My husband and I are planning a 10-14 day trip to Japan. I have looked into group travel but would love to hire a private guide to show us around the country. I've done this in other countries and have had great success. I am really worried about the language barrier in Japan so I thought a private guide would be the best solution. I would love any recommendations anyway has. Thank you!

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/arrange/es...l#professional

You have a choice of a paid or a volunteer guide. Paid guides are licensed to guide. Volunteers have varied amounts of training and varied levels of English. Due to the high price of paid guides, around $500 per day not including transportion or entrance fees, most people use volunteer guides or none at all. The usual tourist areas in Japan are easy to get around without knowing Japanese. Provided you do not hire a guide, a trip planned independently is much less expensive than a tour. This is even more dramatic with one off day tours, where they price charged is often 4 - 5 times the real cost. Explore the goodwill guide options and plan yourself for the most economical compromise. Of course, unlimited funds would mean you could hire a guide to accompany you everywhere and you would have to do nothing...

Had excellent private guide for Tokyo...Junko Matsuda. She is intelligent, perfect English, really knows the city and will take you where you want to go and had good ideas if you don't know where you want to go. We used her 4 times, 3 half days, and one full day. We would never have seen Tokyo a fraction of the way she showed us if we had not been with her. She also knows the restaurants and shops. We did eat well with her and not spending nearly the amount we thought Tokyo would cost. I also fell and broke my arm on my second day in Tokyo. She was invaluable at the hospital. She made our trip in Tokyo!! Her email is [email protected]

For a guide in Tokyo and surrounding areas, Junko Matsuda is the best!

I agree with the above post on all accounts. She is a knowledgeable and professional guide. Her English is excellent - she lived in US for a few years. She has worked with Frommers (and other publications) regarding guidebooks to Tokyo. If you care to check out Frommers website (don’t mean the forum) for Tokyo guides – they recommend her highly. Book ahead – the concierge at Park Hyatt keeps her very busy.

Yes, I like to hire private guides, too. I do not speak Japanese but wanted to be able to use public transportation to experience busy Tokyo on foot - and it’s unique but spread out neighborhoods. She guided us for 2 days in October 2010.

She customized the tour for us and remained flexible. One example of this is she found a charming okonomiyaki restaurant for us in Kamakura after it came up in conversation. It was delicious and so much fun! We sat at a table with a grill in the center for making delicious, small pancakes from an assortment of ingredients. We sat next to a group of 4 teenaged boys who were unsurprisingly deft at the cooking process. She translated and they shared cooking advice. This experience was one example of something I’d miss if bumbling along on my own.

I'll share our itinerary with you:

Day 1: Neighborhoods: Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza, Aikihabra, Asakusa, Shinjuko:

Shibuya's busy crosswalk and Dog Statue in Shibuya./Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art, Omotesando shops (Oriental Bazaar), Takeshita Dori, Harajuku fashions, Meiji Temple (lots of weddings) in Harajuku/Downtown area (Sony store), Imperial Palace and East Garden in Ginza/Aikihabra to see robot store, Maid Café, Sega store/Sensoji Temple in Asakusa/Omoide yokocho (Piss Alley) in Shinjuku.

Day 2: Tsukiji Fish Market and train to Kamakura:

Visit Daibutsu Buddha (and go inside), Hasedera Temple, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū

The visit was a stop on my way home from Myanmar. I knew that I would be tired and it would be easy to feel overwhelmed by Tokyo. I am so glad that Jun was available and that I had the pleasure of being guided by her.

Hope this is helpful for the Tokyo portion of your trip. Enjoy!

*(This is off the subject but wanted to share - one night we ended up at the teeny-tiny bar featured in Anthony Bourdain's Tokyo episode. It is called Piano Bar and it was a great Tokyo experience. It’s located in an alley in Shibuya – finding it is half the fun!)

It might be quite difficult to go around by yourself because not so much Japanese speak English. I visited Japan already five times and you need to prepare very well and need to do a lot of effort to communicate. But they are very nice most of the time (but very shy ...)