Tsukiji Local Food & Culture Half-Day Tour — Guide Lance

Title: What Is a Private Walking Tour of Tsukiji, Yanaka, and Nezu Like? A Licensed Guide's Report

The guests were visitors from Europe. We arranged to meet at Tsukiji Shijo Station, but there was a 20-minute delay because one of the guests had left a wallet at the hotel and went back to retrieve it. Since we could stay in touch through a messaging app, everything worked out fine.

At Tsukiji Market, the guests purchased grilled wagyu skewers and salmon sashimi. At a greengrocer, one of the guests asked, "Why is Japanese salad the same as in the West?" and I answered, "Before the Meiji era, Japan did not have a custom of eating vegetables raw."

At Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple, we happened to encounter a funeral, and one of the guests said, "I saw temples in Kyoto and Nara, but this is the first funeral I've seen. It was a valuable opportunity." When asked, "Which religion do you believe in?", I explained, "Japanese people make their first shrine visit of the year at Shinto shrines, hold weddings at churches, and hold funerals at temples. We use religions conveniently for different purposes, and we don't think much about which religion we belong to."

In Yanaka, we visited the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, and one of the guests said, "From the outside I didn't think it was that big, but I was surprised how spacious it was inside. It was wonderful." At the "Warakichi" hand-puppet theater, there was already a puppet of the current prime minister on display. One of the guests knew about this, saying, "That's the person who came to work at 3 a.m. and troubled the bureaucrats, right?"

As we walked, I mentioned that I had once worked in the import of feed ingredients, and one of the guests asked, "How is the feed industry responding to global warming?" I answered, "It is difficult to address that through feed."

One of the guests asked, "There were many fires since the Edo period, so why weren't houses built of stone?" I answered, "Because there are many forests, wood was cheaper." Later I researched further and added, "First, wood is less likely to collapse in earthquakes than stone. Second, because of the high humidity, stone houses would be unbearable in summer."

At Nezu Shrine, one of the guests said, "Japanese people seem to enjoy making all sorts of wishes with amulets and ema plaques." I replied, "In Japan there is even a proverb, 'People turn to the gods in times of trouble.'" Finally, at a traditional scrubbing-brush shop in Nezu, the guests purchased a body-scrubbing brush and a Christmas tree made from the same brushes.

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Tour Report by Lance

I have been working as a tour guide once a week since 2024.
I grew up in Osaka and studied in Kyoto,
I have been working for the lvestock division of the national organization of agricultural cooperatives.
Japan depends on imports for most of its livestock feed ingredients.
I visited 10 countries on business and stayed in New Orleans working for a subsidiary company for 3 years.
I visited 10 other countries with my wife for sightseeing.
I also started writing Haiku, Japanese traditional poem, after retiring.
One of my favorite is ” Bundled up, you are like a Matryoshka.”
Looking forward to see you!