Dear Tom, Kate, and Ken, thank you for your heartwarming review! Spending the day with you in Kamakura was a joyful and memorable experience. Your long-standing friendship, built on years of trust, and your ability to laugh wholeheartedly at both the good and not-so-good things in life truly inspired me. Your genuine interest in Japan’s geography, history, and culture also encouraged me as a guide. Your kind words about my English mean a great deal to me, as I have continued studying it for many years. Seeing your itinerary reminded me of my days at tourist guide school and helped me appreciate how I can bring my own interests and personality to guiding. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” I feel this beautifully reflects your friendship and the joy of traveling together. I hope you enjoy the rest of your journey around Japan, and I would love to explore Enoshima with you next time! Warmest wishes, Mika

Dear Joseph-san and Marilyn-san, Thank you so much for your warm-hearted message and wonderful review. Yokohama has many fascinating places that still remain little known, such as the Kanagawa Prefectural Government Office, Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall, the Former Yokohama Railway Exhibition, and the Pio City izakaya district, and it was an honor for me to introduce some of them to you both. I especially enjoyed seeing your eyes light up with genuine interest as you immersed yourselves in the history and culture of the city at each stop along the way. After the opening of the Port of Yokohama, Japanese and foreign cultures began to meet and influence each other, and I believe that being a guide is one of the ways cultures and histories come together.

Thank you, Robert-san, for your wonderful review! It was a wonderful experience for me to meet you both and see you off at Tokyo Station. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet such wonderful travelers like you. I was also fascinated to learn that you know about U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry. It was wonderful to discover that we share an interest in the history between the United States and Japan. Kurashiki is one of my favorite cities, and it reminds me of when I first started attending a tourist guide school in 2016. About a month after I started, I couldn’t remember the name of one of the cities mentioned in our textbook. I decided, “If I can’t remember the name of the city, I should visit it!” That city was Kurashiki. Kurashiki flourished through its textile industry, and some of the former industrial buildings have been beautifully renovated and preserved as museums. I was especially impressed by the story of the painter Kojima Torajiro. He became friends at school with the son of a wealthy textile industrialist, who later became his patron. Thanks to his patronage, Kojima Torajiro did not have to sell his artworks to make a living, and many of his works have been preserved in Kurashiki. I’m happy that I can enjoy Kojima Torajiro’s artworks when I visit Kurashiki. I hope you enjoy your time in Kurashiki! It is a beautiful and historic town that was chosen to host G7 ministerial meetings, welcoming delegates and ministers from around the world, including those from the United States.