I recommend ending up the day with the night view of the Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo Bay, the most beautiful night view in Tokyo I would like you to see.
We will visit the spots you would like to in Tokyo.I will make an itinerary based on your choices and requests.
(The popular highlights will be Meiji Jingu Shrine, East Gardens and Asakusa with Nakamise Souvenir Shopping Streets.)
Sightseeing spots in Tokyo is widely spread, so I guess we can only visit three or four spots a day.
At the lobby of your hotel in Tokyo
At your hotel
You can see one of the most beautiful night view of the Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo Bay.
I recommend ending up the day with the night view of the Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo Bay, the most beautiful night view in Tokyo I would like you to see.
Please choose the spots of your interest and let me know.
East Gardens of the Imperial Palace will take approximately one hour and a half or so.
Asakusa will take more than an hour if you would shop there, too. Tokyo Sky Tree will take more than an hour.
Meiju Jingu Shrine will take approximately one hour.
For shopping, Takeshita Street in Harajuku is mainly aimed for teenagers,
GINZA has one of the biggest UNIQLO shop, Nissan Crossing and Ginza Six,which has an excellent Art book store, and NIHONBASHI is the place for the mature that locals will also do shopping with high quality items, not the cheap tourist goods.
For typical tourist souvenirs, you can get them at places like Asakusa, Tokyo Tower, Solamachi: Skytree town and Akihabara.
About observatory, I will try to include some free ones near the spots we will visit.
Tokyo Sky Tree is 634m high, but a little bit distant from the Center of Tokyo and surrounded by lower buildings, so you might find Tokyo Tower (333m) or TOKYO CITY VIEW in Roppongi more satisfactory to see the Contemporary Tokyo.
If you're interested in roses, I could take you a park (admission free) with beautiful ones.
If you prefer to see streets with good ol' days atmosphere of Japan, please tell me.
We can go to an antique shop where you can enjoy an hour tea ceremony(1000 yen for each person. With 2000 yen for group, you can enjoy the full process.)
(If you're interested in cherry blossoms which blooms during winter, we can see them at the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Street, huge Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens, and Ueno Park.)
Guiding fee, hotel pick-up in Tokyo/Kawasaki/Yokohama, The guide's Admission fee for Tokyo National Museum/ Ueno Zoo
Transportation fare (You and guide: Tokyo Metro One day Ticket is ￥600, Yurikamome Monorail Shinbashi to Odaiba is ￥330, Water Cruise from Odaiba to Hinode Sanbashi is ￥480, it is OK to use the Monorail round trip, or skip the Odaiba part, the rest depends on your hotel and requests),
meals, snacks, beverages
admission fee
It will be first booked, first served basis, but could you make inquiries before booking?
If you're interested in TOKYO, MOUNT FUJI, or NIKKO, please CHECK the TOURS before you make inquiries.
(Some transportation for Mount Fuji or Nikko might be fully booked if you do last minute booking.)
I could also guide KYOTO, HIMEJI etc. if you will cover my transportation fare round trip from Tokyo.
If you'd like a car chartered, please check the PRIVATE CARS TOUR by yourself.
It's concerned with your budget, so I'm afraid I cannot make arrangements for that, but I will be happy to guide you with the car you chartered.
It's impossible to make quotes without knowing the spots you would like to visit.
Nikko and Mount Fuji are approximately two hours on Limited Express from Shinjuku or Asakusa.
Tokyo is not a compact city, but a huge one.
If you have difficulties with stairs, please tell me in your message. Thank you.
The sightseeing spots are scattered around the big City of Tokyo, e.g. from Asakusa to Meiji Shrine would take approximately forty-five minutes.
I will do my best to visit all the places you request, however maybe we could only visit three or so places a day.
Shopping spots might take much more time, because there are quite crowded and shopping usually takes time.
We will basically use Tokyo Metro One day Ticket ￥600, but if you have JR Pass or would like to see the City itself from the train, we will use JR, too, if you would like to. Asakusa, however, is not close to any JR station but only Metro Subway station.
We are supposed to WALK A LOT, so PLEASE WEAR WALKING SHOES.
Highheels or sandals might give you a hard time. There is no cab services in the Japanese Gardens or Ueno Park :-)
Or if you don't want to, please make sure to tell me so, but Meiji Jingu Shrine would be an hour walk at least, anyway.
East Gardens will be closed on Mondays and Fridays and the Tokyo National Museum will be closed on Mondays except National Holidays.
There is BAGGAGE INSPECTION at the entrances of East Gardens and the Observatory of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
Please let me know the places that you would like to visit and what you're interested in, so I could include places matching your interest.
Our group of six is quite challenging but Yoko is amazingly showed us the most highlights must to see in Tokyo from ancient to modern. If you are first timer in Tokyo and wanted to explore more, Ms. Yoko T is all you need!! Thank you Yoko for our best experience with you.
Thank you for your review, Eleanor san. Your group was amazing will all of you being nice people. It was great to see you taking a lot of pictures and appreciating each site: East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, Ueno Park, Tokyo National Museum, Asakusa and the night view of Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba. I hope Mr. Lovell will enjoy the book "Samurai Castle." Have a nice flight back home!!
Yoko did a great job! Our favorite part of the tour was a sake tasting. She showed us some of the best sake we have ever had. She took us to an excellent not well known shop that had exclusive sake. This is a place that would be really hard to find for tourists/ locals only. The lunch in yanaka was also a locals only place that served delicious home style meals. Yoko went above and beyond and went to a shop after the tour to see if a shop had a seasonal item in stock for me. She made recommendations for things for us to do after based on our itinerary. I highly suggest booking a sake tasting with Yoko! And checking out Yanaka with her
Thank you so much for a great review. I had a blast myself seeing how you Madeline and Amy reacted vividly to each sake, giving your candid impressions and enjoyed so many different sake. I appreciate your Irish DNA that you could appreciate so much of them. It is a popular sake restaurant but because we did sake tasting from 2:30 pm to 4 pm, we could be the only customers there for nearly for an hour. Nobody has written a review for the Tripadvisor yet but you can find some at Tabelog. They have nearly 100 brands of sake with wide variety of newer fragrant type to rather traditional type. I think they serve delicious food too. Going to local restaurants without Michellin stars but good and reasonable anyway is something you can do with only the local guides. We could enjoy sitting on tatami mats and enjoy a typical Japanese soul food, Nikujaga Teishoku set. There are so much more sake I would like to recommend so please come again soon. Thank you again for making it a great day, writing a great review and your generosity. Please enjoy the rest of your day here and please say hi to Amy, too. Best wishes, Yoko
I had a wonderful day in Nikko with Yoko as my guide last week. Prior to booking the tour, Yoko very promptly and patiently responded to all my queries and gave me various options to consider. She went the extra mile to visit my hotel before my arrival, dropped off some information on Nikko with a Tokyo subway map. She even planned out the route for me to take to our agreed meeting point. Yoko made sure we covered all the sites I wanted to visit. She is knowledgeable and took pains to ensure I didn't miss any treasured highlights in Nikko. Thank you Yoko.
Lily san, thank you so much for a wonderful review and a lovely day. It was nice goring around Rinnoji Temple, Toshogu Shrine, Futarasan Shrine and Taiyuin Temple with you. You made the whole day interesting. We could also visit the first Western Inn, Kanaya Samurai House and enjoyed the tranquilty and Kanmangafuchi Gorge with the many jizou statues. You previewed a lot before the visit and I really enjoyed talking with you with a lot of topics. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay. Thank you again for the lovely day, Lily san!!
My partner and I hired Yoko to show us around Tokyo for the first day of our 2-week trip around Japan; we could not have asked for a better introduction to Japan! Yoko was knowledgeable, accomodating, and very helpful. Her English is excellent, and her accent is nearly as good as a native speaker, so there is no need to worry about being able to understand her. Despite the extremely hot weather (Over 90 degrees F/32 C), we were able to see everything we had asked to see during the 8-hour tour. We especially recommend the Meiji shrine and the tea ceremony. Yoko explained the significance of the Meiji era very well, and taught us how to respectfully enjoy shinto shrines. The tea ceremony was very peaceful, and an enriching cultural experience. We drank matcha tea from antique bowls that we nearly 300 years old! Lastly, it's important that we mention that Yoko's advice practically saved our entire vacation! We had originally planned to leave to Kyoto for the next portion of our trip on August 14th, but Yoko pointed out that the bullet trains may be cancelled due to an incoming Typhoon so we should leave earlier if possible. We listened to hear advice and she was right! If we hadn't changed our plans like she suggested, we would likely have been stuck in Tokyo without accomodations until the typhoon passed. In summary, you will not regret booking Yoko!
Taylor san, thank you so much for such a wonderful review!! It was so nice to spend the day with you and José. Both of you were so sweet and polite. About Meiji Jingu Shrine, we went from the quieter Yoyogi side so I think you could enjoy the tranquility much more. I was so worried about you with the typhoon coming but I'm glad to hear that you moved to Kyoto on the 13th. Well the Shinkansen seemed to be still operating on the 14th but all of them were cancelled on the 15th. I hope you enjoyed Japan anyway. Thank you again for the wonderful day and an amazing review, Yoko