Kyoto: Kinkaku-ji Temple & Nijo Castle — Guide Satoko

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

The guests were a group visiting from North America. The itinerary had been arranged in advance with a local agency. When we met at the meeting point, the guests had a friendly and relaxed manner, though I was a little surprised by one who arrived dressed strikingly in sunglasses and a leather jacket. As discussed beforehand, we traveled by taxi for the entire itinerary. The guests talked with each other throughout, which made it difficult to find moments to add explanations. Kinkaku-ji in particular finished earlier than usual, which surprised even me. One of the guests spoke little, but another would talk at length whenever I asked even a small question, so it was quite challenging to find a good moment to add commentary. Our last stop was Nijo Castle, and since we were a little ahead of schedule, we decided to walk through the main citadel as well. One of the guests seemed especially interested in the Taisei Hokan (the return of political power to the Emperor), and I received questions about the reasons behind it and how the shogun was treated afterward. At the end, one of the guests wanted to try mitarashi dango from a street stall, so they bought some and we sat down to eat. I had thought each person would eat a full skewer, but the guests each had only a couple of pieces and offered the remaining two skewers to me, saying they only wanted a little taste. Not wanting them to go to waste, I gladly enjoyed them. After this, they planned to have lunch by sampling various things at Nishiki Market, and mentioned they had a reservation for Kobe beef for dinner. On the way back, we hailed a taxi in front of Nijo Castle, told the driver their destination, and said our goodbyes. After this, they planned to move on to Osaka, and since there was no direct flight to their next destination, they mentioned that stopping over on the way home would take about the same amount of time, so they intended to make a stopover before returning.

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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!