Shibamata: Beautiful Gardens and Good-Old-Days Downtown
Shibamata is a small and old downtown with a temple and beautiful Japanese gardens, located in the east end of Tokyo. You will find the nostalgic lifestyle of ordinary people in 1960’s. The town is not stylish nor modern, but full of atmosphere of Japanese traditional neighborhood life.
Itinerary
This itinerary can be customized to meet your needs and preferences. Send me a message with your requests!
Meeting Point
At your hotel in Tokyo
Meeting Point
Pick up at your hotel or anyplace you’d like.
Shibamata
Walk along the street to Shibamata Taishaku-ten temple from the nearest station and see the local sweets and food shops. You can reach the temple in 10 min. The whole area shows the atmosphere of traditional busy downtown in 1960’s.
Taishaku-ten Temple
Taishaku-ten is a temple known for its beautiful Japanese garden and engraved Buddha stories on the outer walls of Taishaku-do inner shrine. The admission is 400 yen per person. You can go-around the garden by walking through the outside corridor with roof.
Yamamoto-tei
Yamamoto-tei, a traditional Japanese-style architecture built in 1920s. It was once used as the residence of the wealthy president of a company. You can see the inside of the house and the beautiful garden through “engawa” (a narrow wooden deck along the edge of a house facing the garden). Admission 100 yen. You can also have tea and sweets in the Japanese style tatami tea room.
Lunch
We can have lunch at a restaurant nearby as you like. There are noodle, tempura rice-bowl restaurants, etc.
End tour at your hotel or anyplace you’d like
You can visit Tokyo Skytree or Asakusa in less than 30 min. I will take you there if you’d like.
Ending Point
At your hotel or anyplace
Want to personalize this tour?
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This tour can be customized to meet your needs and preferences. Click below to send me a message with your requests.
Inclusions & Exclusions
Guide fee, hotel pick-up, guide’s transportation fee
Your transportation fee (about 1,500 yen per person), lunch (about 1,500 yen per person) and admission fee for you and guide
Tour Important Information
This is a flexible tour you can change places to visit upon your wish. I will make an itinerary customized for you, so you can fully enjoy the city with your limited time.
This is a private tour, you can change the route according to your interest, condition or the weather during the tour.
In this tour, we will take public transportation and walk a lot so please wear comfortable shoes. If your group has someone who prefers not to walk a lot, please let me know.
And if you have someone with allergies or dietary restrictions, please let me know in advance.
Important message from the supplier
If you stay in the central area of Tokyo or Chiba, I will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel or anyplace you like.
We will take public transportation and walk a lot so please wear comfortable shoes.
Cancellation Policy
- Free cancellation - 8 days prior to meeting time
- 50% Refund - 3 to 7 days prior to meeting time
- No Refund - Within 2 day(s) prior to meeting time
About Tour Guide Chiaki K.
Welcome to Japan! My name is Chiaki. I’m a government licensed guide interpreter, a wife and mother of two grown-up children. I’ve been living in Tokyo for 30 years so I know the area well.
If you don’t want to miss popular “must see” places, wish to eat a variety of Japanese popular and delicious food, have particular interest in Japanese theatrical arts, architectures, gardens, tea ceremony and “kawaii” characters, or are tired of tourist spots and like to see the real life of people in Japan, I can help you.
My goal is to help you to make your stay in Japan as memorable and fulfilling as possible. If I can serve you to make your special trip more special, it will be my pleasure.
Reviews
Jami N.
“Tokyo Half-Day Customized Tour”
This was our second time touring with Chiaki. Both times she took our copious written requests and developed a reasonable and flexible itinerary which resulted in a lovely and efficient tour focused mainly on local crafts, kitchen wares, ceramics, chocolate and coffee. We also slipped into Kiyosumi Gardens with 3 minutes to spare for a sunset stroll around the pond which was absolutely beautiful. Chiaki is very easy to talk with and shared stories of her life in Tokyo along with ideas for future tours. We highly recommend Chiaki! And will definitely engage with her when we return next year! Thank you for a wonderful day.
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Chiaki K.
Dear Jami-san, Thank you so much for touring with me again and for your lovely review! It was truly a pleasure being with you, especially with your thoughtful interests in local areas of Japan, temples, shrines and nature. I’m so glad everything came together smoothly, and that we made it into Kiyosumi Garden! It was beautiful! And now I’m glad to know you are back home safely. Thank you for spending another lovely day with me, and I look forward to seeing you again on your next visit and finding good chocolate and coffee shops! Please send my best wishes to Ann-san!
Jeff E.
“Great day in East Tokyo”
We had a great day with Chiaki. She customized a tour for us to focus on the easy side of Tokyo. The tour included some major sites and less know sites. Chiaki had history and details for the various stops which adds so much value to viewing them on our own. Beside the sites we really enjoyed Chiaki’s company for the day. We highly recommend Chiaki if you are in Tokyo.
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Chiaki K.
Dear Jeff, thank you so much for your wonderful review! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour. It was such a pleasure spending the day with you and sharing some of Tokyo’s stories and history along the way. Especially, Kiyosumi Japanese garden was beautiful and peaceful, and we had relaxed time together. Thank you again and I hope you keep enjoying your trip in Japan!
Bruce S.
“Chiaki is an excellent guide”
She is intelligent, sensitive and knows Tokyo well. I highly recommend her.
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Chiaki K.
Thank you Bruce, for your lovely review! I’ll try to continue picking up cans of beer believing it makes our world better. Thank you for the wonderful conversation!
$116/ per group
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