Kyoto: Nijo Castle & Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine — Guide Satoko

Title: What Is a Private One-Day Kyoto Tour of Nijo Castle, Kiyomizu-dera, Tofuku-ji, and Fushimi Inari Like? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were visitors from Europe. They were both strong walkers and gracious, smiling throughout the day, which made for a very pleasant guiding experience overall. All destinations followed the guests' wishes. At Nijo Castle, they asked eager questions about topics such as the shogun's family system. Today we also walked one full loop around the castle. Next, we moved on to Kiyomizu-dera. We got off the bus at Kiyomizu-zaka, but Chawan-zaka, which is usually relatively uncrowded, was even busier than usual. After arriving, when I explained the history of Kiyomizu-dera and described why one of the guardian lion-dogs has its mouth open, they understood and were satisfied. Although they were impressed by the Buddhist statues in the main hall and the construction of the stage, it was so crowded that they wished to exit via a shortcut. I suggested having lunch before heading to the next destination, and since a new ramen shop partway up Chawan-zaka was relatively empty, we decided to eat there. They enjoyed the lunch. We then moved on to Tofuku-ji. As they were strong walkers, rather than returning all the way to the bus stop, I suggested walking to the Keihan station, but this area was also more crowded than usual. When we got off at Tofukuji Station, perhaps because it was the autumn foliage season, there were quite a lot of people even along the way. Even before entering the middle gate, there were many people lined up for Tsutenkyo Bridge, so I asked, "There is an admission fee to see the bridge, the abbot's hall, and the Sanmon gate—how would you like to proceed?" They said, "Just the abbot's hall is fine," so I guided them toward the abbot's hall while showing them the tosu (temple restroom building) and the Sanmon gate. They had a good impression of the abbot's hall. Since we exited from the south gate, we decided to walk to Fushimi Inari Taisha. Along the way, they were very surprised to see a line of cars coming from the direction of Fushimi Inari Taisha. Fushimi Inari Taisha was also more crowded than usual. However, they happened to witness a kagura performance and watched it with great interest. At the inner shrine, a shrine-visit blessing was also being held, which they found interesting to observe. After they had seen everything, they said they would stay there for a while and that was enough, so we concluded the tour. The photo was taken at the Ninomaru Garden of Nijo Castle.

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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!