My name is HASHIZAKI Schingo (橋崎 晋吾), call me Schingo, that’s my given name.
I am a freelance English speaking tour guide working for international tourists for the past 8 years since 2015. I never gave up on being a tour guide despite the COVID pandemic. I’m a father of a 9 yo son and a husband of my lovely wife. We live in a mountainous region “Gokanosho“, a collection of 5 sparsely populated villages situated in the heart of the mountain range running through Kyushu.
I’ve guided in all the prefectures of Kyushu such as Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Oita, Kagoshima, Saga, Nagasaki and Fukuoka in Kyushu. And despite the pandemic that devastated all across the globe, here I stand still. I survived!
In 2019 alone, I guided 178 groups from 26 different countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, UK, France, Australia, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, the list goes on. And received no bad reviews from any of them on TripAdvisor and awarded with the following certificate.
Just FYI, below is my certificate for a National licensed English speaking tour guide issued by the Japan Tourism Agency which I got by passing all of the required 4-subject (English / Japan’s Geography / Japan’s History / Common knowledge [Politics / Economics / Industries / Culture, etc]) examination held only once a year.
I have lived in Kumamoto Prefecture for over 40 years in total since I was born. The more I learn about Kumamoto, the more I get to love Kumamoto. I am very proud that Kumamoto gives us Japan’s beautiful aspects such as mountains with full of trees, clean rivers, various agricultural products, historical sites, traditional events, tasty local foods, the ways of living which have been imparted from generation to generation since the ancient times, and so on. Should you visit Kumamoto and its surrounding places, and would like to have some really good experiences of Japan, just ask me before you go any further. I’d be pleased to give you some suitable advice on what you need and tour arrangement.