Kyoto: Sightseeing ③: Ryoan-ji Temple — Guide Nori

What Is a Private Kyoto History and Culture Day Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group visiting Japan from North America. All prior contact and coordination were made with one member of the group. During the pre-tour communication, I learned that one of the guests could not consume gluten from wheat products. Looking into it, I found that a person with this condition can only eat so-called "gluten-free" foods, and must avoid not only bread and noodles but also soy sauce, which uses wheat in its production process. In terms of Japanese cuisine, this means no udon or tempura, of course, and also no dashi broth that uses soy sauce. When I contacted the Japanese restaurant where we planned to have lunch, they said they could accommodate gluten-free customers, so we decided to choose the menu on-site.

Since the guests said they were interested in the history and culture of Japan and Kyoto, we finalized the day's itinerary as follows: the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, and Arashiyama. At each location, the guests asked a variety of questions, and there were moments when I struggled to answer, but I believe they were ultimately satisfied.

Let me report on how the matter of lunch turned out. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant near Togetsukyo Bridge, but one of the guests took quite a while to decide on an order. This guest was very well aware of their own body, and when traveling abroad carried a written explanation about gluten-free needs in the language of the destination country. Of course, this time they brought an explanation written in Japanese. Even more thorough was that they had brought their own gluten-free soy sauce. In the end, the order was decided as a grilled eel rice bowl (unaju) without sauce. However, upon seeing the unaju that was brought out, the guest said, "This brown liquid on the surface looks like soy sauce (the sauce)." Even after confirming with the waitress that no sauce had been used, the guest was not convinced. Even when I (the guide) said, "I think the brown liquid you see on the surface is just a bit of the eel's oil that has been slightly charred," the guest was still not convinced. So I took the unaju to the kitchen and asked, "You didn't use any sauce, right?" and the answer was, "None at all. What looks like sauce is the eel's oil." This satisfied the guest, who then poured their own gluten-free soy sauce over the unaju and happily ate it, saying, "Delicious, delicious." All's well that ends well.

Click here for more details: Kyoto Customized Private Tour by Car with Licensed 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.