What To Expect

What‘s Included

Reviews

• Excellent photographer

  SeaCentaur,Mar 30, 2026

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Kei was very helpful in getting us the best pictures even with crowds - obviously the earlier time would be better.

• 200/10!

  seansC9689AY,Mar 29, 2026

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Kei is so comfortable and genuine the entire day felt like hanging out with a friend! My husband and I didn’t have a specific spot in mind, and Kei took us to some incredible spots including the bamboo forest! He took his time explaining the significance of each spot, and the camera equipment. Kei gave us the option of film, which we enthusiastically agreed to! Kei used multiple different cameras with skill (showing us the shots and confirming that is what we wanted). This was overall a wonderful experience and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone in the Kyoto area! Kei, if you ever find yourself in Denver, CO I hope you’ll find us! Thank you for everything!

  

• The best trip in Kyoto

  xwmss82c5b,Mar 20, 2026

  - Review from Viator

  5.00

  I booked a private Kyoto tour with a guide and photographer, and it turned out to be one of the best travel experiences I’ve ever had. I feel like hang out with a friend again. From the moment we started, everything felt personalized and stress-free. Our guide planned the itinerary around what we wanted to see, while also suggesting hidden spots we would never have found on our own. Kai is not just a tour guide is the best photographer in the area. He took us to many hidden spots and temples for all the wonderful pictures. We love love love the pictures so much feel like we take other pre wedding photo again. You won’t regret by booking this tour. It will best memories for this trip. We will contact Kai again if we have friends or families come to Kyoto. Also he has the best recommendation to local food and other stuff. He is amazing! Thanks Kai for the wonderful pictures and memories.

• Great photos! Great tour!

  Amanda C,Jan 9, 2026

  - Review from Viator

  5.00

  Kei was our wonderful tour guide. He met us right at our hotel and took us around Kyoto on one of the busiest days of the year- New Year’s Day. He was patient with our kids, flexible, a skilled photographer and shared a lot about Kyoto. He totally catered the day to what we wanted to see, but also had great recommendations. We had a great time! The photos were great and the tour was great. Even just one of those would have been worth the price. Highly recommend!

• Highly recommend

  Priyam P,Nov 4, 2025

  - Review from Viator

  5.00

  We had an amazing tour in Kyoto with Kai! He was incredibly thoughtful and customized the day perfectly to what our family wanted to see and do. Kai was so kind and patient with my son, making the experience fun and relaxing for everyone. He also took beautiful photos and knew all the best spots around Kyoto — thanks to him, we have wonderful memories and pictures to look back on. Highly recommend Kai to anyone visiting Kyoto!

• Best Kyoto Experience Ever: Private Photo Tour + Hidden Spots + Amazing Guide

  751lindele,Oct 31, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  I can't express enough how glad I am I booked this tour!! I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, as it is new and no other photo tours are like it, but it ended up being one of the highlights of our whole trip! Having Kei as our guide was like hiring a good friend to show you the best parts of Kyoto while snapping professional photos whenever you want, the ENTIRE time (which was the full 6 hours listed; I wasn't sure if that was a mistake because other photographers seem to offer concentrated blocks of 2 hours). Kyoto is very densely populated with tourists these days, and honestly? I would not have seen the charm of it without Kei's help. You will download WhatsApp to communicate effectively with most tour guides in Japan. I messaged him the day before to let him know what time I wanted to start, and he let me know where to meet him at the station. I gave him a loose idea of what we wanted from the tour, which was couples' photos for our anniversary. On the day of, he sent us photos of where he was located and a description of what he was wearing. We had a little trouble finding it, so we sent him a pic of ourselves and where we were, and he was able to find us there instead. We traveled by train and walked everywhere, and it was really nice to have a small break from navigating by ourselves. You are able to choose the locations you'd like to go to if you want to direct your day yourself, but we let Kei know that we were more interested in where he thought we should go. He asked where we had already been, so we could go to new locations. We ended up visiting Kiyomizu-dera temple (where he taught us how to pray correctly), Yasaka Kōshin-dō temple, the beautiful surrounding neighborhoods here (Ninenzaka), Kennin-ji temple, the Kamo River, a lot of shopping that matched our interests (including Kyoto's really cool Nintendo shop), and a local archery range. We never had to double back over an area we had already covered, so it felt very smooth and efficient. A lot of the activities were ones we never would have found or thought to try on our own, and the route was always the least crowded and most scenic view possible. The bow-and-arrow shooting was especially fun! If there is a fee for an activity or location (with the exception of any train costs), you will need to pay for him as well. Most fees for temples and activities are very reasonable, and you could always choose things that are free to visit. He asked us to let him know when we were hungry and what we wanted to eat, so he also coordinated lunch for us that we really enjoyed at a Sushiro location. We asked him to eat with us and covered his lunch, which ended up being really affordable. I really want to mention that he offered to order a really light and cheap lunch to be considerate of our costs, which I thought was so kind (we were enjoying his company so much that we invited him to order whatever he wanted and it STILL ended up being an extremely reasonable cost)! As the tour came to a close, he made sure to get us back to the station in a place where we would comfortably be able to navigate ourselves home. Keep WhatsApp handy after the tour is over, as he will provide ALL photos and videos taken via a Google Drive link after a couple days. He offered to share RAWs with me if I wanted. We both preferred a minimal editing style, so if you prefer heavily edited photos, you might want to ask ahead of time if it is possible. I got my photos back extremely quickly. Kei is extremely professional and personable. He brought a few different lenses and asked what our preferences were for the style of photos. He was never an imposition on other tourists or locals, never took too long in one spot or made anyone else move to accommodate us; instead, he was able to respectfully work around others to get the shots we wanted. He gave us a little direction on possible poses to try, but he won't really direct you much on how to pose. If you want a lot of variety in poses, you might want to brush up on the poses you want in order to get the most out of your shots. Despite being awkward in front of a camera, we still managed to get many beautiful shots! He has a public Instagram you can peep to get an idea for the quality of his work and if it matches your vibe. He spoke with us like we were friends and gave us a lot of insight into the social norms and culture of Japan. He also gave us recommendations for other stores and food chains we would like and find easily on the rest of our trip and those places ended up being big hits with us! This was probably the best tour we had on our whole trip and made such an impact on us. We can't thank him enough for such a memorable day!