On our 1st trip we came across the free guide services a lot of Japanese (and recently Western cities as well) offer here. You basically can request a guide for a certain topic or area and if you are lucky your request gets picked up.

The service itself is free. You only pay the expenses of the guide like food, transportation and such. It’s a great deal and we like the different experiments you get with having someone local guide you around.

In our case this meant we spend the day with Akinori-san. He picked us up from the hotel and after a short search for our bikes (yes we rented bikes for the day), we were ready to explore the city. Let me tell you these bikes were the best idea ever! You get around so quickly! The bikes even have an electric engine, so even the little hills around Akasaka are no problem. Very easy, very nice and worth an experience!

Akinori-san took us to the Imperial palace, as well as the Toyko International forum (where we saw a lot of young woman wearing their Hakama), Ueno garden as well as Kyu Iwasaka house. A short, and spontaneous trip to Akihabara was also included when our guide found out there was a little Otaku with him ;).

The whole day Akinori-San (who had been to out hometown in Germany once!what are the chances?!) also took pictures of us and was kind enough to share them later.

So…. pls enjoy!

And Akinori-san 本当にありがとうございます！月曜日はとても楽しかったです！^-^