Tokyo Private Tours & Local Tour Guides

“Tsukiji Market with a Comedian!”

Shusaku was an excellent tour guide for Tsukiji Market. He has a very good sense of humour (no doubt because he used to be a comedian). He was really fun to spend the morning with. If you want to have a genuine chat about what it's like living in Tokyo, and the difference between living there and in Osaka, he's a great choice. If you want to ask questions about the food in the market (either for dietary restrictions or out of curiosity), he's more than willing to chat with the vendors. He made navigating the market very easy, and lots of fun. Plus, we always forget to take photos, but he brought his camera along. He snapped some of our favourite photos from the trip.

“Best guide ever!!”

What a wonderful way to start our Tokyo adventure! Jamie was the best guide we could have asked for. He was so patient, helpful, and friendly, and really understood exactly what we wanted to see and do. He made the whole experience enjoyable, relaxed, and special. We had the absolute best time with him and couldn’t have asked for a better start to our trip. Highly recommend Jamie to anyone visiting Tokyo!

“Very Disappointed ”

Etsu did not prepare to show us the kind of sites and activities we itemized in detail to her weeks before our tour. We asked her to not duplicate the sights we were scheduled to visit on a coming 20 day tour. We asked her in writing to avoid common " over touristy " locations and come up with some more culturally revealing activities. This was disregarded. She walked ahead of us most of the time not explaining our surroundings. She couldn't even readily identify a large famous forest of Lotus Plants. There were no insights about Japanese culture shared with us. We paid over $400 for two four hour sessions, mostly touring the metro system.This was a waste of a lot of money and our precious travel time. After departing, Etsu sent us an itinerary of the kinds of things we were expecting to do but never got to do while in her presence. We had to follow it without her guidance. On the other hand, we had another Japanese tour guide for several days who educated us very much about Japanese customs and explained things to us in great detail as we toured other areas. What a difference ! Etsu is very pleasant but our overall experience with her was disappointing. If you ever get to read this review, dont waste your money and time with this guide !!!

Etsu I.

(18 reviews)

​Thank you for taking the time to share your detailed feedback. I am so sorry to hear that your experience did not fit your expectations. ​Prior to our tour, I carefully reviewed your request to avoid overlapping with your schedule and to focus on unique, non-touristy experiences. Based on these specific desires such as visiting unique eyeglass shops and TeamLab, I designed a custom itinerary to fit those requests within our limited time together. Moving efficiently via the metro system was intended to help us cover these distinct locations across Tokyo, but I regret that this felt overwhelming and reduced the time for relaxed cultural commentary. ​My intention was to ensure you had a helpful roadmap for the remainder of your stay in Tokyo so you wouldn't miss out on other wonderful spots. ​I sincerely appreciate your kind word about my personality, and I take your constructive comments very seriously to continuously improve my guiding style for the next. ​I am glad to know that you enjoyed Borderless and your subsequent travels in Japan. I wish you and your family all the best. ​Warm regards, Etsu