Kyoto in Half a Day: Sightseeing ①: Nijo Castle — Guide Nori

Title: Can a Private Kyoto Tour Recover a Phone Left in a Taxi? A Licensed Guide's Report on Nijo Castle, Fushimi Inari, and Gion

The guests were visitors from Europe, traveling in Japan for sightseeing. All prior communication and itinerary arrangements were made through a local travel agency rather than with the guests directly. The itinerary (a 4-hour course) was confirmed indirectly along the route of guide (myself) → travel agency → guests, and was finalized as "Nijo Castle ⇒ Arashiyama (Tenryu-ji Temple, the Bamboo Path, Togetsukyo Bridge)." It was a simple course, but as I will describe later, an unexpected incident occurred in the second half.

On the day, we met at the Hotel almost as scheduled and discussed the itinerary. The guests then requested, "We visited Arashiyama yesterday, so we would like to go somewhere else. We'd like to try Gion — what do you think?" I proposed, "Let's cancel all of Arashiyama and instead follow the route 'Fushimi Inari Taisha ⇒ Gion,'" and they agreed. Initially all movement between sites was planned via public transportation, but since the first leg "Hotel ⇒ Nijo Castle" and "Fushimi Inari Taisha ⇒ Gion" were relatively close, with the guests' consent we decided to use taxis.

At Nijo Castle I focused on explaining the relationship between the samurai government and the Emperor, and at Fushimi Inari on the differences between Shinto and Buddhism. I received many questions and helped them deepen their understanding. Both the movement and the sightseeing proceeded smoothly, but finally, 15 minutes after we took a taxi to Gion and began strolling, an accident occurred. Suddenly one of the guests said, "I left my smartphone in the taxi. This is terrible — it has a lot of important information, like bank account passwords. What should I do!?" In my 8 years of guiding experience this was the first such situation, and I was a little flustered, but I proposed, "Let's contact the taxi company right away, find the taxi we rode in, and have them check." I had the guests show me the fare receipt and called the taxi company. I explained the pickup and drop-off locations and the characteristics of the taxi in detail and requested an investigation. The person in charge initially said, "Without the vehicle number or the driver's name, it may be difficult to find it quickly," but promised, "We will do everything we can to investigate."

I explained the immediate course of action to the guests and proposed, "More than 90% of lost items in Japanese taxis are returned. Let's believe it will come back and wait for a while at the drop-off location (the west gate of Kennin-ji Temple in Gion)." We agreed that "if it hasn't returned after an hour, we'll file a lost-item report at a police box," and began heading back to the drop-off location. A few minutes into the walk, a call came in from the taxi driver: "The smartphone you're looking for had fallen on the floor of the car. I'll come to return it now, so please wait at the drop-off location." This was wonderful news. When I relayed this to the guests, who had been despondent until then, they were astonished and delighted, saying, "I can't believe it! What a wonderful thing!" On the way back to the drop-off location, the guests had been pessimistic, saying, "In other countries, if you leave something important like a smartphone behind, it almost never comes back," so their surprise and joy were all the greater.

After waiting about 15 minutes, the taxi arrived, and the smartphone was safely returned to the guest's hands. Both guests expressed heartfelt gratitude to the driver and to me, shaking hands again and again. It was truly a relief that everything turned out fine, but as a guide it was also a moment when I once again realized that "when getting out of a taxi, it is especially necessary to check carefully for any forgotten belongings."

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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.