Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Kazu

Can You Do a Private Day Tour of Kyoto's Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group visiting from North America, who had been to Tokyo several times before but were visiting Kyoto for the first time. They planned to see Kyoto today and Osaka the next day. They were bright and cheerful people. One of the guests was at an age where things like taking photos or choosing meals and sweets could be a bit tricky, which reminded me of a certain period in my own family life. Even so, after spending the whole day together, by the end they were laughing and chatting with me warmly.

The original plan was to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha, then move to Arashiyama to see representative spots such as the bamboo grove, Jojakko-ji, and Tenryu-ji. However, when we met first thing in the morning, the wishes had changed — some of the guests wanted to go to the monkey park, while another wanted to visit the Philosopher's Path, and we could not settle on where to go. In the end, a decisive word from one of the guests set the plan: Fushimi Inari, then lunch in Arashiyama, then the Togetsukyo Bridge and the monkey park, with everything after that to be decided as we went. At Fushimi Inari, the shopping for torii and fox-themed goods went on endlessly, and in Arashiyama they lined up at a sweets shop, so in the end we only visited two spots.

Since it was a private tour, my attitude was: please spend the day exactly as you like, and I will follow you wherever you go — and we had a wonderful time. I love teaching guests the word "ookini," and today's guests took a real liking to it, saying it everywhere in shops and being delighted when the staff smiled. It was funny to see one of the guests, who I had expected to be quite reserved, enthusiastically repeating "ookini." At the monkey park, they enjoyed the baby monkeys and the spectacular view of Kyoto from the summit. In the end, we said goodbye with "ookini" at JR Kyoto Station. I made sure to remind them not to use "ookini" once they returned to Tokyo. After this, they headed to TeamLab BioVortex Kyoto.

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Tour Report by Kazu

Hello, this is Kazu Akiyama, your tour guide. Nice to meet you and welcome to Japan. Thank you for joining me on the tour. Now I am a retired salaried worker, living in Osaka. I have been very much interested in not only learning Japanese history, culture, religion myself, but also talking about them (sometimes going off topics) in English with tourists from all over the world as well. I am so excited being with you as your guide on coming day! I am very much looking forward to you enjoying with me visiting the must-see places and some of the hidden gems. See you soon. Thank you – Kazu Akiyama