Guiding Tourists Through Japan’s Busiest Destinations

I’m a full-time guide, mostly up in Tohoku (northeast Japan) but I also guide groups up Mt. Fuji in the pre and post season as well as lead normal tours in places like Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo when contracted.

If you’re interested in hiring me to guide you either on a hike or around town, send me an email through this channel or message me on Instagram or Twitter. Some additional info is available here: https://gonorth.jp/services/local-guidance/

Edited by https://twitter.com/HernieEdits

Kyoto bus pass:
https://www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/regular_1day_card_comm.html

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Music used in video was licensed from Artlist and Epidemic Sound.

#Kyoto #JapanTravel #Japanguide

[Music]
hi this is quinland and it is a very
bright and sunny April 15th up here on
Mount yuat this is my first time being
up here in about 5 and A2 months or so I
have been away for more than a month
guiding in What’s called the Golden
route sort of the greatest hits of Japan
Kyoto Nara Tokyo Hiroshima some other
places like takayama Matsumoto yudanaka
and they are beautiful and it was nice
to show around groups of about 12 to 15
people around those places I just got
back yesterday and so of course the
first thing I was going to do is run up
this uh volcano and reacquaint myself
with this area basically I was guiding
people on a twoe tour of the places that
I just mentioned and I did the exact
same tour twice with two different
groups of people hence it was a little
over four weeks I thought that I was
going to be able to bring a camera with
me which I did and film some places in
Kyoto Nara these areas that I’m not
usually visiting and share them with you
but it was just so exhausting to be
there and just to be organizing keeping
everything straight planning everything
researching the history I need to so
that I can explain to everybody that I
was just so exhausted I had no energy
left for filming first time I’m really
turning the camera on again is now here
while I’m back I do have one piece of
advice for all of you who are thinking
about visiting Kyoto Nara places like
that and and that is to do stuff at
night if you can for example the Fushimi
Inari TAA that most famous of all Fox
shrines with the tunnels of Vermilion
Tory Gates is basically just as busy as
Shinjuku station at rush hour it’s
ridiculous however if you go back after
9:00 at night they do have lights on it
is just magical to go there at night and
no I didn’t actually do that I was too
tired at night busy riding reports
organizing receipts doing all those
things that you have to do when you’re
guiding but I advise a couple of the
guests that I was guiding in their free
time to go there at night and they went
there at night and took some amazing
photos and had just a fantastic
experience and I believe this that they
only saw a handful of people most famous
Shrine maybe in the world and it was
empty 9:30 10 10:30 at night they went
all the way up to the top and walked
round and back and so I think for
certain places where they don’t lock the
doors that is great unfortunately places
like Kum zadera Temple another really
famous temple in Kyoto they they lock
that up after a certain time I think
it’s 6 p.m. and so you can’t just go
there at night unfortunately one other
tip for Kyoto is that it’s really
walkable as long as you’re going
anywhere in the center of the city you
don’t even need to bother with the buses
the trains if you’ve got uh time you can
just walk pretty much everywhere of
course if you’re going to areas in the
far north and west like say to the
bamboo forest in arashiyama or up to
King Kaki r sure you’re going to want to
take a bus to get up there but a lot of
stuff whether it’s going just from Kyoto
station to gon or sh you can just walk
up the river it’s a beautiful walk and
it is a great way to see little areas of
the city that you wouldn’t normally if
you are going to use the buses in the
Subways you may have heard that they got
rid of the all day bus pass um for the
njr buses in Kyoto because they were
just getting too crowded however there
is still a pass you can get for 1100 Yen
that includes all the buses and the
subway system and so you can buy that
pass and then get all over the place
during one day of course they also have
those welcome sua cards that have a
little picture of the Sakura flowers on
them and if you can just get one of
those they’re good for a month and that
just makes everything convenient you
don’t really have a savings on that but
getting those IC cards and just being
able to tap into everything whether it’s
a bus a Jr train the hungu line or any
other line that just makes it so much
easier one of the biggest pains about
traveling around through big cities is
having to calculate how much you owe and
so if you can just take your IC card and
Boop and get in and out and then just
charge it everywhere you need to um even
if it’s uh not as cheap as one of those
all-included one day passes it’s still
so worth it right now Kyoto is
incredibly crowded the crowds are just
just nuts it’s it’s really hard to even
find a restaurant to eat at in central
Kyoto near the station it is really
ridiculous and so you got to be braced
for the the crowds if you want to get to
a place go there early in the morning
because almost any tourist destination
whether it’s nio Castle King Kaki the
golden temple ranji kiomi zader any of
these places there are just ridiculous
Lines by around 10:30 or 11: in the day
and that just lasts all the way through
the mid late afternoon it makes sense to
get an early start which maybe you
already knew but it just reinforced that
on this trip and the other thing for a
few places that are open at night like
that fox Shrine with the Tori Gates that
just make a tunnel it makes sense to do
that at night it’s much more atmospheric
than and if you show up at like 8:30
9:30 at night you can walk up there
until 11:00 p.m. come back down after
midnight and even if the trains aren’t
running anymore it’s really easy to just
walk back to Kyoto station from the
Fushimi inar Shrine and that is the best
way to experience it it’s so much more
atmospheric maybe even spooky then the
other thing that I learned is that the
rail pass is really no longer a great
deal and it also makes booking
everything more difficult if you’re
using that JR Rail Pass it’s famous and
I’m sure you’ve already heard that they
um doubled they just jacked up the
prices pretty um high on it when you’re
using the rail pass in order to make any
reservations you have to line up in a
huge long line in most cases to talk to
a Jr staff member behind um a window in
one of those Jr offices and in any sort
of large station whether that’s Kyoto
station or ueno or Shinjuku you could
wait a half hour 45 minutes and you have
to do that every single time you book a
reserved seat on any Jr um Shin conen
bullet train that you’re going to take
if however you’re just getting tickets
normally which with how weak the yen is
right now is probably not bad depending
on what country you’re from then you can
just go up to a machine and you can
switch it into English and just get a
reserve seat and you can book it up any
time in advance sometimes even on the
same day but for the peak you know
cherry blossom soccer season you do
probably want to book as far in advance
as you can but still you don’t have to
wait in line for it you can just do it
all on the machines and it is easy you
can put it in English it’s so much
better than lining up the windows the
other thing that my guests who I were
guiding over the last month often
remarked at is how hard it was to find
trash cans and so if you are going to
travel to Japan you’re going to have to
be ready to carry your trash back with
you to your hotel in a lot of
circumstances sometimes you can find a
convenience store um which some of them
but they got rid of in the more crowded
areas but in smaller areas the
convenience stores always have
recyclables and trash uh bins that you
can use but the lack of bins in big
areas is really market and so I think
instead of struggling and looking for
them I think it’s a better idea just to
you know you have your little day pack
with you probably if you’re traveling so
just C have a plastic bag or a little
trash bag with you and just care car
your stuff back with you to your hotel
and just be prepared for that
psychologically so you always have a bag
so you don’t have to have like like a
dirty wrapper or something loose in your
backpack but you can just put it that in
your little trash bag however bathrooms
are so much easier to access here of
course everyone knows how beautiful and
clean the bathrooms are in Japan in fact
a lot of people have seen this movie
perfect days I haven’t seen it yet but
I’ve heard it’s amazing it’s all about a
guy who’s cleaning some of these novelty
bathrooms around uh part of Tokyo near
the Sky Tree um supposed to be a great
movie I intend to see it soon but even
knowing that the guests who I was
guiding which were mostly older British
people remarked on just how nice it was
that you could access bathrooms for free
just about everywhere and they were
always clean even public restrooms near
large tourist destinations were largely
pristine they weren’t disgusting at all
and they all have those uh lovely shower
toilets and they commented how yeah yeah
in France and someplace you can get a b
day but it’s kind of weird you have to
do this weird Shuffle to uh get from the
toilet to the bedet to use it in France
whereas here it’s all on the same seat
so it just makes it that much nicer you
have to worry much less if you’re
someone who drinks a lot of coffee and
needs to use the bathrooms often because
there are bathrooms everywhere and uh
they’re nice and they’re free and of
course I have to say that I really
wished I could have taken these guests
over the last month more off the Beaten
Track up to somewhere like Northern
Japan or even shikoku or Hokkaido we we
really just were on the main tourist
drag and that was nice and maybe it is a
great trip for first-time visitors to
Japan to sort of check off all the
really famous places but it would be
nice to have been able to show them
places in my backyard and to introduce
them to more authentic experiences in
big cities the people are often nice but
they’re just so used to seeing tourists
now that um I’ve noticed a change in
people over the last 20 years at least
in the big cities they are just uh sort
of more normal big cities they’re more
likely to ignore tourists and just
behave like people who are used to being
around tourists and up here where there
still are so few tourists people really
still do go out of their way to help you
and to try and assist you to maybe chat
you up in a restaurant or a bar and you
get to meet people and uh just get a
little bit of a different view on Japan
than you do if you’re just in Tokyo
Kyoto Hiroshima places like that as as
great as those places are since I just
got back from this big trip I really
wanted to get back up the mountain now
it’s spring and so the snow is not great
it’s really wet and slushy and dirty and
it makes climbing kind of a pain because
you’re always slipping and sinking in
but despite those mids spring conditions
it’s still so great to be back up here
it’s now late afternoon and the cherry
blossoms up here in moroka and IAT are
in full bloom right now so I want to
head back down the mountain where
there’s still a little bit of time to
check out the cherry blossoms thank you
so much for watching and I hope that
when you do visit Japan you take the
time to come up to some undiscovered
area like IAT and see some places more
off the Beaten Track even if most of
your trip is in the greatest hits of
Japan areas which of course are nice to
thank you so much for watching and I’ll
see you on the trails
[Music]