Tokyo Customized Private Tour in 1 Day — Guide Minoruasai

What Is a Private Walking Tour of Tokyo Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on Meiji Shrine and the Imperial Palace

I guided a group visiting from North America. During the tour, we encountered two unexpected events that delighted the guests. The first occurred when we visited Meiji Shrine, which happened to be holding a fire drill that day. Many of the shrine priests, along with a fire brigade, were mobilized, and we were able to watch an actual firefighting exercise being carried out as part of the drill. Water was sprayed from about six hoses all the way up to the roof of the main hall, and the younger members of the group were absolutely thrilled. They were even able to take commemorative photos with the fire trucks.

The second unexpected event happened when we got off the subway in front of the National Diet Building and walked up to the surface toward the front of the building, where we came across a large number of police officers and plainclothes officers. Thinking that perhaps a state guest was arriving at the Diet, I asked an officer, and was told, "The Emperor will be arriving at the Diet shortly, so we apologize, but we are restricting traffic. Please wait on the left side of the road in front of the building until His Majesty arrives." There were nearly 100 people there holding Japanese flags in both hands, and we joined them to wait for the Emperor's limousine to pass. About five minutes later, the limousine carrying His Majesty, who was waving toward us, passed right in front of us and headed to the Diet. The guests were overjoyed by this.

After that, I guided the group from Sakuradamon toward the area in front of Nijubashi Bridge. Remarkably, as we were taking photos there, a police officer again approached us and said they would be restricting traffic and asked us to move to the other side of the fence. We were told that the Emperor, who had made his greetings at the Diet, would soon be returning. We waited about ten minutes here, and once again were able to see the Emperor waving toward us as his limousine returned from the Diet and headed to the main gate. One of the guests captured a perfect video and was delighted. It was the first time in my guiding experience that I happened to encounter His Majesty while he was on the move, so I was surprised as well, but incredibly it happened twice. Combined with the encounter with the fire brigade, the guests were extremely happy.

All sorts of things can happen on a walking tour, but in any case I was glad the guests were so delighted. They also planned to explore Tokyo on their own over the following two days, so I explained how to get to various places they might find interesting, even ones we did not visit, and they were satisfied with that as well.

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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.