Meet Your Nara Tour Guides

Eshi – Founder, Tours 2 Nara

Some people discover their calling late in life. Eshi found his before he could read a map.
Born and raised in a small border town nestled between Osaka and Nara, Eshi grew up with Nara practically in his backyard. Weekend after weekend, his family would make the short journey to Nara Park — not as tourists, but as locals who genuinely belonged there. While other children chased each other around the playground, young Eshi was bowing at deer, wandering the stone lantern paths of Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and gazing up in quiet awe at the Great Buddha inside Todaiji Temple. These weren't field trips. They were just Saturdays.
While most kids his age were asking for video games and toys, Eshi was requesting travel guidebooks for his birthday. He devoured them. By his teenage years he was already designing detailed travel itineraries for anyone in his circle who was planning a trip. Friends and family quickly learned: if you're going somewhere, ask Eshi first.

A Career Built on Authentic Travel

That childhood obsession became a lifelong profession. Over the past 24 years, Eshi has worked across the travel industry, journeying to destinations on nearly every continent. But no matter where he traveled, one thing always stood out: the best experiences never came from a generic group tour. They came from a local. Someone who knew the stories behind the shrine, not just the dates. Someone who made you feel like a guest, not a tourist.
That insight became the foundation of Tours 2 Nara.

Bringing Nara to the World — and the World to Nara

Fluent in both English and Japanese, Eshi founded Tours 2 Nara to give international travelers the kind of Nara day trip from Osaka that goes beyond the surface — beyond the souvenir shops, beyond the highlight reel. You'll experience Nara Deer Park, Todaiji Temple, and Kasuga Taisha Shrine the way they deserve to be experienced: unhurried, informed, and deeply felt. And you'll go further — into the hidden corners, forgotten temples, and untold stories that most visitors on a standard Nara Park tour never find.
Small group tours mean you're never just a face in a crowd. You can ask questions, linger where you feel moved, and actually connect — with your guide, with the culture, and with a city that has been quietly extraordinary for over 1,300 years.
Nara has that power. Eshi has spent a lifetime making sure visitors get to feel it.

Claudio Bochatay (Kura) – Founding Member, Tours 2 Nara

Not everyone who falls in love with Japan was born there. Sometimes, the deepest devotion comes from someone who chose Japan deliberately, intentionally, and with their whole heart.

Claudio is that person.

Born in Entre Ríos, Argentina, Claudio's journey to Japan wasn't a gap year adventure or a spontaneous experiment. Before he ever committed to making Japan his home, he visited the country eight times. Eight trips to test the feeling, confirm the pull, and make certain that what he felt wasn't just fascination — it was something permanent. When he finally moved, it was the natural conclusion of a lifelong love story. Long before that first visit, Japan had already taken up residence in his imagination — through its literature, its language, its quietly profound way of seeing the world. His home today tells that same story: shelves lined wall to wall with Japanese books, each one a small piece of the culture he has spent decades studying and loving.

When he finally settled in Japan, it wasn't long before one city captured him completely. Nara.

A Trilingual Cultural Bridge Between Argentina, Japan, and the World

What makes Claudio genuinely rare — both as a person and as a guide — is the combination of perspectives he carries. Fluent in Japanese, Spanish, and English, he moves effortlessly between three languages and the very different cultural worlds they represent. For Spanish-speaking travelers planning a guided tour in Nara, this is particularly meaningful. Finding a guide who can deliver the nuance of 1,300-year-old Japanese history in natural, flowing Spanish — not translated from a script, but felt and understood from the inside — is almost unheard of.

Claudio doesn't just translate words. He translates worlds.

Over the years he has worked with a wide range of Japanese companies and organizations, representing Japanese history and culture at conventions and international festivals around the world. That global experience comes home every time he leads a walking tour through the streets and shrines of Nara.

From the Pages of Japanese Literature to the Paths of Nara Park

There is a particular kind of knowledge that only comes from genuine love — not from memorized facts, but from someone who has read the literature, walked the ground, and spent years asking questions most visitors never think to ask.

That is what Claudio brings to every Nara day trip he guides. When you walk with him past the stone lanterns of Kasuga Taisha Shrine or stand before the Great Buddha at Todaiji Temple, he gives you the context that makes it land — the mythology, the history, the deeply human stories behind one of Japan's most ancient cities. And when he takes you off the main path, away from the crowds and into the quieter corners that most visitors on a standard Nara Park tour never reach, that's when you understand what separates a Tours 2 Nara experience from everything else.

Guided Tours in Nara in Spanish, English, and Japanese

Tours 2 Nara is one of the very few operators in Nara offering fully guided walking tours in Spanish. For Spanish-speaking travelers from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and beyond, Claudio makes that possible — not through translation, but through genuine fluency and cultural empathy. He came to Japan from the Spanish-speaking world himself, so he understands instinctively what international travelers find surprising, moving, or magnificent about Japanese culture. That shared journey makes him not just a great guide, but an unforgettable one.

Small group sizes keep every tour intimate — room for real questions, genuine curiosity, and the kind of slow, meaningful travel that turns a good day trip into a memory you'll carry for years.

Just Nara, the way it deserves to be experienced.

Do you want to know more about Claudio? Check out this blog article about him!
He is also featured in the media in his country. Check this newspaper article in spanish.

Company Name
会社名

KimitoNara Travel, Co., Ltd.
株式会社きみとならトラベル

Headquarter
本社所在地

2448-1 Haibarahagihara, Room 307, Uda, Nara, 633-0253, Japan.
〒６３３-０２５３奈良県宇陀市榛原萩原２４４８―１、３０７号室

Founded
設立年月日

November 7, 2025
２０２５年１１月７日

CEO
代表者名

Etsushi Shimano
島野 悦史

Capital
資本金

9 million yen
９００万円