Kyoto Customized Private Tour by Car — Guide Kazu

Title: What's a Private Kyoto Day Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Daitoku-ji and Arashiyama

The guests were visitors from North America. All of them asked many enthusiastic questions, and one of them in particular kept asking "Why?", which made the tour truly rewarding as a guide. Their questions gave me endless opportunities to expand on each topic.

At Daisen-in, which has a Special Place of Scenic Beauty dry landscape garden and deep ties to the tea master Rikyu, we enjoyed matcha inside the temple while talking at length. It is truly an ideal place to discuss the concept of wabi-sabi. Although it was not originally planned, we also stopped by Hoshun-in, a sub-temple where you can see many bonsai trees ranging from 100 to 800 years old. All of these are located within the ancient Daitoku-ji temple complex. Despite being a treasure trove of history, Daitoku-ji does not usually receive many inbound visitors, and today it was especially quiet, so I believe the guests were able to fully enjoy its serene atmosphere.

At one guest's request, we had gyoza for lunch, a favorite. On the way to Arashiyama, one of the guests showed me a photo of Arashiyama Daihikaku Senko-ji temple and expressed a wish to go to the exact spot where the photo had been taken and capture the same view. Since it appeared to have been taken from near the top of the Okochi-Sanso Garden, we went to the mountaintop observation deck at Kameyama Park, where nearly the same scenery can be seen. I believe we were able to take an almost identical photo without any admission fee.

As time was running short, we quickly went through the bamboo grove and the Tenryu-ji Garden and returned to Gion. Since one of the guests had bought so many souvenirs that they needed a bag, we stopped by the famous Ichizawa Shinzaburo Hanpu in Gion and quickly purchased a lovely tote bag. After the shopping was finished, we parted ways. They then headed to Sanjusangen-do, and later I received a message via a messaging app saying that Sanjusangen-do had been wonderful. Tomorrow they are going to Nara.

Today, I was able to complete the tour smoothly thanks to the hired car driver, who kindly offered advice throughout the tour. Thank you very much for all the support.

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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