Tokyo in One Day: Guided tour of Meiji Shrine. — Guide Minoruasai

What Is a Private One-Day Tokyo Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Asakusa, Ramen, and Matcha

The guests were a group visiting from North America. They had first visited Kyoto, then traveled to Shanghai, and arrived in Tokyo in January, where I guided them on a Tokyo tour the following day. In addition to their native Spanish, all of them spoke English fluently, so I was able to guide them without any language barrier. As is often the case, the group got along wonderfully, which made guiding them a very pleasant experience.

Everyone in the group had watched the TV drama "Shogun," which recently won Emmy and Golden Globe awards, and they asked me many questions about Japanese history, which made the tour flow smoothly and was much appreciated.

For lunch they requested something light, and since they had not yet tried ramen, I took them to a Kumamoto-style ramen shop in Shinjuku Sanchome. All of them loved it, finished every bowl, and were delighted. When I take guests from North America to tonkotsu ramen, they are always thrilled for some reason. They ordered the spicy version, and I was reassured when some of the guests started eating and exclaimed, "This is delicious!"

Everyone was a big fan of matcha and wanted to have some somewhere, so I took them to a shop in Asakusa. This was another great hit — they each had two matcha lattes, ordering seconds, and every one of them also had matcha soft-serve ice cream, which left me astonished. Still, they were very happy, so it worked out well.

In that pleasant atmosphere, dusk fell, and they enjoyed the illuminated Senso-ji Temple and the Tokyo Skytree. Finally, they said, "We'll explore around here on our own, so let's say goodbye here," and the tour concluded. They were simply a delightful group who made me feel happy as well. They told me they had a wonderful time, so I said goodbye with peace of mind.

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

Tour Report by MINORUASAI

I acquired national guide license in 2014, and I have been doing guide work full fledged since 2016. In my career before starting guide work, I was a business man and made more than 1,000 business trips both abroad and in Japan, and that experience is my foundation as a guide because I came to know so many places both abroad and in Japan. I have been taking care of both group and individual tourists, and the number of foreign guests I have taken care is close to 2,500 so far. I am based in Tokyo, but I can cover guide work in many prefectures throughout Japan. When I take care of foreign guests, my major concern is to listen attentively to them, find out what they want to know and do in Japan, and give them appropriate guiding in accordance with what I heard from my guests. I would like to provide tailor made tour as much as possible for every precious guest who kindly chose Japan as the tour destination.