Nara Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Kazu

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

The guests were a group visiting from North America, on their first trip to Japan and Asia. They had traveled from other cities before reaching Tokyo, Kyoto, and then Nara, and planned to spend the following day in Kyoto before returning to Tokyo and heading home. The rainy season had just ended in the Kansai region the day before, and today was extremely hot and humid. Due to the heat and the fatigue of long travel, one of the younger guests became fussy, so we suddenly canceled the planned walk through Naramachi and started the tour with an early lunch instead.

One of the guests loved talking about history and religious culture, so we had a lot of conversation today. One of the younger members of the group had been complaining of tiredness and fussing just moments earlier, but upon seeing the deer swarming for shika-senbei crackers, became incredibly excited and ran around playing with the deer for an hour in the intense heat — or rather, strolled around leading a whole troop of deer. I had never seen someone play with the deer so skillfully. Their face turned bright red and they looked as if they might get heatstroke, so I poured water over their head. Since some of the group waited near Nandaimon out of concern, the others went ahead to see the Great Buddha.

We had originally planned to visit a nearby Japanese garden as well, but because of the extreme heat everyone was exhausted, and although a little time still remained, we parted ways after seeing the group off in a taxi. I'm sure they made a wonderful memory running around and playing with the deer in Japan.

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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