Kanazawa Exclusive: Guide Privé, Magie du Japon Secret

We had a very enjoyable day with Yoshi, examining Kanasawa’s castle and garden, geisha and samurai homes. Yoshi was very knowledgeable and spoke English very well. The length of the tour was a bit long for us seniors, considering the amount of walking and stairs!

Thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Kanazawa! Our guide, Yumi, was friendly, personable, knowledgeable, insightful and helpful!

Thank you, Yoshi, for a wonderful day in Kanazawa! Saw the sights of this beautiful city and learned a lot about Japanese culture. Thank you Arrogate Yoshi K&K

Great experience with Yoshino, very knowledgeable guide. Explored the castle and gardens, tea rooms, samurai houses, fish market and others.

Very interesting tour with Masayo. She took us to excellent locations including the Samurai housing district and super location for lunch.

Worth every penny! This tour was a game changer because one thing is seeing the temples, castle and garden but with this tour you learn that there is so much more behind it. Our guide was Yoshi and we are extremely greatful with him, he explained us everything in detail, responded doubts about the places we visited and even a little about japanese culture in general. He was very polite, friendly and in the best mood so we could learn about the places we saw. My wife and I couldn't be happier with Yoshi.

The 4 places we selected to visit were great, well worth seeing. The tour took up nearly the whole 6 hours, time well spent. We had to take 5 buses which saved time and walking, but discovered later that we could have purchased a 24 hour/day ticket a bit cheaper and still had rest of the day to utilise it.

We had a day of adventure with our guide Asa in the city of Kanazawa. Our day started us off meeting Asa at the cruise terminal where although there was a slight hiccup with the meeting time, it went flawlessly from there. Our tour consisted of a couple of taxi rides and bus rides to different places of interest which we had picked out prior to the trip. Asa, lead us to and thru each teaching us so many things about the history and their significance. She explained to us not only important things about the past but also currently and how and why they still remain important to this day. It did seem apparent, but after making small talk earlier in the day, we did learn that she had been a teacher for her entire profession. During that conversation there was a very candid moment where we talked about her former career, and you could see the sparkle in her eye where she had a genuine love of teaching, still connecting with people, and the significance of her profession. She lead us thru our tour talking and teaching us along the way and yet stopping at appropriate times to let us soak things in, take a picture or to just recuperate at times. I could not believe the pep in her step and she could’ve probably out done all of us in a race. She was also thoughtful enough to buy each of us a small bento (or box lunch) for us to enjoy during a break and made sure that when she was completed with our tour, that we knew exactly how to get back to our cruise terminal. We had a very enjoyable day and an incredible experience of one of the most beautiful Japanese gardens, a historic castle, a “Ninja” temple and an open market. Thank you Asa!!! One of the most significant things at the end was that Asa humbly asked if we could write a short entry into a diary which she kept of all of her past tours. She claimed that it was meaningful for her to reflect back on as well as to help keep up her English. Asa told us that one of her main goals was to become a better guide, and Asa we would all not hesitate to say that you were, and are incredible. Thank you for the experience, your thoughtfulness and your patience with our large group. We are so happy that we had the experience you shared and provided with us.

We will have to make a return trip to Kanazawa – there wasn’t enough time to take in all it has to offer in just 5 or 6 hours. Kanazawa Castle and the adjacent Kenroku-en Gardens are a magnet during cherry blossom season, for good reason. Despite the crowds, this was a wonderful tour. Our guide, Shoten (“Sho”) Sasaki worked closely with us to develop the itinerary and led an excellent tour. The Higashi Chaya-gai district gives one a good feel for the days when Geisha entertained in local “tea” rooms – the buildings are lovingly preserved, although most are now shops and eateries (where you can sample ice-cream cones dipped in gold leaf). We’re sorry we ran out of time before seeing Nagayamachi Bukeyashiki (the samurai district) – next time! A great place to visit.

We were very fortunate to have Shoten Sasaki as our guide in Kanazawa. We let him know before we arrived what we were interested in and he organised a great day for us including booking a fabulous place for lunch where locals eat and if Sho hadn’t booked we would have missed out! He showed us a variety of historical and cultural sights and we especially enjoyed the local markets. Sho is very knowledgeable and we felt we really got to know the best of Kanazawa on our full day private tour with a local.