How the bill works
On both crawls, food and drinks come on top of the ticket and are paid at each bar. The bars take cash only, so bring yen in small notes and more than you think you need.
The Dotonbori and Ura-Namba crawl adds one more rule: the bill at each stop is split evenly between the guests. That suits a group that orders freely and is hard on anyone who sticks to one soft drink. A guest from the United Kingdom wrote that the ordering was done for the group and that they were simply told how much to pay. If you want to order for yourself or keep to a budget, ask the guide at the start how the round works on the night.
The Namba crawl gives no rule about splitting. You still pay at each bar and still pay in cash.
Ura-Namba, the back of Namba
Ura-Namba means the back of Namba: the lanes behind the stations, lined with small izakaya and standing bars. The crawl by Travel Japan Together meets at the Glico sign on Dotonbori, walks into these lanes and usually runs with 5 to 10 guests. It takes three hours.
Namba, Shinsaibashi and Amerikamura
The crawl by Cornwall Ltd covers more ground: Namba, the shopping district of Shinsaibashi and Amerikamura, the youth and nightlife quarter west of it, in three and a half hours. The meeting point is the side entrance of the Apple store in Shinsaibashi, not the main door on the shopping street. The listing states that the crawl runs in the rain.
One review comes from a solo traveller who was nervous about booking and ended the night with new friends. On the other side, one guest felt the guide added little once the group had met, and another found the bars underwhelming. A crawl stands or falls with the group on the night.
Sake instead of a crawl
If you are more interested in what is in the glass than in moving between bars, a sake tasting is the quieter evening. MOMO TO SAKE in Namba lets you taste from more than ten kinds of sake, chosen with a sake sommelier, alongside takoyaki you cook yourself. The group is capped at 6, and the room is on the second floor of a side lane that guests find hard to spot, so allow time to find it. It is listed below the crawls.
Sake also turns up in the cooking classes. Both XLSWORLD classes in Bakuromachi serve sake or beer with the meal, and the home-style class with a supermarket visit has an optional sake tasting. The cooking class comparison lists them all, and the takoyaki and okonomiyaki page covers the sake and takoyaki evening in more depth.
A crawl or a food tour
If you want to eat well and know in advance what is included, a guided food tour is the safer booking: the dishes and a set number of drinks are in the ticket. The food tour comparison lists what each one covers. A crawl is the better fit if you want local bars and a mixed group, and you are happy to pay as you go.
