Kyoto in One Day: Fushimi Inari Taisha & Kodaiji — Guide Satoko

Title: What's a Private One-Day Kyoto Tour Like, from Fushimi Inari to Kodai-ji? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were a group visiting from Europe. It was difficult to reach them until fairly close to the tour date, and in addition to the planned itinerary they had also requested a stroll along Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka, as well as a walk along the Philosopher's Path. The meeting time had originally been assigned as 8:30, but because they wished to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha early in the morning, it was changed to 7:00. It seems everyone had the same idea, as Fushimi Inari Taisha was already crowded with many tourists, which surprised the guests as well. Next we visited Nijo Castle. One of the guests was particularly interested in the history of the shogun and asked all sorts of questions even on the way to Nijo Castle. Regarding Nijo Castle, they asked many enthusiastic and detailed questions, such as "If I had come from Tokyo to meet the shogun, where would I have stayed?", which was quite tiring. We then moved to Karasuma Oike to go to Nishiki Market. The guests had said from the start that they wanted to take a coffee break, and since a Starbucks was found in the basement of Karasuma Oike Station, we decided to rest there for a while. As I had also grown a bit tired from the barrage of questions, it made for a welcome break. We then walked to Nishiki Market, and since one of the guests was especially interested in food, they took the lead and set off as if transformed. At Nishiki Market, each of the guests enjoyed sampling foods to their own liking, such as yakitori, sushi, dashimaki, and dango. Finally I introduced Nishiki Tenmangu, and when I showed them the mechanical lion omikuji, one of the guests happily drew a fortune. We then walked to Hanamikoji. Along the way, the cherry blossoms along the Takase River were beautiful, and one of the guests happily took photos. We then passed by Yasui Konpira Shrine and moved to our final destination, Kodai-ji. It seemed the temple itself was not really the goal, but rather they wanted to see the bamboo grove; they did not go up to the hojo, nor did they see the Kaisan-do or Otama-ya, and simply walked straight toward the bamboo grove. They had been talking about the bamboo grove insistently from the beginning, so when I asked whether they were satisfied with it, they said that bamboo does not exist where they are from, and that they had wanted to see the ecology of bamboo. When one of the guests showed me a photo of the Yasaka Pagoda and said "This is where I want to go," we decided to walk there. At this point it was just about 1:00, so we parted ways. Because the guests asked so many questions, I was not able to provide much guidance myself, but I was able to learn about various people's perspectives, which I feel was a truly valuable experience. For the photo, the cherry blossoms in front of the shrine office at Fushimi Inari Taisha were beautiful, so I took a picture.

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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!