Kyoto Customized Half-Day Tour — Guide Nori

What Can You See on a 4-Hour Private Kyoto Tour? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests this time were a group visiting Japan from Europe for sightseeing. The advance communication and itinerary consultation were handled with one of the guests. They had a very strong desire to actively enjoy Japan, and despite booking a short "4-hour" course, they initially made quite ambitious requests, including "Monkey Park" and "Ryoanji," plus "wearing a kimono and enjoying a tea ceremony." I explained: "First, Monkey Park is halfway up a mountain about 500 meters high, and the climb up and down takes nearly an hour, so with the visit included it takes more than an hour and a half. Also, kimono dressing takes over 30 minutes, and a full tea ceremony experience takes more than an hour, so together that would be over two hours. Ryoanji would also take an hour and a half including travel by bus or taxi and the visit itself. This would be difficult within a 4-hour course." This began an exchange of emails to reconsider the plan. After more than ten exchanges, we finally settled on "Monkey Park ⇒ Daikakuji" two days before, but the day before, the reply came that "it seems Daikakuji has already been visited." Since this came near the evening of the previous day, we decided: "Let's prioritize Monkey Park and visit it first, and discuss where else to go tomorrow morning at the hotel."

On the morning of the day, we met at a hotel near Kyoto Station, and I immediately presented five options as candidates after Monkey Park: (1) Okochi Sanso, (2) Fukuda Art Museum, (3) Matsuo Taisha, (4) Shopping. The guests showed interest in "Matsuo Taisha," long famous as the "God of Sake," and confirmed it. With that, the course of "Monkey Park ⇒ lunch ⇒ Matsuo Taisha" was finally settled.

On the day, the morning was rather cloudy with a forecast of rain, but it never came down heavily, and from noon into the afternoon the sun even peeked out, so there were no problems at all. Monkey Park seemed to be a place they really wanted to visit, and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves feeding the monkeys and taking lots of photos.

They also greatly enjoyed the udon at "Arashiyama-tei," where I took them for lunch. At the final stop, "Matsuo Taisha," the guests were in great spirits in front of the "komodaru" sake barrels sent from all over the country, as sake is a favorite. The distinctive dry landscape garden was also splendid, and they were very satisfied.

In my career as a guide, it was the first time that an itinerary was not decided until the day before and was finalized only on the morning of the tour, but I was fortunate that the guests were satisfied despite it being a short course.

Click here for more details: Kyoto Customized Half-Day Tour with Licensed Local Guide

Tour Report by Nori

Hi, everyone! I’m Norifumi Kamon, a government registered guide interpreter. Please call me “Nori”, or “Kamon-san”.
Let me introdece myself. I was born on April 17th in 1952 in Miyazaki prefecture in Kyushu island. I used to be an English teacher of Osaka Prefectural high school. When I retired from a teacher ten years ago, I decided to get a professional guide license. I wanted to play a role of the bridge between Japanese people and the people from all over the world as a second life of mine. After two years efforts, I finally got the guide license. Since then, I have guided several handreds of foreign people mainly in Kyoto and Nara for about five years except Corona Pandemic period. Almost all the tourists were deeply impressed by the beauty of nature, traditoin, culture, and art of Japan. I can surely help you enjoy and be satisfied with the sightseeing in Japan. And I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.