posted by Stefania Galdi IT

date of activity: May 2009

Yoshiko,

We are so grateful because you did wonders for us.

Thank you so much for the wonderful experience you planned for us, for your cooperation in booking for us Takayama Bus, for your patience and professionality during the day.

You are the best Guide we have ever met

A kiss from italy

Davide and Stefania

Dear guides,

May the New Year bring you happiness!

Aitaijapan has survived a whole year without any complications in 2009. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude for your kind hospitality towards our foreign guests.

In 2009, there were approximately 70 guide requests, with visitors from Europe (U.K, Italy, Spain, France, etc), the USA, Canada, Australia, and Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, China, etc ). Most of the guide requests were for Tokyo, then next to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. Many visitors visited Hida Takayama and Shirakawa-Go after Tokyo, and then they visited Hiroshima after the Kansai area last year. Unfortunately, we do not have any guides in these areas yet, so please let me know if you have any friends or acquaintances who may be interested in being guides for these areas.

The most wonderful news of 2009 was that our website aitaijapan.com was published in a travel column in the New York Times last June. Although it was a small article, it was an extremely pleasant surprise for us. In addition, we had a great number of requests from individuals from the USA throughout summer. I regard that it must have been owed to your kind hospitality attitudes.

Furthermore, I have uploaded the member’s communication site SNS http://aitaijapan.so-netsns.jp/ as a way for us to communicate and know each other better. I encourage that all members use this site as a tool to communicate frankly with one another, and to discuss any issues or ideas about aitaijapan. I absolutely wish our website, aitaijapan.com to establish itself on the world wide web more than ever and feel that we can do so with the help from your comments and suggestions.

Finally, please don’t forget to ask to send the visitor’s comments handout to your customers, and also please send in your guide reports after each tour.

I hope that 2010 will greet you all with warm encounters and rich experiences through aitaijapan.

With kind regards,

Yoshiko Nakakura
Aitaijapan.com coordinator

AitaiJapan　ニュースレター 第6号　2010年1月

aitaijapan ガイドの皆様へ

新年おめでとうございます。

お陰様で、2009年のガイド活動も支障なく終え2010年を迎え益々aitaijapanが世界のウェブサイトページに浸透してゆくことを願うばかりです。

昨年度は、ヨーロッパ（イギリス、イタリア、フランス、スペイン等）、アメリカ、カナダ、オーストラリア、アジア（シンガポール、マレーシア、中国等）より、約70件のガイド依頼が寄せられました。やはり東京周辺のガイド依頼が圧倒的に多く、次いで京都、奈良、大阪にリクエストが寄せられました。昨年の傾向として、東京の次に飛騨高山、白川郷を訪れ、関西入りし関西の次に広島を訪れるルートが人気のようです。残念ながら、岐阜県や広島県には、aitaijapanのガイドの方はいらっしゃいません。もし皆様のお知り合いの方でこの地方のガイドにご興味の方がいらっしゃれば是非ご紹介下さい。

aitaijapan にとって昨年度の一番嬉しいニュースは何といっても、6月にNew York Times の旅行コラムに取り上げられた事です。ほんの数行の記事でしたが、何の宣伝活動もしていない私たちのサイトが、あのNew York Times に掲載されたことは本当に嬉しい驚きでした。これも、日ごろのガイドの皆様の献身的でガイドブックにはない、スペシャルなガイドの賜物だと自負しております。明らかに、掲載された時期には、アメリカからの依頼が大変多く寄せられていました。

次に、昨年8月に、ガイドの皆様同士の忌憚のない意見交換の場になればと思い、aitaijapanコミュニケーションサイト、SNS(http://aitaijapan.so-netsns.jp/)を開設いたしました。残念ながら、まだあまりご利用していただいておりませんが、どうぞお気軽に、ご意見、ご要望、アドバイス、お勧め情報等々こちらまでお寄せいただければと切に願っております。

Email address ： aitaijapan@gmail.com

最後に、従来通り、ガイド終了後には、依頼者にはVisitor’s commentの返信依頼と、ガイドの皆様には、ガイドレポート（日本語で結構です。）の返信を重ねて宜しくお願いいたします。

2010年も皆様にとって有意義で素晴らしい出会いが訪れますことを心より願っております。

敬具

aitaijapan管理人　中倉芳子

posted by Karren Pickering, AU

date of activity: 30th December 2009

Kaori was very responsive to our initial contact and future contacts after we arrived in Tokyo. She is a very kind and helpful person to use some of you holiday leave to take two Australians around for the day. Advising us to take the airport limousine bus was a big plus to us. We met an American couple who spent a large amount of money getting to the motel and they didn’t know about the free guide service.

We met us at our hotel which was out of her way and took us to a very enjoyable lunch at an ubon noodle restaurant. The rail ride to Akihabara and then the walk to Meiji Shine were amazing. She was able to explain to us details of Japanese customs.

As advised her tf you ever come to Brisbane Australia she is very welcome to say at our place.

Thankyou for the great service!

posted by Eddie Maniago, AU

date of activity: September 2009

Kaori was a great guide! Firstly she was very kind to return to our hotel after we were about 20mins late.

She guided my wife and I to Kabukiza and tokyo tower. It was our last night in Tokyo and it was fun going to those places and also learning about Japanese culture.

Kaori’s English was very good and we has fun talking to her during dinner at an Okinawa specilaised restaurant.She also managed to arranged for me to receive a free sample of Okinawa shoju.

Thanks Kaori, and see you again next time!

posted by Partheev Shah, US

date of activity: August 2009

Kaori was an excellent tour guide! She arrived on time to our hotel and assisted us in planning out the day. There were three of us in the group and everyone really appreciated Kaori’s insight and knowledge of the different sites.

In the future, I would strongly recommend Kaori as a tour guide to any prospective tourists visiting Tokyo.

This is a wonderful service Aitai Japan has provided and I wish Kaori and the program best of luck going forward.

posted by Salvatore, IT

date of activity: August 2009

We had a lovely time in kyoto with yoshiko! She has been so kind, efficient and keen!

We went through the old temples with her, she explained us the main monuments and was even able to answer so many cultural question about life style and “philosophy” in japan. Definitely a good guide!

She did understand our need to stop and have a rest some times: she let us have some spare time with shopping, she waited for all our cigarette pauses.

I hope she has felt as good as we have with her.

I would definitely recommend yoshiko as a guide.

posted by Carolyn Sloan, US

date of activity: July 2009

Thank you to Aitai Japan, especially to our guides Yayoi and Junyichi.

We were expertly guided through different parts of Tokyo and Kyoto, seeing all the temples and shrines and sections of the different cities that we requested and that our guides thought would be interesting and fun.

Both were knowledgeable and generous with their time. Yayoi even took special time with us to teach us calligraphy and introduce us to her family.

We are so grateful to AitaiJapan and to our guides. THANK YOU. We will most certainly be back and look forward to our next stay. We are so happy to have been introduced to such rich culture with such kind and wonderful people.

posted by Richard Scott, CA

date of activity: July 2009

A couple of weeks ago we met with Yoshiko Nakakura for a delightful lunch at Gojo Sagaru Horikawa Dori Shimogyo Ku Kyoto. Yoshiko very kindly made the reservation for our lunch and spent most of the day guiding us around Kyoto to visit some of her favorite places. My family had an opportunity to see parts of Kyoto we would otherwise never had known to visit.

Yoshiko’s english was impecable and we were able to communicate easily and learned much about the culture and history of Kyoto. We will definitely use Aitai Japan on our next visit and highly recommend your site to anyone planning to visit.

Thank you for your site and a special thanks to Yoshiko.

Richard Scott, Canada

posted by Edna Nakamoto, US

date of activity: July 2009

Kohei was perfect for our family. His English was impeccable and he created a day that was perfect for our two boys. He was extremely patient and had great ideas of how our teenagers could experience the best of Tokyo.

We highly recommend him!

posted by Jenny Sun, US

date of activity: July 2009

Thank you so much for offering this service. It offers a great cultural exchange with the local people of Japan and visitors from abroad. We understand that language is a barrier sometimes when visiting, and it is so nice to see people like Kohei reaching out to people like us.

Kohei Ueda was incredibly generous with his time and his vast knowledge of his own culture. It was nice to see things from the perspective of someone who lives in Tokyo. Taking us off the beaten path and showing us food that we otherwise would have never thought to try or even know about, Kohei opened our eyes to a broader range of what Tokyo has to offer.

In an effort to enhance his English, we thought Kohei’s English to be excellent. We were able to communicate with each other easily, and his friendly nature was much appreciated. We hope to keep in touch with each other in the future!