Kyoto in Half a Day: Sightseeing ④: Ryoan-ji Temple — Guide Nori

【集合場所：Hotel】

# What Is a 4-Hour Private Kyoto Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Nijo Castle, and the Kyoto Imperial Palace

The guests on this tour were visitors to Japan from North America. They had recently completed their studies, and both were early in their careers. For these reasons, they described their trip to Japan as a meaningful and happy occasion.

During our preliminary correspondence, the guests requested a full four locations within the 4-hour tour — Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Nijo Castle, and the Kyoto Imperial Palace. As a guide, I was impressed by how well-focused their choices were: Kinkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji as classic expressions of Japanese beauty, and Nijo Castle and the Imperial Palace as sites that illustrate the relationship between samurai governance and the Emperor. However, I had the impression that covering all four locations by public transportation might be quite challenging, so I secured their agreement in advance that we might need to use a taxi for some of the travel. The other concern was, of course, the weather, but that was something we could only leave to chance.

On the day of the tour, the guests were full of energy, and their travel and transfers by public transportation went extremely smoothly. The tour proceeded exactly according to the itinerary — and in some cases even slightly ahead of schedule. There was no need at all to use a taxi to make up for lost time. As for the weather, there was only a light drizzle that was not enough to get wet, and there was no need to use umbrellas. The high humidity was as usual, but with cloudy skies and no strong sunlight, it was a relatively comfortable summer tour of Kyoto. The guests remarked that it was "much more comfortable than the heat of Tokyo."

Both guests had a strong interest in Japanese culture and history, and they asked many questions at each site, which made for a very rewarding guiding experience. This was their first visit to Japan, but when I spoke about the charms of each of the four seasons at the various sites, they said they would love to visit again in a different season.

Click here for more details: Kyoto Customized Half-Day Tour with Licensed Local Guide

Tour Report by Nori

Hi, everyone! I’m Norifumi Kamon, a government registered guide interpreter. Please call me “Nori”, or “Kamon-san”.
Let me introdece myself. I was born on April 17th in 1952 in Miyazaki prefecture in Kyushu island. I used to be an English teacher of Osaka Prefectural high school. When I retired from a teacher ten years ago, I decided to get a professional guide license. I wanted to play a role of the bridge between Japanese people and the people from all over the world as a second life of mine. After two years efforts, I finally got the guide license. Since then, I have guided several handreds of foreign people mainly in Kyoto and Nara for about five years except Corona Pandemic period. Almost all the tourists were deeply impressed by the beauty of nature, traditoin, culture, and art of Japan. I can surely help you enjoy and be satisfied with the sightseeing in Japan. And I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.