Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Kazu

Title: What's a Private Kyoto Temple Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Daitoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji, and To-ji

Body: The guests were visiting from Europe. Family members had traveled to Japan earlier this year and strongly recommended the trip, which encouraged them to make the journey. One of them had been very eager to come, while the other had not been especially fond of overseas travel. Beforehand I received an email with many possible destinations, and based on their main interests we settled on this itinerary. Their journey covered Tokyo, Hakone, Hida-Takayama, Kanazawa, and Hiroshima, then back to Osaka and on to Kyoto. They also planned to visit Koyasan before returning home from Kansai Airport a week later. We talked about how long the journey still was. As we chatted, we realized we were of a similar generation, even joking about which month we were born in, and despite different backgrounds there was a sense of connection as peers of the same era. Both of the guests were in the medical field, with broad interests and quick understanding. We focused mainly on temples, visiting Daitoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji, and To-ji, each a completely different type of temple. They listened with great interest to topics such as what Zen is, what wabi-sabi means, why a shogun would build such a dazzling golden temple, what a shogun even was, the difference between To-ji and Sai-ji, what a five-story pagoda is, and what Shingon esoteric Buddhism is. Over lunch the conversation turned to dialects, and we had an interesting discussion about the differences between the Kanto and Kansai languages. They mentioned that even for people from their home city, the English spoken by people in certain northern regions and islands, including Gaelic, is so distinctive that they cannot understand it at all. Hearing this, I felt quite relieved and reassured. As we parted, I asked them to remember Shingon esoteric Buddhism and Dainichi Nyorai when they visited Koyasan. Once again I was able to spend a lively, enjoyable, and meaningful day.

A notable stop on the tour was Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion, is a Zen Buddhist temple whose top two floors are covered in gold leaf. Originally built as a retirement villa for a shogun in the late 14th century, it was later converted into a temple. Set beside a reflecting pond and surrounded by a carefully designed garden, it is one of Kyoto's most iconic and frequently visited sites.

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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