May 2010
Guide: Hiroko Kitagou, Yoko Takano
Route: Imperial Palace – Asakusa – Ueno (Tokyo National Museum); Tokyo Metropolitan Government building – Shinjuku Gyoen – Meiji Shrine

My husband, Alan, and I cannot say enough good things about Tokyo Free Guide. Both of the guides met us at our hotel each morning with a plan for the day.Hiroko made sure we understood how to use the subway system and without her I don’t know if we would have figured out we could ride JR lines free with our Japan Railpass.  She arranged for a bus tour for us in the area near the Imperial Palace which helped us get a better idea of our surroundings. We ate lunch near the Senjoji Temple where I had shabu-shabu for the first time and Alan had tempura. We had been reluctant to go into restaurants before this because we couldn’t read the menus but Hiroko showed us what to do and it made such a difference the rest of the trip. By spending time with Hiroko, we learned so much about Buddhist and Shinto shrines and temples. 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: 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: 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

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

September, 2008
Guide: Kyoko Minami
Route: Meiji Shrine – Harajuku – Happoen – Akihabara

To the team at Tokyo free guide

We are writing to praise your organisation and comment on the delightful day spent with one of your guides, Kyoko Minami on the 26th September 2008.

My parents, Brian and Sonia Wright and myself Andrea Ferrar were fortunate enough to have spent the day with Kyoko during our most recent trip to Tokyo.

Prior to our visit Kyoko had corresponded via email regarding the days activities. Kyoko’s emails were just brilliant, they were prompt, informative, friendly and her written English was excellent!

On the tour day we meet Kyoko in the foyer of our hotel as organised, it truly was like seeing an old friend again. We were so excited to finally meet each other. Her warm smile made us all feel so happy and we were ready for the days adventure.

Kyoko took us to this wonderful cafe close to our hotel, where we ate breakfast and had some great coffees. We talked about our homeland and shared experiences of New Zealand with each other. It was great to hear how Kyoko had traveled around our country, New Zealand. We really enjoyed chatting with her at the cafe, and could have talked for hours. We exchanged some gifts and set out for the days sightseeing.

Kyoko had thoughtfully prepared our itinerary for the day, and was well prepared on what trains to catch to get us to our destinations.
Her knowledge of the areas and transport system was outstanding. Not only was her organisational skills amazing her spoken English was simply brilliant too. We could not believe how lucky we were to be guided around Tokyo by Kyoko.

Our first experience was visiting Meiji Jingu Shrine, followed by a stroll down Takeshita street, where we found the Hyaku Yen shop. We had so much fun in this shop and shared many laughs. We then left Harajuku station and headed for Meguru station by a JR line train.

December, 2007
Guide: Ryuichiro Hayashi (“Ichiro”)
Route: Tamanoi Sumou stable – Nishiarai Daishi temple – Asakusa Sensouji temple – Asakusa dougugai Street – Omotesanndo Street – Takeshita Street – Meiji Shrine – Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Dear Tokyo free guide team:

thanks a lot for providing a website which allowed us to get in touch with our volunteer tour guide, even if we entered our data only few days before the trip.

Our guide was Ryuichiro Hayashi (“Ichiro”). He was so kind to organize a visit at a sumo stable, which was our special wish for that trip. As the training session was very early, we met Ichiro already at 8am at our hostel. Ichiro does not live in Tokyo itself, so he had to get up very early, an amazing effort for two strangers!

The visit at the sumo stable was one of the highlights of our trip, at that time we felt like being really in Japan! It was also the first time for Ichiro, so we are happy that he also discovered something new during the tour. Thereafter we have visited different temples and shopping streets. From those, the highlight was the Meiji shrine with the great surrounding park. The tour ended after nearly 10 hours (!) with a visit of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building with a great view over Tokyo.

However, we have not only seen a lot of Tokyo, we also have seen coincidentally the restaurant, which serves a location for a famous english learning TV show, and a weather girl from Japanese TV. And, most important, we were able to learn a lot more about Japan and Japanese culture from the talks with Ichiro, who has a great knowledge about Tokyo & Japan, than it would be possible only with a guide book.

Ichiro, thousand thanks for sharing your valuable time for us. Good luck for you, your wife, your daughter, your son and your grandchild!

With best regards,

Verena & Johannes

December, 2007
Guide: Noriyuki Iwai and Souei Takahashi
Route: Inokashira park – Ghibli Museum – Shinjuku – Meiji Shrine – Harajuku – Jingu-gaien – Odaiba

Dear Tokyo Free Guide,

My sister and I would like thank your organization and your guides for providing great service to foreign tourists like us. It was very nice of our two guides, Noriyuki Iwai-san and Souei Takahashi-san to take time out of their busy schedule to guide us around Tokyo. They were both courteous and friendly. Because of them, we were able to discover beautiful places such as Inokashira-kouen park and Jingugaien that we didn’t know about before. This was our first trip to Japan and our wonderful guides helped us make it more memorable.

We will always remember this trip and we hope to meet our wonderful guides again in Japan.

Domo Arigato Gozaimashta!

November, 2007
Guide: Kyoko Minami
Route: Meiji Shrine – Asakusa – Hama Rikyu Garden – Ginza – Kabuki Theater

Hi!

We’re Karin (Kiki) and Marty Levine, from the Los Angeles area of California.

We’d like to compliment you on your marvelous organization, having had the pleasure of a first-hand experience with Kyoko Minami, one of your volunteer guides, recently.

We spent the entire day with Kyoko on Friday, November 16, 2007, and feel that our time with her was the highlight of our Tokyo stay, as well as being one of the best days of our two and a half week stay in Japan.

Kyoko met us at our hotel as planned, and within minutes we felt that we were with an old friend. We had corresponded with her prior to our trip,and had expressed our interest in certain areas and sites in Tokyo. She had agreed, and we set off for a day that will live in our memories forever.

We visited the Meiji Shrine, Asakusa, took the Sumida River cruise from Asakusa to Hama Rikyu Garden, and then explored Ginza, where Kyoko showed us the Kibuki Theater and introduced us to the wonders of the Mitsukoshi Department Store, as well as showing us Chuo Dori, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

We sampled Japanese food that we’d heard of: okonomiyaki and yaki soba, and enjoyed tea and a little “mutual gift exchange” at Kuremuri Tea Salon in Ginza.

Throughout the day, Kyoko was enthusiastic, helpful, professional and friendly. Her English is excellent, so we were able to ask lots of questions,exchange ideas and honestly, laugh a lot. Her knowledge of the city is outstanding,which, of course, contributed to the success of the day.

Kyoko is an outstanding guide, and a wonderful person. She made a very positive impression on us, and we can’t help but smile when we speak of her. She is,as we say here, “just the greatest.”

Since our return, we’ve corresponded several times, and hope to keep in touch with her.

Thank you so much for arranging our meeting.

Sincerely,

Karin (Kiki) and Marty Levine

November, 2007
Guide: Nobuko Sakuragi, Katsue Shinomiya and Mitsuyo Fujiwara
Route: Meiji Shrine Outer Garden – Meiji Shrine – Omotesando – Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building – Kappabashi Street – Sensoji Temple – Sumida River Cruise – Hamarikyu Garden

This message is to thank our three guides, Mitsuyo-san, Katsue-san and Nobuko-san for their kindness and attentions during the visit to Tokyo me and my girlfriend Begona made. Nobuko spoke great Spanish, Katsue had the patience to teach us some origami and Mitsuyo was a very experienced guide who made a wonderful schedule for a one day-visit to Tokyo. All of them offered us a fantastic hospitality, great knowledge of the city and some Japanese charm we will never forget. Certainly, we will recommend TFG to anyone visiting Japan.