Popular Tokyo Tour with an English-speaking Guide

Ms. NOSE, Hato bus guide

Getting around the lively metropolis that is Tokyo can be a real mission in itself, let alone discovering the history and background of the sites you see. If you are new to Tokyo, or even if you are a long-term English-speaking resident with limited Japanese, how can you visit and find out more about Tokyo in your own language? Luckily there is a way and it is ultra convenient.

Hato Bus, the tour company operating the famous yellow buses that you can see on almost every main street in the city, offer a range of English-language tours that can help you check out the city and increase your local knowledge. The company''s half-day, full-day and night tours will show you the sites, including Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, Akihabara electric town, the historic Asakusa, the glitzy Ginza shopping district, the tranquil Meiji Shinto shrine, national Diet building, and the beautiful Imperial Palace East Garden.

Bilingual Japanese Motoko Nose is one of Hato Bus' approximately 20 English-speaking guides. "I like meeting people and I liked learning about foreign culture while I was a student," Motoko says about why she took this job. "It is my pleasure to learn more about and introduce my culture to visitors from overseas."

So, just what does it take to become an English-speaking tour guide? "To be a tour guide using foreign languages you have to pass a Government exam," Motoko says. "I attended a special school for eight months in order to pass the test. The first step was a written exam, followed by an oral interview and then a test about general knowledge and geography. And of course you have to be able to speak English," she says. And how did she accomplish that? Motoko studied English in Japan in particular while studying to become a tour guide. She went to school and also practiced by reading English newspapers, and watching bilingual TV programs on NHK, BS, ABC, etc.

Approximately 50 percent of foreigners who join these tours are Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Americans. Some of the questions Motoko is commonly asked on the job are "What is the difference between the Shogun and the Emperor?", "Why do Tokyoites wear masks? Are they afraid of catching SARS?", "What is the symbol of the Buddhist manji (the Japanese symbol for a temple, that is very similar to the sign of the notorious German Nazis)?"

Describing some of the more difficult aspects of her job, Motoko says "As a Hato bus is for everybody, some people don't speak English, but that's not a problem," she says. "I enjoy meeting and communicating with people using body language. However, the most difficult part is having limited time. In the tour there are many places to see and sometimes, due to bad traffic conditions or other reasons, we have to shorten the time we have at places and alter our tour schedule."

One American who took the tour said, "I found it a very enjoyable and interesting way to see and learn about Tokyo. Since I cannot read kanji yet and everything was in English, it was a lot easier to understand."

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