Why should you engage a local guide?

You're planning your trip to Japan ? I advise you to look for a Japanese English speaking guide and interpreter. It's really pleasant to discover Japan with a Japanese person and I'm going to tell you why :

1. Meeting a Japanese person
Visiting monuments, discovering a new culture, staying in a good hotel… here are the pleasures of travelling. But meeting people is also important. Only a Japanese person can explain how Japanese peolple are. The way they think, their kindness, their repsect for traditions, ... He will tell you stories that will help you understand how Japanese people are. They're usually welcoming and will enjoy presenting the charms of their town or village. They'll mainly have pleasure to become your friend and it's a great difference to be able or not to make friends in an unknown country. But to make it possible, you need to be able to communicate. Most of the Japanese people are a bit recalcitrant to foreign languages and don't speak English.
2. Speaking with natives
The language barrier is really a problem when you travel abroad. Japanese is not such a language that you can speak overnight, even if it seems easy to learn. If you visit Japan with a guide, you'll free yourself from such a problem of communication. When visiting Kyōto, for instance, you'll have the opportunity to, if you want, meet artists or craftsmen. When visiting food markets, you'll see that many people work hard. You'll be able to ask them questions through your guide. You'll appreciate how Kyōto's inhabitants are proud of their town and their commitment to retain traditions. That way, you'll discover our food culture, our daily life, our respect for traditions, and the origin of our mentality, in a nutshell, who Japanese people are. You won't find it in books nor travel agencies websites, because it's a discovery you'll make on the spot.
3. The certainty to discover places only known by natives
" Too many tourists", " stereotypical "… are words I usually hear from travellers who have visited Japan by themselves or with a travel agency. I understand pretty well why they say such things because the real charms of Japan, mainly those of Kyōto, can only be found in small streets, you won't find on tourists maps, non expensive familial and typical restaurants, unknown from foreign tourists, villages outside touristic tours, where indications aren't written in English, and so on. Accompanied by a local guide, who perfectly know the region, you'll discover the country better and you'll be able to visit sites, off the beaten track.

What we think about it...

All the travellers want to discover Kyōto in an original way. But, most of the time, even if they read tourism guides, their travel become a conventional tour. The old capital still have plenty of charms and it's a pity that you discover only few things. Sometimes, you think Japanese culture is difficult to understand. But with the explanations of your guide and interpreter, you'll better understand it. Every year, the number of requests we receive make us feel that interest for Japan is really important.
Kyōto was the capital of Japan for more than thousand years and is at the origin of Japanese cultural diversity. We'll help you understand its characteristics, so that you'll better enjoy gardens, monuments, traditions, the courtesy of Japanese people and their respect for short-lived nature. Those knowledge will also be useful when you'll travel to other towns of Japan, because Kyōto is the cradle of this wonderful country.
In Nara, you can walk among deers and see famous temples, classified as World Heritage by the UNESCO, like the Tōdai-ji and the Hōryū-ji. As for Ōsaka, it's a lively and dynamic city. We also advise you to come to Shiga, still little known among foreign tourists but where you can appreciate beautiful landscapes, traditional districts and the Biwa Lake, the biggest lake of Japan. Access to those three towns from Kyōto is quite easy and you'll discover there, different sorts of food, different cultures and different ways of life.
We hope you won't forget that meeting natives is one of the interests of travelling abroad. Thanks to your guide, you'll be allowed to speak easily with natives, merchants and craftsmen. You'll be also impressed by the proudness of Kyōto's, Nara's, Ōsaka's and Shiga's inhabitants to live in those towns and their commitment to protect their traditions. Try to make new friends among Kantō's inhabitants and be sure we'll have pleasure to meet you.
If you're looking for an English speaking guide and interpreter, feel free to contact us !

Our guides

• Tadashi SUGIHARA (certified guide, English and French)


He was born in 1981 in Kyōto, where he grew up.
He began to study English at school and went to the Ryūkoku International Culture University before working for 5 years in a supermarket while preparing the exam of guide and interpreter in French. He passed it in 2009 and then passed the exam in English in 2014. He began his career as a French speaking guide and gained experience accompanying lots of travellers in Kyōto, Nara, Hiroshima, Hakone, Tōkyō, Kamakura, Nikkō and many other cities, as a certified guide and interpreter for Autrement le Japan (ALJ), Kyōto Cycling Tour Project (KCTP), or in freelance. He has also worked as a translator for some French medias.
The tourists he has guided have always appreciated his knowledge of Kyōto, Japanese history and traditions, his skills in English and French and his kindness.
He also teaches English to future guides, in the city of Takashima.

Our rates

• half a day (until 4 hours): 18,000¥*
• a day (until 8 hours): 28,000¥**
• tickets of public transports (bus, train, underground, ...) and meals: yours and those of the guide, to your responsability, in supplement of the price indicated above
• entries of sites: yours, to your responsability, in supplement of the price indicated above***

At the end of the excursion, you'll give the guide, in cash, the amount corresponding to his service. Prices are identical for couples, families, or groups until 10 people. For groups of 10 to 30 people, the guide's rate will be 30,000 yens a day and 20,000 yens half a day. For groups of more than 30 people, please contact us.
* Overrun will be charged as a full day, that's to say 28,000 yens.
** Overrun will be charged, in addition to the 28,000 yens a day, 4 000 yens per hour started.
***Certified guides do not pay the entries of sites, except for few ones we will notify you by e-mail when you'll contact us.
Your guide try, as possible, to ensure you a nice course of visit, but the prices indicated do not include insurance.
Thanks to the Japanese code of tourism, the guide is not allowed to make reservations (hotel, restaurants, transports,...). You have to organize by yourself your travel or asking a travel agency. We can only reserve, through the condition that you use our services during the visit or course, the visits of imperial villas and temples needing an inscription by mail, or cultural courses needing an inscription by phone. We can't guarantee that sites will acceed your request, especially in case of ceremony or during tourist season. For more details, please contact us.
If the appointment is out of Kyōto town (Ōsaka, Nara, Kōbe, etc.), we will ask you to pay the transportation for the guide from Kyōto to the desired town.
You can use our services as soon as you arrive in Japan at Kansai International Airport in Ōsaka, KIX, to accompany you to your hotel and then start the guided tour. The start of our service is then the initial scheduled time of arrival of your flight at KIX (regardless of the reason for the delay of your flight) and the end of our service is no more than 8 hours after the initial scheduled arrival time of your flight at KIX. Since KIX Airport is far from Kyōto, this service will be billed as a day of visit, i.e. 28,000 yen. The price will be the same whether you ask us for visits on the day of your arrival or not and wherever your hotel is.