Travel to Osaka

My family is planning to travel to Osaka end of November this year. I have the following questions:
a) is it safe to stay in a quiet apartment instead of hotel?
b) as we are planning to go free and easy, is it easy to sign up for local tour when we are there (we can be picked up from the apartment instead of hotel)?
c) if we are going to explore ourselves, what is the best type of ticket/pass for us tourists to purchase? is there any all-in-one type of ticket that we can use for all kinds of transport?
d) is English commonly used so that we could ask around if we are travelling around ourselves?

"My family is planning to travel to Osaka end of November this year. I have the following questions:
a) is it safe to stay in a quiet apartment instead of hotel?
b) as we are planning to go free and easy, is it easy to sign up for local tour when we are there (we can be picked up from the apartment instead of hotel)?
c) if we are going to explore ourselves, what is the best type of ticket/pass for us tourists to purchase? is there any all-in-one type of ticket that we can use for all kinds of transport?
d) is English commonly used so that we could ask around if we are travelling around ourselves?"

a)In general Japan has the reputation of being a safe country, but late at night there are probably areas of Osaka that are unsafe for walking around - be alert to your surroundings. I read on this forum that AirBNB is unregulated in Japan so be cautious if you're using them.
b) depending on the tour you might have to walk/bus/taxi to the nearest big hotel or train station to meet your tour.
c)depending on how much exploring you do, you might find a regional pass helpful: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357_kansai.html. Also about half way down this page you'll find information about traveling around the city: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4006.html
d) Maybe. You can always go to a police station for directions if you are lost. They are everywhere. I found employees who work with tourists are another good resource (example: coffee shop near a major temple, buy a snack). You have two months which is plenty of time to listen to a few podcasts to learn how to ask for directions and understand the reply. And just making the attempt might encourage someone to attempt a reply in English.

There's a section of this forum devoted to wireless access - if you carry around a wifi hot spot and you have a smart phone you can use the map software and gps to give you walking directions. In train stations the names of the lines and the stops are in multiple languages including English. We once got on an Express Monorail to Haneda airport when we wanted a local (because we were getting off in three stops) which cost us about half an hour but otherwise we managed fine.