My flight to Japan from Florence on 15 March 2023

Hey!!

Greetings!!

One more thing, I would like to hire local private guide over there. Because traveling to complex destinations like India, Japan or on safari in Africa can be a real challenge without a good local tour guide. 

I think guides are lifeline in such situations. 

In-depth knowledge and local savvy enhance the experience of a place, as they are often with us the whole time, not just on a one-off tour.

So what would you suggest - where i can book local private guide for my Japan tour.

Meanwhile I’m browsing the lots sites and cross checking the price and package providing by local guide.

Cheer’s,

Matt

Kon nichi wa= hello, good day in JPNese. Kon ban wa= good evening. train=kokuden.

I have been 2x in JPN, 1 on a Japan Railpass for 2 weeks, all on my own, quite some time ago now, but I even then had, if I may say from myself, considerable exp. in travel, also in countries without our ABC and barely anyone speekee the ingris/angel. Which is still very much a given fact for JPN. Where I am now in tropical surroundings are also quite a lot of young Jpnese-with blue or yellow painted hairs. I always have nice contacts with them.

Many say JP is the very safest country in this world. Also for single ladies and even more if you are gaijin=westerner, easy to see on your skin colour.

There are several forums aiming the general and ignorant unknowing traveller like you are now for there. Best known is tripadvisor-have to search a little for the forums, it is not directly visible. Have to reach it via other/more - forums - Asia - JPN. Or simply use google. READ first, most of the things any newbee wants to know have been posted+answered dozens of times.

In the past it was very evident for anyone to first borrow/buy a GUIDEBOOK, and read. Lonely Planet series is best known and some (I dk if also JPN) are even in IT translated. Perhaps there is also a library where you can borrow in your town.

DO also be very aware that JPN is VERY expensive -that means that wages for a guide are also very high-AND as far as I now know it also still has-for these pesky gaijin, many restrictive anti-covid entry rules. DO inform yourself very well. You can do it fairly lower priced-I did that too-by staying in youth hostels (become a member to them in your own country-yes, si, IT also has them), some nights in trains or bus and by buying food from the millions of small kombini=convenience stores like Lawson, Family or 7-11. JP also used to have (I dk if still the case) a kind of circle of locals willing to guide visiting gaijin in their own town, or even to visit their tiny homes, as a chance to practish english or welcome gesture. There is even a system of ´couch surfing´_where you can stay in someones house for free, perhaps just in a slepingbag on the ground, but with you also offering the same in Italia. But to arrange all that needs loads of advance planning-never do anything un-announced over there.

As for treni: just as here most treni that run are locals that cannot RES-and are extremely full in the peaks. The ShinKansen hi-speed and expresses have half RES and other half NON-in busy times that will mean you have to stand there.