1 / 2Do kendoPhoto: 江戸村のとくぞう / CC BY-SA 4.0
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
The most-reviewed single experience at any port covered on this site. Armour, a shinai, and an instructor who will correct your grip rather than pose for photographs.
- If you would rather be guided, the operator here holds 5.0★ across 610 reviews.
- 3 hr 30 min door to door needs a 5.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- Book it before you sail. There is no tour desk at the pier and walk-up places are not a thing here.
- It is a view, so it is weather. Check the morning sky before you commit the hours.
Why Kendo with a licensed instructor is famous
Kendo descends from samurai swordsmanship, formalised with bamboo shinai and armour in the 18th century and now practised by over a million people in Japan. An hour with a licensed instructor buys the part that watching cannot give you: how heavy the armour is, and how loud it is inside.
Where the 3 hr 30 min goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway, about 30 minutes after the ship arrives. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
35 minutes each way is the measured figure for subway ~35 min, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 2 hr 20 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Book it with a guide
Booked before you sail — there is no tour desk at the pier. Booking through this link supports the site.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
Eat · ~2h incl. subwayTakoyaki on Dotonbori, standing
Invented in this city in 1935 — batter, a cube of octopus, turned in a cast-iron dimple plate with a pick.
See the detail
See · ~2hDotonbori after dark
A canal walled with the loudest signage in Japan.
See the detail
See · ~3hOsaka Castle
Hideyoshi built it, the Tokugawa destroyed it in 1615 and rebuilt it, lightning burned the keep in 1665, and the current tower is 1931 concrete with a lift to the 5th floor.
See the detail