July 2010
Guide: Ryuichiro Hayashi
Route: Tsukiji fish market – Ginza – Asakusa – Akihabara; Tokyo Metropolitan Government building – Harajuku – Shibuya – Odaiba

My name is Maricel Lustre. A few weeks ago, I wrote to Tokyo Free Guide requesting a free tour. TFG assigned a wonderful tour guide to us named “Hayashi Ryuichiro” also known as Ichiro-san for short.
My family and I would like to thank Tokyo Free Guide for giving us Ichiro-san. He is very professional, punctual, knowledgeable and was able to save us money by using wise transportation. We enjoyed all of the places we visited but we had lots of fun in Odaiba. We also loved dining at Ganko. We are very happy in having Ichiro-san as our tour guide. Our14 year old son loved him! Ichiro-san was very patient with him. Our son could not stop talking about him. We learned so much from Ichiro-san. It was our first time to tour Tokyo and our experience was very memorable. Thank you very much Ichiro-san for showing us Tokyo. We feel very fortunate in having met you because in doing so we have gained a friend. Read the rest of this entry »

March 2010
Guide: Yukie Takahashi
Route: (Day 1) Kamakura; (Day 2) Harajuku – Omotesando – Shibuya

Gracias a Tokyo Free Guide y especialmente a nuestra guía Yukie, que habla español perfectamente, pudimos disfrutar de Tokio mas allá de lo puramente turístico. El primer día fuimos con Yukie a Kamakura, donde vimos esa parte más tradicional con templos increíbles donde se respiraba una paz especial, Yukie nos explicaba cada detalle. Después nos llevó al Bosque de Bambú donde tomamos un té tradicional japones, os lo recomiendo! Y finalmente vimos la estatua del Gran Buda, sólo decir que es IMPRESIONANTE! Para acabar la noche, nuestra guía reservó para cenar en un restaurante de Shibuya donde cenamos especialidades japonesas junto con más amigos de Yukie y para rematar nos fuimos de fiesta a un Karaoke!! Genial!

Read the rest of this entry »

March 2010
Guide: Ryuichiro Hayashi
Route: Tokyo: Shinjyuku Gyoen Park – Kabukicho – Metropolitan Tokyo Goverment Building Observatory – Harajuku (Takeshita Street/Kiddy Land) – Shibuya (Intersection/The Myth of Tommorow painted by Taro Okamoto/Hachiko Statue); Kamakura: Kita-kamakura – Engakuji Temple – Hachimangu Shrine – Komachi street – Daibutsu (Koutokuin Temple) – Hase-dera Temple; Nikko: The world heritage Shrines/Temples (Kegon Falls & Chuzen-ji Lake, under a heavy snow, it was a memorable journey (see the picture with the mexican flag)).

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank to “Tokyo Free Guide Organization” to have given us the opportunity to meet our fantastic friend (guide) “Ryuishiro” Hayashi, we had a great time with him in Tokyo. He is very patient, polite, easygoing and a flexible person. With him we learned a lot about the japanese culture, typical food, snacks/candies and much more !!

Since we got in touch with him before our arrival in Tokyo, he gave us a lot of advices/suggestions which helped us to better arrange our trip around Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima & Miyajima.

Now he has 6 good friends in Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »

December 2009
Guide: Ayako Shimoda; Tomoko Shiraishi
Route: Rikugien Garden ? Hamarikyu Garden ? Asakusa; Ebisu – Shinjuku – Harajuku

– Ayako Shimoda guided me in December 2009

I asked Ayako to help me see some Japanese gardens, she was an
excellent guide and took me to 2 Gardens in Tokyo (Rikugien and
Hamarikyu) as well as a Temple we also took the River Boat on
Sumidagawa River. It as a wonderful and very well planned day and Ayako was a pleasure to have as a guide, her English was also excellent. I would sincerely recommend her to anyone looking for a Tokyo guide

– Tomoko Shiraishi Guided me for a day in December 2009

I wanted to see some photography Galleries in Tokyo, Tomoko Shiraishi planned an excellent day and we visited many small out of the way galleries as well as the larger ones, we also visited a Flea Market Tomoko went to a lot of effort to plan a very full day of visiting galleries that would have been impossible to find on my own

More photos: http://www.photo.net.au/gallery/Japan/

January 2010
Guide: Katsue Shinomiya; Noriko Murakami
Route: (Day 1) Shinjuku – Ginza – Asakusa – Akihabara; (Day 2) Sinjuku – Harajuku – Gaiennmae – Kokyo – Odaiba; (Day 3) Tokyo Daibutsu – Ikebukuro – Ryogoku

We my family had a great time in japan. we (rafael, Clelia and Tato) have done a wonderful trip to Japan in January 25-2010
we are not descendants of Japanese but we had a curiosity to know a developed and organized country. were delighted with this country. but I confess that what made the difference was to have the support of the guides Katsue and Noriko. … They are wonderful people, and we particularly like being able to be with them.
We would like to congratulate the “free guide” service. especially Katsue and Noriko.

Clelia, Rafael & Tato

January 2010
Guide: Ryuichiro Hayashi
Route: Ueno – Yanaka – Shinjuku – Harajuku – Shibuya

May I take this opportunity to thank you so much for such an excellent service. Our guide Ryuichiro Hayashi was the most polite, knowledgeable and pleasant person it was our fortune to meet. We have recommended not only your service but our wonderful guide Ichiro to everyone. Many many thanks, from Paula and Gordon.

October 2009
Guide: Yuka Namiki
Route: Shibuya – Harajuku – Shinjuku

Dear Tokyo Free Guide

We want to thank Yuka Namiki for being our guide in Tokyo on October 14th 2009. We had a wonderful time with her. She has showed us the most popular shopping areas in Tokyo and beautiful Japanese gardens as I asked her. We also visited Meiji Shrine and the Metropolitan Tokyo Government Building for an amazing sightseeing. We really enjoyed to know a little more about Japanese culture and habits.

Thank you once again for this wonderful and useful service. We’ll certainly recommend it to everyone who plans visiting Tokyo.

Susana e Mario

September 2009
Guide: Yukiyo Itahana
Route: (Sep.19) Shinjuku – Kagurazaka – Akihabara – Asakusa – Ginza; (Sep.20) Harajuku – Yoyogi Park – Asakusa; (Sep.25) Ginza – Shinbashi – Odaiba

I heard about the Tokyo Free Guide website very close to our travel date, but decided I would give it a try & write, even though it was past the suggested date that I should write by. Within a couple of days I received a reply by email directly from Yukio, a 68 year old retiree. His English was very good, & he was available for us to meet the morning after we arrived in Tokyo , which was great for me. I later wrote him to say that perhaps our group might be a bit bigger than I originally thought. I was traveling with a modern dance company, we were performing at the Aoyama Round Theatre. When they heard from me about Yukiyo they were all very excited & everyone wanted to join! Yukiyo’s response by email: “Welcome, welcome. The more the merrier.” I knew I was going to like him.

Yukiyo met us at our hotel lobby, after introductions & giving him a small gift I had brought with me (a beautiful photo book of Tel Aviv) we headed out. We did all the regular tourist stuff the first day- the observatory in the Municipal Government building in Shinjuku, Akihabara, Asakusa, Ginza . It was so great being with Yukiyo, having him teach us how to use the metro, how to order food in restaurants, & just the great conversations we had with him. At the end of the first day, even though we had only agreed to that one day, he offered to meet us in the morning & continue our exploration of Tokyo . Read the rest of this entry »

September 2009
Guide: Noriko Shigehara
Route: Shinjuku – Kabuki-cho – Golden-gai – Harajuku – Meiji Shrine – Yoyogi park – Omotesando

Dear TOKYO FREE GUIDE:

Thank you so much for arranging for us to meet with Noriko Shigehara, our Tokyo Free Guide who showed us around town on September 6. She spent all day with us, and not only took us to all sorts of interesting places (Harajuku, Meiji Shrine, shopping, a great local restaurant) but taught us all sorts of interesting things about Japanese culture and daily life. Although we eventually would have figured out how to obtain our Rail Passes and train reservations without her help, it probably would have taken us several days… however, thanks to Noriko’s assistance everything was taken care of in a few minutes! I was especially impressed with her English skills, since she has never lived in an English-speaking country. I only wish we could have had her with us for a few more days.

I really wish this sort of fantastic service was available in other countries, but it really was such a great experience. I’ve traveled to over 25 countries around the world, and thanks to Noriko, Japan is definitely one of my favorite places, and I hope to return someday (perhaps in winter to visit Hokkaido?). Hopefully she will let me know if she needs a guide should she and her family visit Los Angeles.

Thanks again for this wonderful and valuable service.

Grant

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