Top Kyoto Bus Tours

So what do you do for fun on weekends if you are a mechanical engineer M-F? If you are Akira Tsutsumi, you give the world’s best day tours of Kyoto & Osaka. At least, that is what he did for my wife and me. In addition to the must-see Fushimi Inari Shrine, typical city landmarks and bamboo forests, there are 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 shrines in Kyoto, Japan. So, for day-tourists such as my wife and me, time is of the essence and finding the cream of the temple and shrine crop is essential, making the quality of your guide critical - and Akira Tsutsumi is a master. Beginning weeks before our tour, Akira and I exchanged several emails as he planned a tour that would take us to the most important spots and fit everything into a single day. His selections and organization were impeccable, and his use of the local transit system with down-to-the-minute precision made a wonderful tour PERFECT. We used a couple of taxis when absolutely necessary, and trains, a bus and a tram with remarkable timing to get us everywhere else. It was amazing to watch him as he consulted transit schedules on the fly using his hand-held processor to make our connections with the precision one could only ask of an engineer. Admittedly, temple and shrine information can quickly overwhelm even the most attentive of minds, but Akari comes equipped with two satchels full of pages of concise information to share throughout the day, so that we could take pictures of each, which became invaluable resources for interpreting and organizing our dozens of photos from each stop. Additionally, Akari graciously took many pictures of my wife and me throughout and then emailed them to us that evening. In addition, to his preparation, scheduling and resourcefulness, it is most important to acknowledge his kindness and attentiveness throughout the day. He flat out is just a very nice guy with whom you will be very fortunate to spend a day in Kyoto/Osaka, if given a chance.