Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Kazu

Kyoto Private Walking Tour with a Licensed Guide: A Full-Day Report on Gion, Geisha Culture, and Kyoto Dialect

The guests were visitors from North America. They were of a similar generation and had many children and grandchildren, so we naturally ended up chatting about such things — a topic that may be universal around the world. In both English and Japanese, we talked about how grandparents like to be called by their grandchildren. Since their family had an immigrant background, we discussed quite a few topics, even politically tinged ones that might normally be considered taboo. We spent a long time talking about the world of Gion, even though we did not actually visit it this time — for example, the custom of not accepting first-time customers ("ichigen-san okotowari"), and the daily lives of geisha and maiko. From the story that many maiko come from other prefectures and struggle to learn the Kyoto dialect and Gion dialect, the conversation moved on to the Southern drawl in the United States region, whether Spanish has something like a Southern drawl, and whether there is a Costa Rican Spanish. It was fascinating. I listened while thinking that the Gion dialect is a kind of "Western drawl" itself. That said, "oideyasu" and "okoshiyasu" apparently differ quite a bit in meaning, even though both share the same gentle "hannari" softness. When you go to a public bathhouse in Gion in summer, the proprietress at the counter always greets you with "okoshiyasu~." I gave thorough explanations at each of the places we visited, but beyond that, we spent the whole day talking freely about all sorts of things as they came to mind, following the flow of the day. It was a truly interesting 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