Experience Kanazawa
Beyond the Guidebooks

Our guide Criselda was brilliant. She took us to several geisha districts and a samurai district, where she provided interesting historical context. Whilst walking she shared cultural insights about Japan - including about their everyday lives. Criselda also pointed out some great restaurants and shops. Overall it was a fantastic experience - Criselda is a thoughtful and intelligent guide!

We loved our guide Criselda - she shared so much information about the history of Kanazawa but also about Japanese culture and culture and way of life. She is so intelligent and full of insights.

We loved visiting Kanazawa and mostly due to this tour. Selda, our guide, was super knowledgeable, patient and accommodating to our needs. 100% recommend it.

Zelda was a great guide and showed us things we would not have found on or own. She also shared her favourite coffee shop and bakery. She took us to a traditional sushi restaurant for lunch.

Any trip to Kanazawa would be made richer with a host like Akari. Akari provided personalised recommendations on places to eat and even reserved a table for us. Her tour was well paced and provided memorable highlights of Kanazawa as well as fascinating history. It was a joy to learn about Kanazawa with such a knowledgeable and interesting guide like Akari.

Akari was our private tour guide in Kanazawa. She was wonderful and very helpful. We asked to go through a specific Samurai house and she added it to our itinerary and shared many interesting things about the history with us. She was patient and great with our 14 and 10 year old children. We also asked for many recommendations and she was able to help us. Thank you very much for accommodating us!

We went for the quick 2 hour option and it was great because of Akari, the guide’s flexibility. We still saw the tea house district and the samurai house. She knew Japanese history and that was informative. She dropped us off at the fish market and we parted ways! Perfect.

Akari was awesome! Knowledgeable, fun, flexible. Good recommendations. I bet she’s a favorite of everyone.

Tour molto piacevole con Mouri, che mi ha guidata tra le principali attrazioni di Kanazawa, ma anche angoli nascosti e storie locali affascinanti Very enjoyable tour with Mouri, who guided me through the main attractions of Kanazawa, but also hidden corners and fascinating local stories

The tour was amazing, Jorge met me at my BnB and organized based on what I wanted to see. He was very knowledgeable about the history and places, but also made the tour fun and engaging. He also send some useful information to where to eat and what to see in my next few days. Overall great experience and I will definitely book a second tour when I'm back in Japan :)

Jorge (through city unscripted) was absolutely amazing. Jorge really took us to off the beaten path places. It was also New Year’s Day and most sites were closed, but Jorge still showed us a number of amazing things we would have never seen without a guide. We also thoroughly enjoyed talking to Jorge and leaning about Japan

Real off the beaten path experience

What a delight it was to tour Kanazawa with Megumi! She is so knowledgeable about the area, Japanese traditions, and culture and gave our group flexibility to be on our own schedule for what was important for us. Wear your good walking shoes! We highly recommend touring with Megumi!!

Our guide Megumi was FANTASTIC. She had an amazing route to visit all the main sites of Kanazawa, and she was able to share the history and facts of each place we visited. I would highly recommend booking this tour and requesting Megumi as a guide.

Megumi was a wonderful walking tour host who was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and flexible and went above and beyond expectations!

Highly recommend the private tour. It doesn’t cost much more than a normal tour for a family of four and you can spend more time talking with your guide. Megumi was fantastic. She was personable and very knowledgeable about the attractions in Kanazawa. Would highly recommend.

The tour was very interesting. 3 very intense hours in which we visited the 2 gardens of Kanazawa , the castle and the Samurai quarter by entering two dwellings. The guide was helpful and kind , doing his best to make us understand the history and culture of Kanazawa. I highly recommend this walking tour, you get into the life and customs of the city. Finally, he recommended a restaurant or place frequented only by locals. Excellent and inexpensive. They do not speak English , but we get by.

Rimiko took me to some of the best sights of Kanazawa. The large amounts of information and history she shared with me were quite valuable to help take in all the sites around town. I would 100% recommend this tour. it was nice as well that the tour was focussed on my interest, so getting to eat local snacks was for sure a highlight. ❤️ oh and she made my wish of seeing one of the last remaining Sakura’s come true!

Rimiko took me to some of the best sights of Kanazawa. The large amounts of information and history she shared with me were quite valuable to help take in all the sites around town. I would 100% recommend this tour. it was nice as well that the tour was focussed on my interest, so getting to eat local snacks was for sure a highlight. Oh and she made my wish of seeing one of the last remaining Sakura's come true!

Rimiko took me to some of the best sights of Kanazawa. The large amounts of information and history she shared with me were quite valuable to help take in all the sites around town. I would 100% recommend this tour. it was nice as well that the tour was focussed on my interest, so getting to eat local snacks was for sure a highlight. Oh and she made my wish of seeing one of the last remaining Sakura's come true!

Best tour we have been on mainly because our tout guide "Mouri" went out of his way to make the day a good one. Although the weather was hot, we stopped several times to take refreshments or ice cream. The visit to the Samari home was interesting and the "Gardens" where spectacular.

Mouri was very friendly & knowledgeable & went out of his way to make the tour a great experience.

We had a great day with Mouri in Kanazawa. He was very knowledgeable, flexible with regards to our wishes and pleasant to talk to. Clear recommendation!

Mouri was the perfect guide for our family, and knowledgeable about the history of the local area. He very patient with the younger members of our group and sensitive to what my daughter and I were interested in. It was nice to meet him and great to spend the day with him.

We completed a full day walking tour of Kanazawa, with Harumi Hirano as our guide. She is highly proficient in English and has an excellent knowledge of the city and its history. Apart from that, she was able to provide us with valuable insights on Japanese culture and society. Her tour covered the usual Kanazawa attractions such as the Samurai and Geisha distrcts, Kenrokuen garden, Omicho market and the castle, along with several shrines. But what made her tour excellent was a stop at the Kanazawa Museum of Contemporary Art, to view several of the free exhibits. While there, we took in the Miniature Life exhibition. Overall, Harumi was attentive to what we wanted in our tour and she also suggested several excellent restaurants for lunch. We would highly recommend Harumi, if you are considering a tour of Kanazawa.

Harumi was a fantastic guide who provided a truly wonderful tour of Kanazawa’s historical areas. She was knowledgeable, friendly, and made the experience unforgettable. Highly recommended!

Harumi was a fantastic guide who provided a truly wonderful tour of Kanazawa's historical areas. She was knowledgeable, friendly, and made the experience unforgettable. Highly recommended!

We loved her personality. She had much knowlegde about the areas we visited and presented it in a very interesting way. Our best guide in Japan so far. Her english was excellent.

Lucy was very knowledgeable and made our tour of Kanazawa very pleasant. We would highly recommend this tour.

Lucy was great! We were a large group with a huge age range (5-79), and one person who couldn’t walk far distances. She worked very hard to find a place that would accommodate us all (the day after Christmas no less!) but that would also us to try the local cuisine. Although we were not able to do the traditional food walking tour- we nonetheless had a wonderful time and got to experience local Kanazawan foods.

It was a wonderful tour. Our Tourguide (Lucy) was very Knowledgeable and made sure that the experience was designed for us. We loves it

Our tour guide made contact on What’s App as soon as we booked to arrange to meet and set our itinerary. I had to rearrange and she was very flexible . Our tour was interesting-our guide was knowledgeable and charming and we really enjoyed our tour. I would highly recommend !

Saki showed us her city and create an amazing experience for the whole family. Our kids really enjoyed the experience as well. She even made bookings and arranged a cab company to continue our trip. She clearly exceeded our expectations. Thank you !

Saki was just great to be around. It felt like a tour with a friend - and also she managed to integrate all our spontaneous ideas. We were grateful, that Saki was our guide!

We had a fantastic day with Saki, who gave us a wealth of insight into Kanazawa and Japanese history. She was very friendly and accommodating, and she catered to our requests (we clarified our interests beforehand via a short survey and also directly with Saki via WhatsApp). She also introduced us to the Japanese language, and we went out for sushi together at our request—now we know how it's done! :) We would book a tour through this provider again.

We loved our experience, definitely we would love to take another tour with Saki.

Despite heavy rain, Yukari showed us a few hidden gems away from the crowds. She was flexible, adapting to the weather. My wife and I had a great time. She spoke perfect English and provided great communication before our tour, even making sure we made bus reservations ahead of time when she found out we wanted to go to Shirakawa Go. We were thankful for her tip as we snagged one the last reservations.

Yukari is a responsible guide , friendly n helpful , explain every sightseeing spots' information in detail n patiently , worth to join the tour .

Yukari is a responsible guide , she showed on time , friendly n helpful , even something not her duty . She told detail of every sightseeing spots , I can know more about the history , today is a wonderful experience to explore Kanazawa .

Yukari was awesome. She listened right off to understand exactly what interested me. As a result the 3 hours exceeded my expectation and went far too quickly. To me ‘unscripted’ means just that! To be prepared to go where the interest is and as a result I had a completely unexpected opportunity that I would. Ever have experienced without the help and patience of Yukari. She was relatable and made for a genuinely surprising and memorable experience

Not boring at all! Very interesting. The explanation is very useful and compact. The hidden gems were wonderful!

We had an excellent experience with our guide Sho! He was so very friendly and worked with us to create an itinerary that matched what we wanted to see as well as our culinary interests, since we booked a tour over lunch. We particularly enjoyed sharing a meal with him, as he introduced us to yakiniku!

Sho was an amazing guide - he took a lot of great photos of us and showed us unique things about the sites we visited. Since he had background as an engineer, he made learning about the castle building really interesting!

Our guide Sho was very knowledgeable and thorough for our day. We saw many beautiful areas in Kanazawa even though it was rainy, windy and very cold. Our guide lifted our spirits and we had a great time.

Katie is an excellent guide. Her communication prior to the tour was very good, leaving no uncertainty regarding the initial meeting place and the tour’s itinerary. She is a very friendly person with warm personality, very knowledgeable and her English is excellent. For any tourist planning a walking tour in Kanazawa, I definitely recommend Katie as their guide.

We had a great day with Katie. She showed us the best places of Kanazawa. Her deep knowledge made our tour of Kenrokuen Garden and the city to something special. Katie is aware of the western mentality. Thats makes her tour fascinating. We learned a lot about the difference between Western and Japanese culture. Understanding Japanese mentality and culture makes our further trip in this wonderful country even more enjoyable.

Katie was delightful and gave us a choice of Kanazawa highlights to visit in our 4 hours. The Kenrokuen park was my favourite - incredibly beautiful. We saw a lot without rushing and Katie was very personable, great company and even ran over time in order to help me find her recommended instant dashi in a store.

Tour was tailored for us and went to where we wanted to go. Katie was a friendly guide thank you

Ike was amazing today she was a great host and ensured we were taken to places we may have missed ourselves. Great host thank you very much.

Iku was a wonderful guide from early communication in the lead up to the tour right through to our goodbyes at the end. Iku was knowledgeable and shared this with us in a very inclusive and warm manner. Iku tailored the tour around areas of personal interest to us and was very flexible and accommodating for any last minute alterations. Would highly Iku for anyone

Iku requested information from me in advance regarding my interests & what I hoped to experience in Kanazawa…then she planned our itinerary to combine my ideas with her own professional experience to create a fantastic day. This is her city & she knows every corner of it.

Iku is a wonderful guide…the best!!! She is knowledgeable, professional, and delights in sharing her home city with a guest. She has a great personality and fun sense of humor as well. I highly recommend her to anyone who wants to enjoy a special day in Kanazawa.

We had a terrific day in Kanazawa with our tour guide Karolina. She is from Poland and speaks excellent English and Japanese. This really helped in communicating with us, as well as, getting answers to our questions from the Japanese vendors and experience hosts. Since she also lives in Kanazawa, you could not tell that she was not Japanese because of her mannerisms, so the experience was very authentic. She could very clearly relate the history of the places we visited, but did not bore us by overly doing so. After answering a survey questionnaire, Karolina was able to develop a terrific itinerary for us that included a gold leaf experience, wagashi workshop, great place to eat lunch, and most of the recommended sites in Kanagawa. Although she kept us on schedule, we did not feel rushed at any spot. She responded to all of our pre-tour questions in a very professional and timely manner. Since it was supposed to rain on the day of our tour, she even carried 3 extra umbrellas with her! So if you plan to visit Kanazawa, book a tour with Karolina. It will be 8 hours well spent!

Karolina planned an excellent tour. She added value at every point.

Karolina B. is an EXCELLENT tour guide. I believe she works for CityUnscripted. Karolina is very knowledgeable about the places we visited and their history. She emailed us after we booked the tour date asking us about the preferred sites and attractions we wished to see. She kept in constant communication with us until the day of the tour. On the day of the tour, she arrived early and waited for us in the lobby. We had originally booked a half-day tour but ended up going over our half-day due to the list of sites we wanted to see and the time we spent at each. She never complained but planned the day around our needs. She is very personable and accommodating. We enjoyed our time with her and would highly recommend her to anyone booking this tour.

I would highly recommend her. Professional, yet still caring and welcoming to any questions I had

Amazing experience! I highly recommend this tour. My guide was very friendly and knowledgeable showing me sites and sharing information I wouldn’t have found on my own. She catered the tour based on my interests and adapted the activities throughout the day based off my needs.

Fumie was a great guide, she showed us the city from a different angle - less touristic, more local flavor which wax exactly what we were looking for.

Can’t say enough great things about my guide Fumir. She went out of her way to find my hotel and meet make our meet up easy breazy!! She took the time to incorporate my interest and show me things I never would have found. A zen garden, a modern water oasis, a cool vintage clothing store, a micro bar alley that was outrageously dope with an old American Jazz vibe, the National Craft Museum. She turned Kanazawa into the second best part of my trip. The other bring my stay at the world class Benesse Museum Hotel in the Seto Islands. Just stupendous!!!!