July 2009
Guide: Keiko Nagamatsu; Naomi; Mitsuyo Fujiwara
Route: Z?j?-ji – Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building – Meiji Shrine – Odaiba – Shiodome; Nikko (T?sh?-g? – Futarasan Shrine – Rinn?-ji); Kamakura

Dear TOKYO FREE GUIDE,

You were so kind to arrange for three guides for our trip to Japan on relatively short notice. They were Keiko-san on July 13th for Tokyo, Naomi-san on July 15th for Nikko, and Mitsuyo-san on July 16th for Kamakura. We want to thank you very much for these arrangements. They were the best guides we ever had anywhere. All of them were extremely kind, knowledgeable, professionally meticulous in the preparation of our trips, very personal, fluent in English and German respectively, had sense of humour – and just were plain charming. My wife Christina and I were enchanted and extremely lucky of having these wonderful three ladies as guides. We saw and learnt so much more on these three trips than we could ever have managed by doing it ourselves. The sightseeing tours were unforgettable experiences both into the venerable ancient Japanese culture with its unique temples, shrines and gardens and the breathtaking modern Japan with her mind boggling architecture.

Thanks to you personally for providing our wonderful guides and for serving tourists from all over the world with your fine agency. We will recommend Tokyo Free Guide to all of our friends and acquaintences planning to see Tokyo. Please feel free to quote us as you see fit.

Kind regards,

Peter and Christina Jacobi
Aachen, Germany

July 2009
Guide: Yukie Takahashi
Route: Imperial Palace – Yasukuni Shrine – Ueno

Estuvimos en Tokio un total de 10 dias alojados en el hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku. El hotel formidable y muy bien situado. Durante los 10 dias visitamos los diferentes barrios de la ciudad. Todos fantasticos. El sistema de transporte publico fenomenal.Uno de los dias nos acompano una guia de habla espanola (yukie takahashi) ecantadora y con muy buen nivel de espanol. Nos llevo durante todo el dia por las zonas que previamente habiamos seleccionado via mail (palacio imperial, lugares famosos, templos, santuarios…). Al terminar el dia fuimos a la fiesta de la flor de loto.Un recuerdo inmejorable.

Al dia siguiente Yukie se ofrecio para acompanarnos por la noche a la fiesta de un templo en la zona de Idabashi acompanados por su marido. Alli cenamos y disfrutamos de su tradicion.
El resumen general es totalmente positivo, tanto el viaje a Tokio (ciudad y gente) como el servicio que nos presto la guia. Agradecemos al departamento de turismo que nos brindara esa posibilidad. Sin duda lo recomendaremos.

Rosana e Imanol Zaragoza-Spain

July 2009
Guide: Chikako
Route: Omotesando – Meiji Shrine – Harajuku – Akihabara – Asakusa – Ueno

Dear TOKYO FREE GUIDE,

Just returned to U.S. after ten days in Tokyo with my son. I would like to thank you for arranging to have Chikako take us for a tour. She was very pleasant and took us where ever we wanted. We were also able to learn how to use the subway and train lines.

Because we were on a tight budget this was very helpful to us and we were able to get around for the rest of our stay on our own. I don’t know if a service like this is offered in New York, it is so nice of your guides to give up their time.

Please thank Chikako for us I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did. Your country is fascinating , I will not forget my trip to Japan.

Thanks, Bruce Dante

May 2009
Guide: Chinami Nishizawa, Ryuichiro Hayashi
Route: Hamarikyu; Hakone – Odawara Castle; Ueno – Asakusa – Akihabara; Zojoji – Ginza – Yurakucho – Imperial Palace

Our trip to Japan was one of our best vacation experiences thanks to Ichiro and Chinami. Ichiro and Chinami are very charming professionals, speak English well, and are very knowledgeable about Japan’s history and culture. Ichiro and Chinami custom designed a tour to meet our needs. They made sure that we saw the best of Tokyo and the surrounding area without wasted time. They made all arrangements for transportation services, restaurant recommendations, as well as unique opportunities for special local experiences (night walks, shopping, handicrafts, etc.). Because of their efforts, our time in Tokyo was completely stress-free.

We were able to do and see everything on our “wish list” (and more) such as: ride the bullet train to Hakone/Mt Fuji and visit the hot spots such as: the National Museum, the Asakusa Temple, Tsukiji Fish market, Tokyo Tower, Zojyoji temple, Kabuki theater, Meiji jingu- Shrine, Imperial palace, Hamarikyu Gardens with Tea Ceremony, and Takeshita Dori street. We also “shopped till we dropped” at Omotesando, Ginza, Shibuya, Asakusa, and Akihabara.

Chinami and Ichiro arranged all of our meals and they were all fantastic! We ate at reasonably – priced , authentic restaurants such as: Ueno, Torigin restaurant, Minase Japanese restaurant, and we had the best Soba noodles at a beautiful restaurant near Mt Fuji (I can’t remember the name of the restaurant). Chinami also recommended and arranged dinner reservations at the Mango Tree restaurant in the Marunouchi building for our last evening and recommended a reflexology salon treatment (foot massage) one day when my wife reported sore feet . They even checked the weather forecasts!!

The bottom line is…… we had an exceptional and unforgettable trip!! We look forward to someday going back to Japan to visit Kyoto and of course, to hang out with Ichiro and Chinami.

Thanks for everything – Phil and D’Nyce

May 2009
Guide: Yoko Nakayama
Route: Ueno – Asakusa – Roppongi

We wanted to discover Tokyo in a different way, that the reason why we had contacted Tokyo free Guide. Yoko guided us in our choice and we made up our mind about a date, easily. Wednesday, the 20th May, Yoko was waiting for us in the front of our hotel. From the first minutes, we felt immediately at ease as she is welcoming. We went to Asakusa, we visited the famous street of Nakamise and the Temple of Senso-ji.

It was delightful to have Yoko’s observations of each place, always answering to all our questions. She explained to us the meaning of many things; she also talked about customs, traditions and life, today in Japan. We discussed a lot about differences with occidental life, and sometimes it was very fun to compare them.

In conclusion, Tokyo Free Guide is an organization which needs to be more famous. Our trip was better as we had imagined it, thank to Yoko’s kindness. She’s a very good guide, always answering to our wishes, with an open mind and curiosity.

We are decided to go again in Japan and will be pleased to take another trip with Yoko, to go further in this fascinating country.

April 2009
Guide: Kyoko Minami
Route: Imperial Palace ? Nezu & Yanaka ? Ueno park

Dear Tokyo Free Guide,

We were very lucky to have the services of one of your guides, Kyoko Minami, on April 27 for a full day tour of Tokyo. She took us to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, Yanaka and Ueno Park. She is absolutely delightful. Aside from seeing the sights we learned something about Japanese culture from her.

Your program is terrific. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to enjoy Tokyo with one of your guides.

Best Regards,

Renae & Steve Buckser
San Francisco, California

April, 2009
Guide: Masako Shimada
Route: Imperial Palace – Ginza – Ueno

Dear Tokyo Free Guide,

On April 22, 2009 we were fortunate enough that through this service we arranged for Mrs. Masako Shimada to guide us. After about one minute with Mrs. Shimada we felt completely at ease; we were with a friend. She had much printed information for us to use and took us where we had asked: the Toyko National Museum. In addition she took us to lunch at a Ginza dept. store, to the Imperial Gardens and to Ueno park and its surroundings. She was friendly, warm, flexible, sensitive and her English was outstanding, with many colloquialisms and an ample vocabulary. Our time with her was the highlight of our visit to Tokyo. We enclose photos.

Thanks again,
Maria Acosta Cruz; Dan and Amanda Cesarano

April 2009
Guide: Yoko Gomi
Route: Asakusa – Shibuya – Kameido

Hello!!

Yoko is the best guide in the world and we had a great day with her. Now we have got another reason to come back to Japan.

Un fuerte abrazo,
Palma y Miguel (Spain)

April, 2009
Guide: Naomi Suita
Route: Asakusa – Sumida river – Shibamata

Dear Tokyo Free Guide,

Thanks to your excellent guide, Mrs. Naomi Suita, we have enjoyed a most wonderful day in Tokyo. She came to our hotel and we first went to Asakusa (Kaminarimon Gate – Nakamise Street – Sensoji Temple and Sensoji Shrine). Then we had a nice lunch at Kamameshi restaurant ‘Haru’ nearby.

After lunch we had a most enjoyable cruise on the Sumida River. The weather was excellent and it was a very pleasant boat trip. The next visit was to Shibamata and we did some shopping at Sonoda on the approach to Taishakuten temple, which we visited and where we admired the superb woodcarvings. On the way back we found large three-monkey statues at the entrance to the approach to Taishakuten temple.

This last remark needs an explanation. Since many years we collect the three monkeys that keep their ears, eyes and mouth closed, see our website: http://three-monkeys.info . In our initial email correspondence with Mrs. Suita we had asked whether it would be possible to find and buy some 3-monkey figurines in Tokyo. We are very pleased to say that, thanks to her, we have been very successful with that, both in Asakusa and in Shibamata.

It had become quite late that day and we asked Mrs. Suita to join us for dinner nearby our hotel in Ginza. After that she left us and she still had a two hours train ride back to her home. It was only later that we became fully aware how much preparation work and planning Mrs. Suita must have done to make sure that we would visit and see the right places. We thank her very much again and we are very grateful for all what she has done to make our day with her unforgettable.

Because of her excellent knowledge of English, there was a perfect understanding all the time. She is easy going, very helpful, very friendly and a perfect guide.

We are still full with nice thoughts and fantastic memories of this wonderful visit to Tokyo and we thank TOKYO FREE GUIDE and Mrs. Suita very much for making this possible.

Kindest regards from Switzerland,
Anneke & Emil Schuttenhelm

April 2009
Guide: Hiromi Ichikawa
Route: (Day 1) Hamarikyu Park – Sensoji Temple Asakusa – Shinjuku; (Day 2) Meiji Shrine – Omotesando – Ginza – Imperial Palace; (Day 3) Nikko

As a family that had the plesure to be guided by one of your members, I want to thank your organization for all that had been done for us. It was wunderful to know that some body will help us to get around in Tokyo the first days. We had the plesure to be guided by Hiromi Ichikawa and there are no words to thank her for what she did for us Her kindness, helpfulness, her resdiness and above all her smile, did the days in Tokyo so remarcablefor us.

Thank you again
Edi Bushansky