Japan
›
Gifu
›
Guides
›
Tetsuji Y.

Nakasendo hiking with a nice Singaporean middle-aged couple

I escorted a young family with a 3 months old baby hiking Nakasendo..

An American couple enjoying an excursion of the knife factory in Seki

With an Italian honeymoon-guest at Tsumago,Nakasendo

An American couple visited The Seki Traditional Swordsmith Museum.

With a Chinese-American family on the cormorant-fishing-viewing boat on the Nagara river in Gifu

With guests from Australia in Takayama

With the third guests from Hawaii and Samurai characters in Gifu Park

With my first guests from Sweden at Inuyama Castle

A lovely Canadian young family visited Seki, touring Swordsmith museum and buying some cutlery at shops.

Cormorant fishing in Nagara River. A fishing master and birds collaborate to make one night show for guests on the river.

Joined 2015

Tetsuji Y.

4.92 / 5

(62 reviews)

Identity Verified

Interview-Based Quality Checks

Date

People

Available Areas

Gifu (Living), Aichi, Nagoya, Shirakawago, Takayama

Languages

Japanese (Native), English

Response Time

2 hours on average

Availability Updated

1 day ago

About Tour Guide Tetsuji Y.

Hello everyone. I am Tetsuji. I worked as a public servant in the local government for 35 years. I belonged to the department of Redevelopment, Town-Landscaping, Preserving historical areas and Architectural Guidance. (I have a national 1st-class architect license.) I devoted myself to revitalizing the city by making plans and improving infrastructure for citizens.

Gifu is located in central Japan near Nagoya. As just being the crossroads of the West and the East, there are many unique attractions that are hard to discover in hectic big cities like Tokyo or Kyoto. I had a hand in restoring and preserving some of them throughout my career and want to introduce them to tourists from abroad. That’s why I became a guide-interpreter in Gifu.

I also enjoyed traveling around the world. My favorite part of each trip was walking around the city and talking with local residents. Traveling has taught me lots of things during my lifetime. Now, I would like to help others have similar experience in Japan. Shall we enjoy fantastic journey in Gifu?

Important

I can guide in Kyoto in case you support transportation fee.

Tours

All tours can be customized for you. Send me a message with your requests!

One-day-tour of Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go is a mountain settlement that is famous for uniquely designed Gassyo-style buildings and registered as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites. In Ogi-machi, over sixty Gassyo-style buildings will welcome visitors. Enjoying the whole landscape of the village from the hill, you will stroll around the village visiting some traditional Gasho-style buildings such as Wada House, Nagase House and Myozenji Temple Museum.

One-day-tour of Shirakawa-go

FROM$146/ per group

Discover Authentic Japan in Tsumago & Magome, Nakasendo

Gifu

9 hours

Discover Authentic Japan in Tsumago & Magome, Nakasendo

You hike an old highway Nakasendo strolling through two post-towns. Magome & Tsumago. Strolling around well-preserved popular post towns takes you back to nostalgic Japan. The moment you enter these towns, you will feel as if you are in a time warp back in the Edo period, where local people spend their daily lives as well as welcoming tourists, preserving buildings and the landscape. You also enjoy hiking an old trekking route through mountains.

Discover Authentic Japan in Tsumago & Magome, Nakasendo

FROM$115/ per group

Gifu

7 hrs 30 mins

Best Choice for one-day Takayama tour

Takayama is a formal capital town in a mountainous area. The tour includes some healing spots in addition to popular highlights like Miyagawa Morning Market, Higashiyama Walking, Old Town and Hida-Furukawa. I'm sure you’ll be able to see why Takayama mesmerizes tourists so much through this tour.

Best Choice for one-day Takayama tour

FROM$115/ per group

Cormorant fishing viewing on the Nagaragawa River

Gifu

9 hours

Cormorant fishing viewing on the Nagaragawa River

Gifu Castle standing on the Mt.Kinka provides visitors with nice panoramic views day and night. You also enjoy watching a traditional unique event Cormorant Fishing on the Nagara River while eating dinner in a viewing boat. Sir Charlie Chaplin visited Gifu twice to enjoy this unique traditional event. Besides, a photogenic street Kawara-machi and the Great Buddha statue in Shoboji-temple move you so much.

Cormorant fishing viewing on the Nagaragawa River

FROM$108/ per group

Handmade paper Mino-Washi and traditional swords of SEKI

Gifu

10 hours

Handmade paper Mino-Washi and traditional swords of SEKI

You enjoy two distinctive fields of Japanese culture by visiting two small towns in one day trip. The one is Mino which is famous for Japanese hand-made paper Washi. Another one is Seki famous for Japanese-swordsmith. Strolling around two towns, you will learn some of secrets of cool Japan.

Handmade paper Mino-Washi and traditional swords of SEKI

FROM$108/ per group

One-day-Tour for Two Castle Towns; Inuyama and GIfu

Aichi

8 hours

One-day-Tour for Two Castle Towns; Inuyama and GIfu

Visiting two distinctive castle towns make you more familiar with the soul of Japan. One is Inuyama where visitors can see and touch two national treasures, Inuyama Castle and tea-house Joan. The other one is Gifu where a modernized castle stands on the mountain and a golden Great Buddha-statue make visitors sigh in admiration.

One-day-Tour for Two Castle Towns; Inuyama and GIfu

FROM$115/ per group

Shirakawago

8 hours

One-day-tour of Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go is a mountain settlement that is famous for uniquely designed Gassyo-style buildings and registered as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites. In Ogi-machi, over sixty Gassyo-style buildings will welcome visitors. Enjoying the whole landscape of the village from the hill, you will stroll around the village visiting some traditional Gasho-style buildings such as Wada House, Nagase House and Myozenji Temple Museum.

One-day-tour of Shirakawa-go

FROM$146/ per group

Gifu

9 hours

Discover Authentic Japan in Tsumago & Magome, Nakasendo

You hike an old highway Nakasendo strolling through two post-towns. Magome & Tsumago. Strolling around well-preserved popular post towns takes you back to nostalgic Japan. The moment you enter these towns, you will feel as if you are in a time warp back in the Edo period, where local people spend their daily lives as well as welcoming tourists, preserving buildings and the landscape. You also enjoy hiking an old trekking route through mountains.

Discover Authentic Japan in Tsumago & Magome, Nakasendo

FROM$115/ per group

Gifu

7 hrs 30 mins

Best Choice for one-day Takayama tour

Takayama is a formal capital town in a mountainous area. The tour includes some healing spots in addition to popular highlights like Miyagawa Morning Market, Higashiyama Walking, Old Town and Hida-Furukawa. I'm sure you’ll be able to see why Takayama mesmerizes tourists so much through this tour.

Best Choice for one-day Takayama tour

FROM$115/ per group

Gifu

9 hours

Cormorant fishing viewing on the Nagaragawa River

Gifu Castle standing on the Mt.Kinka provides visitors with nice panoramic views day and night. You also enjoy watching a traditional unique event Cormorant Fishing on the Nagara River while eating dinner in a viewing boat. Sir Charlie Chaplin visited Gifu twice to enjoy this unique traditional event. Besides, a photogenic street Kawara-machi and the Great Buddha statue in Shoboji-temple move you so much.

Cormorant fishing viewing on the Nagaragawa River

FROM$108/ per group

Gifu

10 hours

Handmade paper Mino-Washi and traditional swords of SEKI

You enjoy two distinctive fields of Japanese culture by visiting two small towns in one day trip. The one is Mino which is famous for Japanese hand-made paper Washi. Another one is Seki famous for Japanese-swordsmith. Strolling around two towns, you will learn some of secrets of cool Japan.

Handmade paper Mino-Washi and traditional swords of SEKI

FROM$108/ per group

Aichi

8 hours

One-day-Tour for Two Castle Towns; Inuyama and GIfu

Visiting two distinctive castle towns make you more familiar with the soul of Japan. One is Inuyama where visitors can see and touch two national treasures, Inuyama Castle and tea-house Joan. The other one is Gifu where a modernized castle stands on the mountain and a golden Great Buddha-statue make visitors sigh in admiration.

One-day-Tour for Two Castle Towns; Inuyama and GIfu

FROM$115/ per group

Reviews

Nenu S.

5 / 5

Apr 16, 2026

Best Choice for one-day Takayama tour

Apr 16, 2026

Gifu

8 hours 30 mins

“Wonderful tour ”

Tetsuji Y, was very informative and helpful tour guide. We really enjoyed our tour of Takayama.

Tetsuji Y.

Thank you so much for nice feedback about my tour. I hope you will be back to Japan with your kids and share pleasant time in Gifu again.

Devon S.

5 / 5

Apr 9, 2026

One-day-tour of Shirakawa-go

Apr 9, 2026

Shirakawago

5 hours

“Mostly Excellent ”

Overall Tetsuji san was an excellent guide. He showed up punctually and was very knowledgeable of the area. He was able to answer our questions and showed us around in a very efficient manner. We went to the observatory, 2 different gassho houses, shrine, and the river. We also enjoyed the restaurant he reserved for lunch. His English was not native level, but more than competent for 4 Americans. We didn't have any issues communicating. He was also very personable. The only drawback was that he wanted to take us to a cafe, but it was too busy so we skipped it. This led to the tour ending about an hour early. This caused half the group to walk around some more by themselves for about 45 mins, while the other half waited at the bus stop.

Tetsuji Y.

Thank you very much for nice review including detailed evaluation. I only regrettably feel sad that I didn't help you to enjoy relaxing in a cafe sipping tea of coffee. However, I am glad to know that you are mostly satisfied with my tour. If you have a chance to visit central Japan again, I would like to guide you to other attractive tourist destinations.

Clinton C.

5 / 5

Mar 22, 2026

One-day-tour of Shirakawa-go

Mar 22, 2026

Shirakawago

6 hours 30 mins

“Knowledgeable and friendly guide for Shirakawa-go”

Tetsuji organized a day trip to Shirakawa-go for my multigenerational family group, including arranging for a driver to pick us up from our hotel in Takayama. He is very friendly and speaks English well. He was very knowledgeable about the history and cultural practices of the traditional village, and we enjoyed spending the day with him and learning more about Japanese life from his perspective.

Tetsuji Y.

I appreciate your nice review for me. All of your words become my motivation for next job and lead me having chances to meet new guests. I also hope you come back to Japan and share a wonderful time with me again. Please best my regards to your all family members.