Last night, I guided around Shinjuku night to a American mother-daughter pair who came to Japan on a cruise ship . A few weeks ago, they requested me to be their guide directly through my website, and we exchanged emails several times to create a plan for last night.

When I asked them why they sent me an email, they told me that they had been introduced by a friend who had also visited Tokyo on a cruise ship about a half year ago and whom I had guided. So, although it was a short tour, I made more detailed preparations, such as having them eat at a very ordinary yakitori restaurant that not many tourists go to, and then just passing by the yakitori street in Omoide Yokocho, which is full of foreign tourists. Also, yesterday was unfortunately drizzly, so we couldn’t expect to see a view from the observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, so I quickly re-examined the area and added a new place to the tour, a place in Shinjuku Central Park where we can look up at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building from the ume plum blossoms and Kawazu cherry blossoms.

Whenever I guide a guest, I always give them a small bag containing an origami crane and my business card, as a token of my gratitude for our “once-in-a-lifetime encounter” and in the hope of meeting them again. This time, my guest showed me a photo of the bag I gave them six months ago and said, “A friend showed me this and I sent an emailto you,” which made me very happy.

Of course, this time too, I ended the tour by giving the mother and daughter a bag with origami cranes.