Kyoto Customized Private Tour by Car — Guide Kazu

What's a Private Kyoto Tour Like for a Family Visiting Japan? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group visiting from North America. They had visited Japan once before, and on this trip they were traveling through several destinations before returning home. The younger members of the group were relatively well-behaved, and even while I was explaining history, they entertained themselves without fussing. One of the guests asked many questions enthusiastically, and answering them allowed the conversation to expand naturally. This pattern is the easiest for a guide to work with. Another of the guests was constantly attentive to the younger members, so while listening to me, their attention was often drawn away and it was sometimes difficult to follow my explanations to the end. Because of this, I may have spoken rather quickly today, trying to complete my explanations before their concentration ran out. I also took care to repeat the same story again later when needed.

What I found interesting was that, since the guests were originally from Asia, they were already quite familiar with Buddhism, so I did not need to explain it in great detail. Instead, today I took the opportunity to ask them about Buddhism in their home region. For example, the thousand-armed Kannon Bodhisattva at Sanjusangendo. This Kannon Bodhisattva also exists in their tradition, written as "観音" and pronounced Guanyin. In Japan, Kannon transforms into 33 different forms to help people everywhere in their suffering. The 40 arms from the halo each relieve 25 kinds of suffering, hence "thousand hands." In their tradition, Kannon transforms into 1,000 forms to save all people from suffering. Similar, but subtly different. The distinction between Nyorai (Tathagata) and Bosatsu (Bodhisattva) was the same. The existence of Amida Nyorai, Yakushi Nyorai, and Dainichi Nyorai, as well as the basic ideas of Pure Land Buddhism, were also the same. I couldn't ask about anything more detailed than that, but the fact that Buddhism is largely the same — which, when you think about it, is only natural — was refreshing and interesting to me.

In the car on the way to the Hotel, the last question was: why did I decide to become a tour guide? I hope it turned out to be an enjoyable day for the guests. Finally, I would like to sincerely thank today's driver for their careful attention throughout the day. My thanks again.

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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