Kyoto Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Kazu

Title: What Is a Private Kyoto Day Tour Like? Arashiyama, Bamboo Grove, and Zen — A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were from North America. They had known each other since school and, after many decades, happened to reconnect and now live together. Both were cheerful, easygoing, and friendly, and they listened attentively to my explanations. Their interest led to many questions, and they also shared some of their own stories, which made guiding them easy and very enjoyable.

We had many conversations, especially over lunch. The guests seemed interested in zazen and meditation. Since we had not visited a Zen temple famous for its dry landscape garden that day, I ended up starting an impromptu talk about "what Zen is" at a soba restaurant. The guests were so receptive that I found myself talking at length while slurping my soba.

We also got into a conversation about how middle names are decided in names, touching on religion, family lineage, and even some slightly taboo topics related to history, all shared kindly over cups of soba-yu (the water used to boil soba).

The scenery from Togetsukyo Bridge, shown in the photo, moves everyone. Although it must be far smaller in scale than the Great Lakes of North America, there is something captivating about a landscape nurtured by a thousand-year-old capital. Today especially, the sun was dazzling and the wind was pleasantly cool, and the guests were very delighted with the view.

After the bamboo grove, we were supposed to visit a foot bath spa, but the guests were tired from all the talking and decided to skip it, so we returned to the Hotel.

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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