Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Kazu

Title: What Is a Private Kyoto Day Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on a First Visit to Japan

Body: The guests were visiting from Europe, and since this was their first time in Japan, they left the entire plan up to me. One of them spoke English well, while the other was not very comfortable with English and listened to real-time interpretation through earphones. At first, one of the guests kept looking at their phone even while I was talking, and I wondered what they were looking at — it turned out to be the translated text from a simultaneous interpretation app (my English into their language), and once I realized this, I found it rather amusing. The guests were very versatile and multi-talented, running businesses in different fields. One of them enjoyed conversation and talked at length about the current political and economic situation in their home region.

While standing before a dry landscape garden at a Zen temple, I was explaining how one empties the mind and frees oneself from the mundane world, but somehow the topic drifted to the economy, heavy taxation, and pension policies back home, and how the middle class was losing motivation. In the end, the conversation strayed from the essence of Zen to cars and to predictions about the future, and I could no longer steer it back to the dry landscape garden.

The guests were deeply moved by the Thousand-Armed Kannon at Sanjusangen-do. One of the guests took photos in the restroom at Sanjusangen-do of a child-sized toilet and maternity-friendly facilities and showed them to me, saying how impressive it was. From there the conversation turned to washlet toilets and the pleasant warm water, and it became a very lively discussion.

So, while I personally felt I wanted to explain more about the content and found it a little unsatisfying in that respect, the atmosphere was very lively and I believe the guests were very happy, so I too spent a very enjoyable day.

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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