Kyoto in One Day: Kyoto Imperial Palace & Nijo Castle — Guide Satoko

Title: What Is a Private Full-Day Kyoto Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kinkaku-ji, and Nijo Castle

Although I had signed up for it, I felt a little nervous because it was a larger group than I am usually comfortable with, but the guests turned out to be a very cheerful group visiting from Oceania. It took a little time before we could set off. At first, it seemed the guests wanted help with refunding a Shinkansen ticket and said, "We'd like to stop at Kyoto Station at the start of the tour," but one of the guests said, "That kind of thing can wait until after the tour," so it was decided they would handle it themselves afterward. Also, when boarding at Gojo Station, none of the guests could pass through the ticket gate, so I used the intercom button to speak with a station attendant, who helped resolve the issue. It turned out that they had used SUICA in Tokyo the previous day, but the processing had not been completed. After everyone had passed through the gate, one of the guests—I have no idea where they learned it—said "Banzai!", and I found myself joining in with a "Banzai!" too. With all that behind us, we headed to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, where today too I received enthusiastic questions such as the relationship between the Emperor and the Shogun, where the Emperor's tomb is located, and whether under current Japanese law only a man can become Emperor. Some of the guests had studied the Japanese Imperial family quite well, and some even knew that the current Empress is a former diplomat. Then we went to Kinkaku-ji, where I also received questions such as "How much gold was used?" When I explained that the current Golden Pavilion was rebuilt after it was destroyed by arson in 1950, I received questions such as "Why did the monk end up committing arson?" and "What happened to the monk afterward?" For lunch, they said they wanted to eat something Japanese, so we first went to an udon restaurant across the street, but there were no seats available for eight people, so we decided to walk to another restaurant. On the way, one of the guests spotted a photo of sea bream ramen and said "This one looks good," so we decided to enter that restaurant, which was a first for me as well. Personally, I found the soup delicious, made with a salted sea bream broth and topped with a slice of sea bream, and I think it is a fine restaurant. After that, we moved on to Nijo Castle. Here everyone went ahead, so I walked through the grounds keeping pace with the last of the guests. Here too I received a question such as "Why did the Shogun need to return governing power to the Emperor?" In this way, I was able to spend a very enjoyable day.

Click here for more details: Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day with Licensed Guide

Tour Report by Satoko

I am a 53-year-old woman, living in Kyoto for nearly 40 years. I got the license in 2001. Since then, I worked as an interpreter or a translator in several companies, secretary at universities, and now work for a company on weekdays at the international dept.I do guiding job only weekend now. I started full swing guiding career after COVID-19 pandemic. I have gotten good review from many of my guests. I love my hometown, Kyoto which has a lot of interesting and historical sites to see. Particularly, I am native to Arashiyama which is famous for bamboo forest. So, I know a lot of places where you can relax yourself around this area. Other than that, Kyoto has many attractive sites which surely interest you.Also, I like meeting many people from different cultural background. I am very happy if I learn about your culture as well. Let’s enjoy exploring around Kyoto!