Tokyo Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Lance

What's a Private Tokyo Tour Like for Wheelchair Users? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group from North America on a graduation trip, while the rest of the family stayed home in North America. One of the guests plans to enter university in the autumn to study finance and business. The exams were still ahead, but having already taken university-level classes and earned some credits in high school, there was no concern.

This was my first time guiding a group using a wheelchair. Although I had not noticed it before, every tourist facility and station had ramps and elevators installed, so we were able to sightsee with almost no problems. One of the guests pushed the wheelchair.

Since I am tall, I made sure to bend down so that my explanations could be heard clearly.

The only mistake was that we accidentally boarded a women-only train car, and I apologized to those around us, explaining that we needed the wheelchair space. (A few people gave us a slightly stern look.)

One of the guests asked, "What are the components of the black-dyed teeth on the lion head at Namiyoke Shrine?" I answered, "Iron and tannin." (I had been asked this before, so I remembered.)

The same guest asked, "Why is gravel laid down at the Imperial Palace Outer Garden?" I answered, "As at shrines and temples, gravel is laid in sacred places."

At a sushi restaurant in the basement of a building near Marunouchi, one of the guests asked, "How do you decide between vertical and horizontal writing?" I was momentarily stumped.

One of the guests asked, "We're going to Osaka after this — where should we go?" I answered, "Osaka Castle is magnificent, though it is said to have been rebuilt by a construction company rather than by Hideyoshi. Also, Shinsekai has a different atmosphere from Tokyo. I once guided some colleagues there when I was younger."

When the conversation turned to Ghibli Park in Nagoya, one of the guests said, "The guests in our family love Ponyo and Spirited Away." I said, "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya also became a Ghibli film," and when I described the story, they said, "Interesting!"

Regarding the kinako mochi dessert, one of the guests said, "I like mochi, but I'm not so keen on kinako." I said, "Kinako is soybean flour. Much of that soybean is imported to Japan from North America. It might even come from your home region."

On the train home, I looked it up and messaged the guests: "Vertical writing is used for traditional texts such as literature, newspapers, signboards, and packaging. Horizontal writing came from the West and is used for business, textbooks, email, and texts mixing Arabic numerals and the alphabet."

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Tour Report by Lance

I have been working as a tour guide once a week since 2024.
I grew up in Osaka and studied in Kyoto,
I have been working for the lvestock division of the national organization of agricultural cooperatives.
Japan depends on imports for most of its livestock feed ingredients.
I visited 10 countries on business and stayed in New Orleans working for a subsidiary company for 3 years.
I visited 10 other countries with my wife for sightseeing.
I also started writing Haiku, Japanese traditional poem, after retiring.
One of my favorite is ” Bundled up, you are like a Matryoshka.”
Looking forward to see you!