Customizable Private Tours with Local Tour Guides

“Full day tour with Melody ”

My husband and I had a full day tour with Melody. At the start he was friendly and welcoming. He made sure throughout the day we were comfortable and watched out for us in the very busy train stations. He was knowledgeable in every aspect of Japanese culture and history. It was easy to carry a conversation and joke with him. Our day was filled with excellent attractions and he was flexible in adapting our itinerary. For lunch he recommended his favorite sushi restaurant at the fish market and it was exceptional. Very authentic food. I highly recommend Melody to show you his beautiful Tokyo.

“Phenomenal Way to Start our Trip ”

Ritsuko was an invaluable tour guide for first full day in Japan. In advance of our visit, she asked about our plans and preferences; we provided the neighborhoods we thought we’d go back to and specific stores that we wanted to see. She met us promptly at our hotel, she learned all of our names, and had charted a course for us that was perfect. We started with learning about the train/subway system, and then visited Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya. Ritsuko pointed out key landmarks, neighborhoods, and stores based on each of our preferences so we could return on our own time (which we are doing in the next two days), and she waited as we explored a bit on our own. Ritsuko is kind, patient, enthusiastic, and her English is very good. We really enjoyed our time with Ritsuko and were sorry for our day to end! We can’t recommend her highly enough!

“Good kid, not great as a historical guide though. ”

Atsushi drove us everywhere we wanted to go, which made the trip very convenient and flexible. He was friendly, accommodating, and willing to adjust the itinerary based on the places we wanted to visit, including a few locations he visited for the first time with us a couple of days ago. One of the highlights was definitely his food recommendation, the place he suggested in Kyoto was excellent, and this is clearly one of his strengths. If you are looking for someone to take you around comfortably and point you toward good local food spots, he does that well. That said, he seemed to know very little about the history, cultural significance, or background of many sights in Kyoto. Even for some of the more well-known Kyoto locations that he regularly takes visitors to, there was only rudimentary information provided. It appeared that his experience is more centred around Osaka, with only a basic familiarity with parts of Kyoto. He was willing to take us wherever we wanted to go, which we appreciated, but the experience would have been greatly improved if he had put a bit more effort into learning about importance Kyoto and various sights / locations have in Japan before guiding visitors there. For travelers looking for historical or cultural insights during the tour, that is something to keep in mind.