Kyoto: Uji Tea House Tour & Kinkakuji Temple — Guide Satoko

What Is a Private Kyoto and Uji Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report

The original plan was to proceed with the Hozugawa River boat ride, the Arashiyama bamboo grove, Kinkaku-ji, Nishiki Market, Kiyomizu-dera, Gion, and Fushimi Inari Taisha. However, three months before the tour, the guests contacted me to say they would skip the Hozugawa River ride and instead wanted to add a tea shop tour in Uji, that they had booked a separate tour for the Arashiyama bamboo grove on another day and wished to remove it, and that they would visit Kiyomizu-dera on their own. Since neither the original plan nor a revised plan including Uji could possibly fit into six hours, I explained that an extension procedure would be necessary, and they had agreed. But when the three-month mark arrived, the guests hesitated to extend due to budget considerations. As a result, with the approval of [Japan Guide Agency (JGA Inc.)](https://www.j-g-a.org/), the standard six hours would be covered with the assistance of a driver arranged by [Japan Guide Agency](https://www.j-g-a.org/), and I arranged to be driven to Kinkaku-ji at the end of the standard time. Since I then took on the guiding personally, separate from [Japan Guide Agency](https://www.j-g-a.org/), I will report on the activities up to the end of the standard time.

For this reason, the pre-tour communication with the guests took up a considerable amount of time, and I honestly felt anxious about whether I could carry out the tour enjoyably. However, once I met the guests, the group was very friendly, and the younger members were very polite and listened intently to my explanations, so those worries were dispelled. One of the guests was originally from Asia, and since I myself am studying Chinese, we were able to converse partly in Chinese. As the guests were quite knowledgeable about Japanese culture, our conversation in the car became very lively. Being able to read kanji, they asked me questions I had never even considered, such as "Why is kimono written as gofuku? Isn't it wafuku?" and "What does the place name Fukakusa mean?" In Uji, at the request of one of the guests, we planned to visit Yamamasa Koyamaen, Kanbayashi Shunsho, and Nakamura Tokichi Honten, but Yamamasa Koyamaen was closed. The driver advised that it would be more efficient to go to Nakamura Tokichi Honten before Kanbayashi Shunsho, so we went there first. Since the purpose was shopping, there was no plan to enter the cafe, but the guests were very surprised that, even before the 10:00 opening, many people were already waiting for the cafe. The shop opened at 10:00, and the guests were quite surprised that those wishing to purchase matcha were made to line up in a separate queue. Nonetheless, they bought many items besides matcha and seemed satisfied with the shopping. However, they said they did not want to be kept waiting any longer by touring other shops, so they said the tea shop tour in Uji was enough, and we decided to head to Fushimi Inari Taisha. As it happened, the Motomiya Festival was on July 20, so special decorations were in place, and when I mentioned they were lucky to visit at this time, they were very pleased. Everyone enjoyed taking photos at the specially decorated shrine, and perhaps because of the heat there were surprisingly few people, so they were also able to experience the Omokaru-ishi stone. At Nishiki Market, they wanted to take their time with lunch and shopping. My plan was to head west from Nishiki Tenmangu, but the driver dropped us off at the midpoint, so although I had asked in advance about several preferred lunch spots, we ended up passing a few of them. I told them we had time and could go back, but they said they just wanted to have lunch anywhere, so we decided to walk west. Since one of the guests had said in advance they wanted "chirimen sansho and chili oil furikake," we decided to look for a lunch spot while shopping. At the chili oil furikake shop, one of the guests bought quite a large amount. For lunch, we settled on a place near Takakura-dori — I forget the name — where there were stalls from various shops. Nishiki Market is always crowded, so I usually avoid having lunch there myself, but fortunately the second-floor seating was open, and with no other customers around, the guests could leisurely enjoy fried chicken, gyoza, seafood tempura, and more. After that, we returned to the matcha dessert shop the guests had requested in advance, and they enjoyed ice cream and matcha warabi mochi. They also treated me to some. Overall, they seemed satisfied with Nishiki Market. Then, while pointing out the scenery visible from the car window, we headed to Kinkaku-ji. One of the younger members had just graduated from a university and appeared to be heading into a doctoral program. They had had a chance for an exchange program at Kyoto University but missed it, which was one of the reasons for coming to Japan. Since one of the guests requested that I speak to this member in Japanese as much as possible, I tried speaking a little in Japanese as well. I hoped this would be an opportunity for them to take a greater interest in Japan.

Click here for more details: Kyoto Customized Private Tour by Car with Licensed Guide

Tour Report by Satoko

I am a 53-year-old woman, living in Kyoto for nearly 40 years. I got the license in 2001. Since then, I worked as an interpreter or a translator in several companies, secretary at universities, and now work for a company on weekdays at the international dept.I do guiding job only weekend now. I started full swing guiding career after COVID-19 pandemic. I have gotten good review from many of my guests. I love my hometown, Kyoto which has a lot of interesting and historical sites to see. Particularly, I am native to Arashiyama which is famous for bamboo forest. So, I know a lot of places where you can relax yourself around this area. Other than that, Kyoto has many attractive sites which surely interest you.Also, I like meeting many people from different cultural background. I am very happy if I learn about your culture as well. Let’s enjoy exploring around Kyoto!