Kyoto in One Day: Kinkaku-ji Temple & Sanjusangendo — Guide Satoko

What Is a Rainy-Day Private Kyoto Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Kinkaku-ji, Nijo Castle, and Sanjusangendo

From the beginning, the guests had expressed that they preferred not to pack too much into the schedule, wanted to use public transportation, and hoped to visit Kinkaku-ji and Kiyomizu-dera. However, by the time we arrived at Kinkaku-ji, it was raining quite heavily, and one of the guests seemed to have difficulty walking on the stairs. Since Kiyomizu-dera requires a considerable walk from the bus stop and has many stairs inside, I felt it might be dangerous, so after we had seen Kinkaku-ji, I suggested changing our destination to somewhere with a roof. As a result, we decided to visit the indoor facility of Nijo Castle.

Both guests were reading all the explanations very carefully without any prompting from me, which made it a little challenging to guide. That said, at the guardhouse, whose doors are usually closed, there was a reproduction using figures of Emperor Go-Mizunoo's visit to Nijo Castle, and they were delighted to see it. We also walked through the Ninomaru Palace. In summer it is hot, so I usually do not look too closely, but seeing it again today, the arrangement of the stones bordering the pond looked strikingly beautiful.

I then suggested moving on to Sanjusangendo, which also has a roof. Since there are not many suitable places to eat around Nijo Castle, I suggested having lunch somewhere between Keihan Shichijo Station and Sanjusangendo. I had first thought of udon, but one of the guests disliked it. When I asked whether they liked curry, they said they did, so I decided to take them to a curry restaurant. They seemed very satisfied with the menu.

At Sanjusangendo, I explained the general points of the front-side exhibits, but at the Twenty-Eight Attendants section, they were reading the explanations intently. At the back-side toshiya (long-distance archery) corner, one of the guests asked me various questions. In particular, they pointed out that the framed plaques listing the names of past champions had decorative patterns, something I had never noticed before, which greatly surprised me.

After going around the hall, I thought we might stroll through the garden, but around 14:15 they said they would "walk back to the hotel." They asked me to show them the direction to the hotel, and since I was also heading to Kyoto Station, I decided to walk together with them to the hotel. Along the way, our conversation turned to working styles in North America and Japan's pension system. Before long we arrived at the hotel, and they thanked me, saying, "We had not thought of a plan in case of rain, so this was a great help."

The photo was taken in front of the special exhibition at the guardhouse of Nijo Castle, but I apologize that it came out backlit.

Click here for more details: Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day 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!