance of outdoors, side streets, great food/drink, cycling and of course street art. A real experience of Osaka.
The guide is an experienced local, deeply knowledgable in the scene, with even some works of his own in the area.
The bike I had was well maintained, and shifted effortlessly. I have spent a cumulative of 30mins on a bike in the last 7 years, but despite this I had no difficulty keeping up and out of trouble.
Thank you for the great time
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Posted On : 2024-01-17 23:07:30
Posted By : 278averye
What an amzing experience! Erik, the guide for this tour, is actually an artist & painted the first mural on our tour. We had a blast riding throug the streets of Osaka & couldn't believe how much Street Art is out there. We had stops for gourmet drip coffee, snacks at a nearly century old standing bar & awesome NYC style pizza at a super cool pizza parlour thanks to Alex at Hughes Pizza. The terrain was virtually flat so really easy to navigate & Erik knows so much about the art scene and artists is was truly a joy to spend the day with him & learn what he had to share. One of the best bike tours we've ever taken & we've been on quite a few. I highly recommend this tour!!!
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Posted On : 2024-01-17 21:08:49
