Mia was an absolutely excellent tour guide and easily the best guide we had during our entire trip to Japan—and we went on several tours!
From the beginning, Mia made the experience feel personal rather than like a standard tourist tour. She taught us so much about Japanese and Kyoto culture while keeping everything fun and engaging. She had us laughing throughout a good portion of the day, and her personality made the entire experience even more memorable.
What really stood out was how willing she was to accommodate our interests. In addition to showing us the must-see sights of Kyoto, she helped us find places that were completely outside the typical tourist itinerary. We mentioned wanting to visit a Buddhist shop and find the best ice cream near our hotel, and she happily worked those requests into our day. She showed us hidden gems alongside Kyoto’s famous sights, which made the tour feel especially personalized.
Mia was knowledgeable, funny, flexible, and genuinely wonderful to spend the day with. We absolutely loved both her and the tour. When we return to Japan, we are going to find Mia again and hopefully have her show us other cities as well!
We cannot recommend Mia highly enough. If you have the opportunity to book a tour with her, do it. She made our time in Kyoto one of the highlights of our trip!
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Peter_H
August 22, 2025 · via Viator
Tour was great!
The tour guide was great, told us information about the temples that we would have not known ourselves. I would of booked another day if I had more time.
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Tricia A
March 20, 2025 · via Tripadvisor
A wonderful tour of the main highlights of Kyoto
Chako was a great tour guide. She was very friendly and helpful. We learned so much from her. I have vented Kyoto three times before, but never knew all of the background knowledge.
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Barbara_L
March 7, 2025 · via Viator
This was a wonderful...
This was a wonderful tour. Mia was a great tour guide who made sure that we were given the right amount of information about the places we visited. She answered all of our questions and obviously wanted us to get the most from our tour.
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Carl_R
December 28, 2024 · via Viator
Best tour ever
We were met by Mie and found out we were the only ones in the tour. She was fantastic and we had the most marvelous time. We visited all the sites that we expected to and while there Mie gave us great information about each one. On the way, she her culture, the Japanese customs, everyday life. She was also very interested and loved to hear our stories as we traveled from place to place; ate lunch. She is a fabulous tour guide!
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Charlie_C
December 25, 2024 · via Viator
Kyoto Summer 2024 adventure
We loved our tour guide . Perfect way to see Kyoto for the first time. Our guide told us facts and historical facts about each place we visited . Would recommend this experience.
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Jedrix_A
August 4, 2024 · via Viator
Justified our day trip to Kyoto from Tokyo
Our tour guide, Mie, was well-prepared and very friendly from the moment we met her. She clearly communicated the agenda to ensure it met our personal expectations. Mie took the time to know us and was an excellent conversationalist. She cared about us getting the most out of our one day in Kyoto and customized the agenda based on what caught our interests. It was absolutely worth having Mie as a private tour guide, and if you have the opportunity to request her, do it.
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Christina_C
July 10, 2024 · via Viator
Amazing friendly guide with beautiful scenes
Chako-san was an amazing guide, her deep understanding of all of the cultural sites really helped us appreciate the various temples and enjoy all of the respective characteristics unique to each site. Despite the on/off rain, intense crowds at each site, and thousands of steps walked, her bubbly energy was very contagious and helped us power through! Highly recommend. She also arrived early and was very courteous and answered so many questions throughout with immense patience.
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Addie_Y
July 4, 2024 · via Viator
Worth it!
We loved this tour, our guide was amazing and gave us history of each place we visited. There is lots of walking but it was all manageable. We went on a rainier day and it was still amazing, especially the bamboo forest.
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Timothy_D
May 19, 2024 · via Viator
Worth the Money
Chouka (sp?) Was a fantastic guide. She helped us with our Japanese, she taught us all about the areas we visited for both modern and ancient times. She was very well organized and was just a real pleasant guide. This is worth every penny. We highly regret not getting her contact info for future tours.
Tim and Alicia. :-)