Tokyo Private Tours

  Great day in Tokyo  - We had a wonderful day in Tokyo on the Market & Modern Culture tour with our guide, Rie. She showed us the best spots in Tsujiki market that locals... read more prefer, taught us so much about the city, and helped us overcome the language barrier when we wanted to do a little shopping. Would highly recommend the Backstreet Guides!

  I had a private tour scheduled when we arrived. We met our guide Mayu. She was So sweet and friendly that half way through the tour i booked her for... read more the next day and the evening two days later.
She was very informed and taught us many things about Japan, the culture, religion. My whole group just loved her and the tour and the time she spent to teach us and inform us. IT is alot of walking but it was so worth it. We were able to go to shrines, towers, temples, gardens. She covered it all. I would highly recommend this company and her as a guide. Be prepared to walk, the booking process was excellent and the communication was super throughout the whole time.

  Great, busy day  - We had a fabulous, fun filled day with Seiko along with lots of laughter and jokes. She met us promptly at the port and off we went on a... read more train and subway to see the main sights of Tokyo. She was very knowledgeable and customized the tour to fit our needs even making a slight change during the day to adapt for us. Be prepared for lots of walking, lots of steps and lots of subways-but it was actually what we were prepared for even some rain. Would highly recommend her and the tour to anyone!

  We organised this tour after successfully using Backstreet Guides 7 years ago on our first trip to Japan. Our gorgeous guide Mayu came and met us at out hotel in... read more Shinjuku on our first day in Tokyo... she was fantastic - we had arranged in advance what we would like to see with our 2 kids (10 and 14) as we had been to Japan before - she took us straight to the subway and helped us organise our pasmo cards - we then spent the morning at Tsikuji markets, walked through Ginza to Asakusa temple, had lunch in a great Ramen join near the temple, went on to Akihabara and then navigated us back to our hotel in the late afternoon. She had perfect English from her time in Australia and perfectly gauged the interest level of our family so we had plenty of information without being bombarded with too much info. The kids enjoyed having a local person to question and talk to about our differences in culture etc. It was a perfect way to start our 9 days in Japan as it gave us the confidence to navigate on our own. Backstreet Guides also organised our Sumo tickets and Baseball tickets which we thoroughly enjoyed and had a bit of drama getting organised online. Id highly recommend this company and use them again!

  Fabulous Personal Tour  - Great Tour Company. I inquired about a tour and got a response the very next day. As the tour date approached and I realized I needed to revise... read more the tour itinerary, I sent an email and was told it wouldn't be a problem. Rie (our very capable, prompt, conscientious, professional and wonderful guide) did conatant at-the-moment adjustments to the tour the entire day. She was always giving us options and made our day perfect. She picked a great restaurant for lunch and was always pointing out local vendors. Thank you!

  We took the Group Tokyo Night Tour on our first evening in Tokyo having landed early that day. It was the perfect way to get over our jet lag... read more as it got us out and about walking (we walked a lot (!) which was great). Mayu was a brilliant guide - she is super friendly, very knowledgeable and has excellent English. Our group was only ourselves and one other couple - I imagine with a bigger group it might feel a bit chaotic. Maya took us to all the “classic” Tokyo sights in Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shibuya. The only thing I would maybe have changed was that where the tour finished in Roppongi didn’t seem particularly interesting. Though that may have been because by that time we were tired.
The next day we took a private morning tour with Mayu where we visited sights on the eastern side of the city, imperial palace, tsukiji market etc. Again Mayu was brilliant - we especially enjoyed seeing the market with her as if we’d gone by ourselves we probably wouldn’t have tasted as many foods or even understood what they were! All in all the two tours really set us up for the rest of our time exploring Tokyo on our own, and I think they were great value.

  Historic Tokyo Tour  - Our customized trip with Rie was perfect and efficient. Rie fit a lot in for a full city tour and explained so much of the context and history. 10/10 stars.

  We completed two half day walking tours of Tokyo. We had a fabulous guide by the name of Yoko and she was fantastic. If you have not visited Japan before,... read more then this is a great way to learn about the basic customs and an excellent way to understand how the public transportation works especially the train system. Make no mistake, Tokyo is always busy so get accustomed to dealing with crowds.

Our trip was for 9 days and we had purchased a Japan Rail Pass which we did not want to activate until day 2 as we needed it for longer trips in the latter half of our stay, so she helped us purchase Pasmo travel cards (tap on and off) which can even be used on vending machines. It costs 500 Yen per card (refundable) plus whatever you need for fare costs. You need to purchase one for the guide as well. On day 2 she then helped us activate our Japan Rail Passes at Tokyo Station which was remarkably quieter than Shinjuku-Ku Station and also assisted us to book our trip to Kyoto.

We visited the outer market at Tsukiji. This was filled with traditional Japanese foods and food-related items. We then went on to Asakusa to have a look at the Buddhist Sensoji temple and then had lunch (Chicken rice bowl) at a side street restaurant. From there we traveled to Yanaka which is a suburban shopping street. We could have spent more time there however we needed to get back to our hotel for another commitment.

On day 2 we started off going to the East gardens of the Imperial Palace which stands on the site of the original Edo Castle and is home to the emperor. We then moved on to the Shinto Meiji Jingu shrine. After that we had a ramen lunch.
From there we were taken to the Harajuku and Omotesando districts. This is a crazy busy and vibrant area. We also got to visit a photo booth store where we experienced a Japanese teen hangout zone. We also asked Yoko to take us to the Shibuya Scramble which was not a problem, so don’t be afraid to tailor the trip if you need to.

This is a walking tour and you do walk a reasonable amount including traversing stairs and escalators. If you don’t enjoy walking or crowded public transportation then this trip is not for you. We however could not recommend it more highly! Thanks Yoko for your excellent knowledge and for taking care of us so well over the two days!

  10/10 once in a lifetime experience!! - This tour was incredible, and Hitomi, along with our driver, made the experience unforgettable! There’s no way we could have seen as much or appreciated the sights as deeply without... read more them. It was truly the highlight of our trip — we can’t recommend it highly enough!

  Great tours with Backstreet Guides  - Great tours with Backstreet guides in Tokyo and Kyoto. We had been to both cities before and they were great in making suggestions for things we had not seen... read more that were really good! The guides in both cities were great and very flexible. We recommend this company very highly and would not hesitate to book with them again.