Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Nori

Title: What Is a Private Afternoon Kyoto Tour of Higashiyama Like? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group visiting Japan for sightseeing from Oceania. All prior communication and itinerary arrangements were made with one member of the group. The guests said, "Since this is a short trip to Japan, we want to see as much as possible," and had already decided to visit Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama, and Kinkaku-ji in the morning of the tour day. For the afternoon that I was in charge of, they wanted to explore the Higashiyama area, including Kiyomizu-dera and Gion, along with the illuminated autumn foliage. Although I wondered whether the guests would be up for it physically, I did my best to meet their request and arranged a 6-hour itinerary from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: "Gion → Kennin-ji → Kiyomizu-dera → Eikan-do (illumination)."

On the day, I arrived at the Hotel 30 minutes early and waited. Ten minutes before the meeting time, I met the group returning from lunch, and we were able to set off exactly at 2:00 p.m. as scheduled. This was the first visit to Japan for the guests, and they listened eagerly to my explanations and asked many questions. However, when we had nearly finished sightseeing at Kiyomizu-dera and the temperature dropped sharply after sunset, one of the guests said, "Everyone is getting a bit tired, so we'd like to cancel the next stop at Eikan-do and return to the Hotel to rest." Sensing that the group had indeed built up considerable fatigue, I agreed and suggested, "In that case, I'll take you back to the Hotel, but there is a famous shrine called Yasaka Shrine on the way, so I'll show you that." The guests wanted to eat ramen on the way back to the Hotel, so we stopped at a ramen shop just off Shijo Street and had dinner together. While eating ramen, I asked, "There is still more than an hour of guiding time left — is there anywhere else you'd like to go?" but the guests replied that it was fine as it was.

In the end, after finishing dinner and seeing them off at the Hotel, the tour concluded with about an hour and a half to spare. The guests expressed their gratitude, saying, "We were able to enjoy the sightseeing very comfortably. Thank you." It was also a tour that made me feel the difficulty of sightseeing that extends into the evening, especially as it begins to get seriously cold.

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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.