Customer Reviews

He was an amazing tour guide, very knowledgeable and kind. The tour was well organised and ran efficiently. I would highly recommend.

Nagakura Kenjiro (Jiro) is the most gentle, kind and generous Japanese guide. We feel so privileged and lucky to have had him as our guide for 7 days. He listened and answered our questions, nothing was too much for him and he continued to educate us about his culture and life. Would have him guide us again any day. Thanks Jiro!!!

I absolutely loved our Nakasendo Way trip and this was made possible by our amazing guide Kenjiro. He was so passionate about Japan and answering all our questions we had. He was also so caring for the group and easily adapted what we were doing based on the groups fitness level and mobility level. Nothing was too much trouble and his explanations on everything Japan were second to none. I would highly recommend Jiro and would love to do another tour with him again in the future. I also loved the “lessons” of a morning on the Japanese characters and what they mean. We all loved Jiro. Thanks again for a perfect experience.

We spent nearly 3 days with Jiro in the Nagano prefecture. He is an absolutely terrific guide who is very knowledgable about history, culture, and the outdoors. He is the ultimate professional who can deal with unexpected situations. Our first day was spent exploring the Zenkoji shrine in Nagano with his expert commentary. Later that day, we took us to the middle shrine of Togakushi where a Shinto priest shared insights with us and Jiro provided the translation. That evening we had an unexpected, early-season snowfall of nearly 6 inches. We were supposed to hike and e-bike to the other Togakushi shrines that day. Jiro met us that morning already prepared with an alternative plan–he took our shoe sizes and rented snow boots for us so we could do the hike. The snow was beautiful and Jiro led us to other places in the area including Mirror Lake (Kagamiike). Throughout the entire day he always checked on us to see how we were doing and if we needed anything else. To top an amazing day, instead of e-biking up a road at a ski resort to get a beautiful view, he arranged a snowcat to take us up. When we arrived at the viewing spot, he had tea, coffee, and sweets for us to enjoy while we were mesmerized by the view. Jiro was able to get this alternative plan together with only a few hours notice and made our time with him amazing and unforgettable! If we could give him 10 stars, we would. We would highly recommend Jiro to anyone.

Jiro was an excellent guide. He was friendly, personable and very relaxed through all situations. He attempted to tailor the walks to different paces and was very respectful of client personalities–not overly talkative or intrusive but always responsive to questions and conversation. It was very nice to be able to walk in the quiet, enjoying the magical forests without a constant stream of commentary. He also went out of his way to make sure people had what they wanted/needed and never seemed impatient or tired.