Naruto Experience

An interpreter guide service for Naruto

Thank you for coming to my website. My name is Masami Mura, a professional tour guide (Licensed by the Japanese government) in Naruto City in Tokushima prefecture, Japan.
As a tour guide, I have some distinctive features in my guiding style.
First, I'm a private guide attending small groups or individuals.
Second, I'm contacting potential customers directly on my own website.
Lastly, I'm an area-specific guide concentrating on Naruto City and its surroundings.
During the covid-19 pandemic that hit the world, I had no work at all as an interpretive guide. The Otsuka Museum of Art, where I volunteer as a guide for Japanese visitors, was closed for six months, and the guiding itself was suspended for some time after that. What I had taken for granted before the pandemic was by no means the norm. Later, when my interpreter guide work and volunteer guiding resumed, it was my great pleasure to be able to communicate face-to-face with people from all over Japan and abroad, and I realized that I really like it when my guests laugh happily while I'm guiding them and tell me how happy they are to be here. So I'm always prepared to the utmost to please my guests.

Naruto  is a city at the northeastern tip of Tokushima, Japan.
Naruto has a train station, but it is inconvenient for rail traffic from other major cities.
Even within Shikoku, the trains are sparse at one per hour, so the fastest and most direct method of reaching Naruto is to take a bus from Kansai Area across the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge.

JR Bus operates daytime Awa Express buses between Kansai and Tokushima,
stopping along the way at Kosoku Naruto which is a bus stop along the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto highway.
Buses connect to JR Osaka station every 30-60 minutes throughout the day, with separate runs operating to/from Kobe once per hour (including Shin-Kobe station on the Shinkansen) and to/from Kyoto seven times daily. 
Depending on traffic conditions, it takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Osaka and 1 hour and 30 minutes from Kobe to Naruto by highway bus.

Top attractions in Naruto

1. Naruto Whirlpools
Natural phenomena in the Strait of Naruto

2. Otsuka Museum of Art
Huge museum filled with reproduced Western art

3. Ryozenji Temple
First temple along the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Why private guide is good for you?

Guide can help you interact with people at your destination.

After the COVID19 convergence, many foreign tourists have returned to Japan. However, the concentration of tourists in certain areas and spots has also become a problem. If you are reading this website, you are probably planning a trip to Japan and would like to visit some of the country's rural areas. Naruto is a place where you can enjoy nature, history, and culture in a quiet and relaxed atmosphere, without the crowds of tourists. However, unlike major cities in Japan, it is also a place where English signage and English support are not yet advanced. Do you think you can get around with Google Translate? The lady at the diner where the locals go, the owner at the old-fashioned soy sauce brewery, or the elementary school kids who talk to you on the street may not use Google Translate. Would you still like to interact with them? Interacting with the people who live where you are going will be a great memory of your trip. While it is natural for a guide to be knowledgeable about the sights, I can also help you interact smoothly with the locals.

A private guide is flexible, and everything is personalized

Naruto is a spread out city with all of its main attractions located outside of the city center. Naruto Park and the whirlpools are about six kilometers north of central Naruto, while the Ryozenji Temple is about ten kilometers west of the city center.
However, public transportation such as buses and trains are not as well developed in Naruto as in the big city, so you will need a car to get between attractions.For private tours of three people or less, I can use my own car to transport you.
When I begin to schedule a tour with you, I will ask you about your needs and desires regarding places you would like to visit and foods you would like to eat in Naruto.
I will then work with you to make a final plan that best fits your wishes. The merit of a private tour is that even the final plan can be fine-tuned on the day of the tour. You may change the itinerary according to the mood of the moment or weather, which is impossible in an extensive group tour.

This trip to Naruto was very pleasant.

Masami was very professional, patient and punctual. Each attraction was arranged in an orderly manner. The detailed introduction of the world famous paintings in the Naruto Art Museum and Naruto Whirlpools benefited me a lot. On the way back, she kindly sent us to the Tokushima Museum and watched the Awa Dance. This trip to Naruto was very pleasant. I will definitely recommend Masami as their tour guide to my relatives and friends who come to Tokushima in the future.

I think price and payment terms are important to both of us when you hire a private guide. My standard guide fee is 6,000 Japanese yen per hour. This includes 10% consumption tax, and for up to three people, I will use my car, so this also includes transportation to and from the location of your choice within Naruto City and between tourist attractions within Naruto City. Other expenses such as entrance fees to facilities for you and me, meals, parking fees for my car, highway charges, etc. are not included. Let me know where you would like to go in Naruto and I will give you an estimate. A 50% deposit is required at the time of booking to confirm your reservation. The remaining 50% of the fee must be paid at least 3 days prior to the tour date. For more information, including the cancellation policy, please see the Price page.