After meeting at 9:30 am - a 20 minute walk - Narita-san Shinshoji - to Narita station around 12:30 pm - two optional tours: one is Kawamura Art Museum(a 2 hour facility tour & a 2 hour round trip to and from Narita station) , the other is Boso-no-mura(a two hour facility tour & a two hour round trip to and from Naraita station) - at Narita station around 5:30 pm(break up)
At JR Narita station in front of the ticket gate
Narita-san Shinshoji Temple
Optional tour: Kawamura Art Museum or Boso-no-mura(theme park museum)
At JR Narita station
A visit to Narita-san Shinshoji temple is not only for praying to Buddha but also for enjoying shopping and eating in its temple town. It has a large compound including the beautiful park. Kawamura Art Museum boasts the collection of fine arts by famous artists such as Monet, Rembrandt, Picasso and contemporary others. In addition, it has a trail for strolling surrounded by rich nature. Boso-no-mura is famous for open-air architecture reproducing the town of the Edo period(1603-1867), where you can enjoy various hands-on amusement including making traditional crafts and wearing samurai costumes.
guide fee, guide transportation fee
-Transportation fee(in the case of Kawamura Art Museum: about 600 yen per person, in the case of Boso-no mura: train about 400 yen per person plus taxi fare
about 3600 yen from and to nearby station )
-Lunch(about 1500 to 2000 yen per person)
-Entrance fee(Kawamura Art Museum: about 1000 yen per person, Boso-no-mura: 300 yen per person)
Both Kawamura Art Museum and Boso-no-mura are closed on Mondays.
He has characteristics that tourist guides “must have”
Dear Div I am very pleased to hear you praise my personality, and you enjoyed walking on the shopping streets and through the park. There are many things to see and experience in Japan. I hope you will come to Japan again and we will see each other again. Thank you so much. Hiro
Hiroyuki is an amicable, pleasant guide whose English is good but not fluent. We had some questions that he clearly did not understand. Our trip to Nikko was not a success because Hiro was not prepared with a “Plan B’” in mind for the difficulties that we experienced. The difficulties were not his fault: a national holiday that created horrific problems and delays on public transportation and fog that prevented us from seeing 2 out of 3 sites in Nikko. We are 4 very active senior citizens but standing on trains and especially crammed busses for hours was not pleasurable. We could not even see the landscape. Adding the fact that it was foggy was a recipe for disaster. We finally made it to the ropeway and Hiro seemed surprised that we didn’t want to go up. There would be nothing to see in total fog! The situation was similar with the waterfall area. We did have a nice lunch but by the time we waited yet again for a packed bus, we decided to skip the shrine as it was already 3:30pm. Basically we traveled to Nikko and saw nothing but the train and bus stations! Much of this was not Hiro’s fault BUT much could have been mitigated by him doing the following: 1. Offer an option for private transportation in Nikko via taxi or van for a fee. 2. Check the weather conditions and have a plan for alternative activities. In our case he should have reversed his schedule so that we could have at least seen the shrine in town! He didn’t know about the fog…we don’t know the area but knew there were foggy conditions because we checked the weather prior to departure! We are experienced travelers and don’t stop because of weather! However, fog that obliterated 2 out of 3 sites plus transportation chaos meant an unfavorable experience.
Dear Debra Thank you very much for joining the tour to Nikko. I am very sorry that your precious day was spoiled by bad weather, traffic jams and my bad conduct. Hiroyuki
Hiroyuki was very friendly but sometimes a little hard to understand and we felt that if his grasp of english had been better he would have had a lot of knoledge to impart. The tour was wonderful and we took a lot of photos to remind us of the beauty of this area.
Dear Frans Thank you for joining the tour in the countryside to see waterfalls. I am very surprised to hear that you are very knowledgeable about Japan. I enjoyed accompanying you as a guide. Hiroyuki
Hiroyuki was very flexible and accommodating as we only had a few hours to spend in Tokio. Very nice experience! Wish we had more time to learn more about Japan and its culture.
Dear Carolina Thank you for your good appraisal on my job. I am very pleased that you spent the precious time on experiencing Japanese culture and talking about many things to each other. I am waiting for you to come to Japan again and at that time I would like to accompany you as a guide. Japan is a wonderful country to travel in and it have many things to see. Hiroyuki