March 2013
Guide: Megumi and Yoshiko Honda
Route: Day1: Jindaiji Temple (Dhalma Market); Day 2: Kamakura – Great Budha – Hase Temple – Yokohama – Landmark Tower; Day3: Imperial Palace – Yurakucho – Tea Ceremony at Hotel
Okura – Shibuya – Meiji-jingu

Hola:

No tengo palabras para agradecer la excelente acogida de vuestros guias.

Yoshiko y Megumi en Tokio han sido unos excelentes cicerones que han sabido transmitirnos parte del alma de los Japoneses, su cultura, sus bienes culturales, etc…

Os agradezco vuestra hospitalidad y la labor que TFG realiza para dar a conocer el Japó n a extranjeros.

Os acompaño unas fotos qyue dan testimonio de cuanto nos han hecho disfrutar en este viaje a Japón.

Muchas Gracias.

Un saludo

Pascual from Spain

January 2013
Guide: Michiyo Chida and Setsuko Kawaguchi
Route: Day 1: Harajuku – Shibuya – Asakusa – Hama Rikyu Garden; Day 2: Kamakura – Tokyo Tower – Odaiba (onsen); Day 3: Tsukiji – Ryogoku – Fuchu (classic concert); and Day 4: Imperial Palace – Ginza – Ueno

Dear TFG,

Regrettably it is time for me to leave Tokyo.
Although I have travelled widely in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, this was my first trip to Japan. Even when travelling alone in the past, I have fared well, but my time in Tokyo surpasses those earlier travels and exceeded all my expectations due to the deep knowledge, wisdom and professionalism of Mrs. Michiyo Chida and Mrs. Setsuko Kawaguchi. They enriched my time in Tokyo immeasurably and led me to start thinking of when I can return – even before I have left.

I think your organization is marvellous – and very clever too – because these ladies have been such outstanding ambassadors for Japan and her people that I know that I will return. My return will be primarily because of the warm guidance that Michiyo and Setsuko have imparted during my short stay. Their insight into my needs showed great wisdom and intelligence.

Thank you for your help – and in particular I thank you for allowing me to share my time in Tokyo with these two lovely, clever, hard working ladies. As the photographs show, my time with them was marvellous.

Sincerely,

Judi from Melbourne

June 2012
Guide: Hideo Minobe, Junko Murakami, and Senichi Nagai
Route: Day 1 Kamakura; Day 2 Kawagoe; Day 3 Asakusa – Hama Rikyu – Tsukiji

Konnichiwa!

First of all, thank you so much for your kind hospitality while we were in Japan – we truly appreciate the effort and care that you have showered upon us while we were visiting! It was indeed a very pleasant experience and we enjoyed your company very much.

Visiting foreign lands is always interesting, appreciating the differences in environment, culture, architecture and food one of the key benefits of traveling. But it is in knowing the people there, and forming connections, and seeing the host country through the eyes of the locals that differentiates a visit and makes it special. To that extent, my family and I came away with new appreciation of Japan and the Japanese – thank you so much!

I think one of the highlights of the trip must be the kimono walkabout that my wife and daughter did in Kawagoe – they enjoyed Kawagoe so much more for the experience! Kamakura was fascinating both for the temples and shrines, and for the crowds – if we were doing it on our own, I doubt we would be able to experience the “train-(c)rush” – it was quite an experience! And of course, eating sushi at the Tsukiji market is always one of my favorite to do items while in Tokyo! There were so many great experiences and we thank you all for sharing it with us!

Thank you once again and keep up the good work, TFG!!

March 2010
Guide: Akemi Ito, Chikako Honda
Route: Nikko (Rinnoji – Toshogu – Taiyuin), Kawaguchiko Lake (Nishi-ko, Iyashi no sato Neba, Kawaguchi-ko han, Kaiun no yu, Futarasan Shrine), Kamakura

Ciao,
I am Vincenzo from Italy, and now I’m gonna tell you my japanese experience with Tokyo Free Guide.
I was guided in Nikko by Akemi, , the weather was very cold and it was snowy. We saw the three monkeys temple (that is worldwide famous), the beautiful bridge, and many others temples. We had ramen for lunch, and it was very good! There were many stairs, it war tiring but it was worthed. Akemi planned the route very well and she was very accurate in the explanation of everything we saw. telling me the meaning of every temple and statue. 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 »

January 2010
Guide: Akemi Ito and Tomoko Matsubara
Route: ＜Kamakura＞ Komachi street – Tsurugaoka – Hachimangu shrine – Kamakuragu shrine – Egaraten shrine – Sugimoto temple – Shakado Kiridoshi – Hokokuji; ＜Tokyo＞ Akihabara – Yanaka – Asakusa – Kagurazaka

Tokyo Free Guide,

Thanks again for providing me great volunteer guides!

Akemi Ito provided me with an awesome tour of Kamakura. I was so impressed how she knew a lot of the area’s history and all of the sites. She showed me so much of the natural beauty of Kamakura.

Tomoko Matsubara helped to design a tour of the “old” and “new” Japan, taking me to Asakusa, Kagurazaka, Yanaka, and Akihabara. We even met some geisha in Kagurazaka. She is really friendly and I had so much fun.

I can’t say enough about my guides. They were the best. Both guides communicated with me a lot before my trip so that they could research and make suggestions. I had such a great time and have been recommending TFG to everyone! This is the second time I asked for guides from TFG and I will continue to do so in the future!

Thanks again TFG, Tomoko, and Akemi!
Pam
USA

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

Kamakura great statue of Buddha

August, 2006
Guide: Kawachi (Kazutaka) and his friend Shu-shu (Naomi)
Route: Kamakura; Anyo-in – Ankokuron-ji – Chosho-ji – Raigo-ji – Jisso-ji – Kuhon-ji – Kotoku-in (Daibutsu); Chinatown in Yokohama

Hello we are Esteban and Jordi from Barcelona in Spain.
We find the Tokyo free guide website searching the internet while planning our trip to Japan. It was our first time in Tokyo and We plan to see some nice place in the surroundings. We send an email to Kawachi and he propose us to go to kamakura. We spend a great day in Kamakura and Yokohama with Kawachi and Shu-shu.

In Kamakura we went to lot of temples and to the big Buda. Later we spend the afternoon in the Chinatown in Yokohama. After all the day sightseeing we went to Shu-shu’s favourite’s restaurant where we recover strength enjoying tasty dishes.

We really enjoyed Kawachi and Shu-shu’s company they are lovely persons and very good guides.If you are planning to visit Tokyo we highly recommend to contact Tokyo Free Guide. You can have a good time, a new experience to remember and, who knows? maybe new Japanese friends.

Kenchoji-temple	Bamboo-temple	Daibutsu

May, 2006
Guide : Kawachi and his friend
Route : Kamakura -
Kencho-ji -> Komachi-Dori -> Bamboo-temple ->
Tsurugaoka-Hachimangu -> Daibutsu