A private guide in Japan : yay or nay?

A private guide in Japan : yay or nay?

Do you really need a private guide in Japan? The answer to this will strongly depend on who you are and what you are planning to do. Although we are always hoping to be able to answer everyone who inquires with us with a firm ‘yes we can do that’, we sometimes get inquiries from people who would be better off with travel agencies or aggregators for those specific activities. Below you can find examples of where we will refer you to others, and examples of tours that our network guides do better than anyone else!

Workshops

If you are looking to do hands-on experiences with arts and crafts, you have many options in Japan. There are workshops in pottery, kintsugi, wind chimes, hand fans, origami, and more.

For these activities, it is not necessary to go with a private guide as there are plenty of providers who offer these experiences with English support. There is no need for us to be in between here, so we’d recommend you to arrange your own workshop on English-friendly activity aggregators like Viator or Klook. If you want to support the local businesses you can look at these aggregators to get ideas, and then book your activities with the providers directly.

Sumo morning training

In the past, we have received the request to accompany people to watch a sumo morning training more than a few times. Many years ago it was still possible to visit the sumo morning training on your own as long as you have someone with you who speaks enough Japanese (or you spoke enough Japanese yourself), but those days are long over. Nowadays, you can only get access to these morning trainings through specialized guides who collaborate directly with one of the stables. As we decided not to start up a collaboration because of saturation in the market, we can’t help you with sumo morning training tours.

Again, we’d like to refer you to Viator or Klook if you’re interested in this type of tour. If you don’t want to join a tour but still want to have the experience of seeing sumo wrestlers train, you can also have a look through the window of Arashio Beya near Ningyocho. To check if they are holding the practice the following day, you can call them (or have your hotel receptionist call them) the day ahead as directed on their website.

Tuna auction in Toyosu

The tuna auction was always a popular event to watch in the early morning when the market was still located in Tsukiji. Some people would line up for hours and skip out on sleep that night just to be able to watch the action from up close at 5.30 am for only a minute or 10. Now the market is located in Toyosu, and while the new market and the auction seem to be a bit less popular, at least now you can participate in a free online lottery so you will be sure of a spot if you’re lucky enough to win.

You can find a great English explanation on the process and a link to the lottery here. There is no need for accompaniment by a guide, as the new market is completely bilingual with good road signs. If you want to get behind-the-scenes-access in a specialty tour, we can’t organize that for you but you can have a look at Rakuten Experiences.

Physical activities (rafting / canyoning / snorkeling / hiking etc.)

If you’re into more physical activities on your holiday like rafting, canyoning, snorkeling, diving, river boarding, etc., it is not a private tour guide that you need. For this type activities you can also check out sites like Klook, Viator, and Govoyagin. Another website that is pretty good is activityjapan.com, although their English translations aren’t always the best they do offer good activities for a fair price.

Hiking can easily be enjoyed by yourself, Japan is a relatively safe country and if you rent a pocket wifi upon arrival in Japan you will never get lost. There is no need for a private guide, even climbing Mt Fuji is easy to do by yourself as long as you come prepared. You can look up good trails on specialized hiking blogs and alltrails.com

Day trip tours near Tokyo

There are several great day trips that you can take around Tokyo, to Nikko, Hakone, Kawaguchiko, and Kamakura. We offer tours to all 4 day trip destinations, and whether or not you need one of our guides to make your day trip into a success depends on the type of traveler you are.

Are you looking for convenience, not having to do much preparation, fun company, and just a bit more background information? And are you not trying to travel on a backpackers’ budget? Then we recommend you to book one of our private tours to these destinations. While the public transportation system in Japan is not rocket science, if you don’t navigate easily in cities you are not familiar with you may have a bit of a hard time. Just being able to ‘follow the leader’ might just create a much nicer experience for you. The train rides to these destinations are also between 1-2 hours, so having someone to have a chat with can be a good addition to your day.

Or do you recognize yourself more in this profile -> Very well-traveled, young(ish), like to do your own research on a destination, prefer to travel by yourself or just with your group? In this case, you may be better off doing these day trips on your own. Hiring a private guide makes more sense if you are looking for an in-depth experience of a city with many stories or a special experience like a ghost tour, a food tour, or a bicycle tour for this type of traveler.

Bicycle tours

We believe that bicycle tours are super fun, and one of the best ways to really discover a city. It is not for nothing that we offer bicycle tours in Tokyo, Kamakura, and Kyoto. The guides truly enjoy cycling and showing you different facets of their city, and all you have to do is hop on your bike and go after the guide while enjoying your surroundings. Of course, there will be plenty of stops along the way where the guide will tell you cool stories. So here the answer is a resounding ‘yes’, for bicycle tours we wholeheartedly recommend hiring a private guide.

City tours

City tours are our forte, and just like for bicycle tours, we can only advocate in favor of hiring a private guide for almost any kind of city tour. We offer city tours in Tokyo, Kyoto, Takayama, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki among other cities.

Whether you are only in a city for a very short time and want to see just the highlights, do a high-tempo tour with lots of variation, want to go a bit deeper and learn more about the city while going off the beaten path, or do a fun specialty tour, our network guides have got you covered.

Because all our tours are private, the guide will adjust their tempo to yours and be able to fine-tune the itinerary to make it perfect for you. The guide will be good company, and also be happy to advise you on how to make the most of the rest of your stay in their city. Because of environmental reasons and the efficiency of Japan’s public transportation system, our default is to use public transportation and walk (or cycle) during our tours.