“I’m Happy When Visitors and Local People Connect” – Interview with Wakako Shoji, Hokkaido Adventure Travel Through Guide

As a tour guide for visitors from overseas, Wakako Shoji introduces tourists to the many faces of Hokkaido. From food-focused tours—her personal passion—to customized itineraries across the region, she designs and leads a wide variety of experiences. She spoke with us about what inspired her to become a guide, what she values most in her work, and how she sees the future of her profession.

A “Tube” Connecting Travelers and Locals

“I feel truly happy when I can step in and help visitors connect with local people. Watching them enjoy conversing and seeing smiles on both sides—that’s when I feel truly fulfilled,” says Wakako Shoji, a tour guide based in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, as she describes the most rewarding part of her work.

As a freelance guide, Shoji tailors each trip to her clients’ interests and needs. Some tours are short bar-hopping evenings that last a few hours, while others span an entire itinerary, with Shoji accompanying her clients throughout their travels. She also works as a guide at golf courses and ski resorts, often for affluent visitors seeking high-end experiences. Because every visitor is different, “hardly any two tours are the same,” she notes. Many of her clients return to Hokkaido to travel with her again.

Shoji is certified as a “through guide” under the Hokkaido Adventure Travel Guide Certification System launched in 2023. Through guides play a key coordinating role: they connect travelers with specialized activity guides, as well as with travel agencies.

Shoji describes her role with a simple image: “I’m like a tube.” When she brings groups to small, local businesses—such as breweries, distilleries, or craft workshops—she helps convey the owners’ stories, their dedication, and the passion behind their products. At the same time, she channels visitors’ questions, interests, and reactions back to the locals. For her, the most rewarding moments are when both sides genuinely connect and share smiles. That, she says, is when she feels she has truly fulfilled her role: becoming a living link between people who might otherwise never have met.

A Part-Time Job at a Convenience Store Changed Her Life

A seemingly ordinary part-time job turned out to be the turning point that led Shoji to her career as a tour guide.

After graduating from university in Hokkaido, Shoji first worked as a restaurant manager and then as a sales representative for a chocolate manufacturer. In 2013, she left her job and moved to Tokyo when her husband was transferred there for work. She took a part-time position at a convenience store, and that decision changed everything. At the store, she frequently interacted with customers from overseas who were struggling with everyday aspects of life in Japan.

“Foreign customers who weren’t familiar with Japan would come to me with questions,” Shoji recalls. “They’d ask how to sort and dispose of their garbage, or they’d bring in a delivery slip from a courier service and say, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?'”

These were small, mundane problems—but the impact wasn’t. “When I explained things to them, they were genuinely grateful,” she says. “Seeing their relief made me really happy. At the time, I was going through a phase where I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, so I remember feeling this pure joy and thinking, ‘Maybe I can actually be useful to someone.'”

That experience at the convenience store inspired her to return to studying English. It wasn’t an easy decision: she had once felt defeated by the language. Although she had majored in English at university, many of her classmates were more advanced, and she remembers her confidence “snapping.”

Still, she decided to try again. Building on the foundation she had gained at university, Shoji began studying seriously with one clear goal: to become a licensed guide. In 2019, she passed the exam to become a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter in English—a well-regarded qualification in Japan that allows guides to travel with and interpret for foreign visitors. She went on to work as a tour guide for a U.S. travel company, leading trips across Japan. In 2022, she decided to return to her hometown in Hokkaido, where she is now based as a local guide.

What Matters More Than Language for a Guide

Shoji’s work as a guide did not go smoothly at first. Even after earning her tour guide license, she often struggled once she was out in the field with clients.

“In the early days, there were times when clients spoke to me in rapid-fire English and I thought, “This is bad. … I have no idea what they’re saying,'” she recalls. “Sometimes they even told me, ‘I can’t understand your English,’ and that really got me down.” Instead of giving up, she used these frustrations as motivation. “I turned them into a springboard to work harder. I’ve studied far more since I started working as a guide than I did when I was preparing for the interpreter qualification,” she says.

Shoji still considers herself “very much a student of English,” but over time she has realized that language skill alone does not define a good guide.

“I’ve come to feel that even if you speak perfect English, clients won’t necessarily be satisfied. In a way, I guess that’s just me making my peace with it,” she says with a little laugh. “For many of them, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. To create truly enjoyable memories together, what matters more than flawless language is being able to suggest experiences that are tailored to each client, inspiring, and conducive to genuine human connections.”

Shoji attends the Adventure Travel World Summit 2025 in Chile. (Courtesy of Wakako Shoji)

A Bar-Hopping Tour Led by a Guide Who Loves a Good Drink

For most guides, the work begins long before they meet their clients. They visit each spot in advance, checking the walking routes, the locations of parking spaces and restrooms, and any potential bottlenecks. They plan what to talk about and when, weaving those pieces into an overall narrative for the tour. But simply following a script does not make for a memorable experience, Shoji says.

“Sometimes I don’t talk at all about what I originally planned to,” she explains. “For example, some visitors are really interested in Ainu history, while others aren’t. I’ll ‘throw the ball’ once—mention it briefly—and if they respond well, I’ll go deeper. But if they’re clearly absorbed in something else, I’ll hold back and try again later, when they seem ready for a change of topic. I’m always ready to adapt to how they react.”

Shoji previously worked in the restaurant and food industry, so cuisine is her specialty. Alcohol—something she personally enjoys—naturally became a theme for many of her tours, even back when she was based in Tokyo. Today, one of her signature offerings is a bar-hopping tour in Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, that takes visitors to several local “izakaya”—no-frills eateries—and bars. It’s especially popular with international travelers. The evening starts at a bar she has chosen in advance, then continues to a series of her personal favorites.

A scene from the bar-hopping tour (Courtesy of Wakako Shoji)

The tour is open to both individuals and groups, but it tends to attract solo travelers and small parties. That’s when a guide’s conversational skills really matter. So how does Shoji steer the conversation?

“We’re not moving around sightseeing spots; we’re basically staying in an izakaya the whole time,” she says. “That means I have to keep the conversation fun. I often encourage clients to talk about themselves—their children, their homes and gardens, anything.”

“I also feel that visitors from overseas often want to hear about me as a person. So when I explain Hokkaido or Japan, I don’t just give them the facts. I talk about things through my own experiences.”

Eager to Share the Flavors of Hokkaido

Shoji, who is involved in many kinds of tours across Hokkaido, says that no matter what type of trip she designs, there is one thing she always keeps in mind: a sense of “adventure” that gently nudges clients out of their comfort zones in order to better entertain them.

“Stepping out of where you feel comfortable and pushing yourself just a little—that’s what I think adventure is,” she explains. “It doesn’t have to mean something physically demanding. It could be walking into a tiny basement bar in a building a foreign visitor would never enter on their own, or trying a dish that makes them say, ‘Wait, what is this?'”

Some of the foods she introduces can be surprising to visitors. Dishes that are normal for locals—like hot potatoes topped with shiokara (fermented, salted squid innards) or grilled bone-in komai (saffron cod)—often require a bit of courage for first-timers. “For us, they’re just everyday dishes,” Shoji says. “But for visitors, they can feel like a small leap into the unknown. I’m always thinking about how to weave these little adventures into my tours.”

Shoji believes that food—an easy, accessible form of adventure—has huge potential in Hokkaido’s adventure travel scene. From her perspective as a guide, the region’s future in tourism is closely tied to what is on the table.

“In Hokkaido, where we’re blessed with such rich natural surroundings, the food is incredibly good,” she says. “You’re never far from the primary industries that sustain it—agriculture, dairy farming and fishing. Looking ahead, I want to design relaxed, slow-paced trips around Hokkaido that connect travelers with these industries and with the food itself, ideally through hands-on experiences. To make that possible, I also want to keep refining my own skills as a guide.”

Asked what she finds most rewarding about guiding international visitors, Shoji does not hesitate.

“I’ve never lived overseas, so it’s really exciting to learn about different cultures and histories directly from people who come from all over the world,” she says. “In a way, you could say I work as a guide so that I can keep learning myself.”

For Shoji, the time she spends with travelers is not just about leading others to adventure. It is, quietly and continuously, an adventure of her own.

Profile of Wakako Shoji

Wakako Shoji is a certified “through guide” under the Hokkaido Adventure Travel Guide Certification System and a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter (English).

Born in Hidaka, Hokkaido, she now lives in Eniwa. After graduating from university, Shoji worked as a restaurant manager and as a sales representative for a food manufacturer. She obtained her National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter certificate in 2019. Following experience as a Tokyo-based guide for a U.S. travel company, she returned to her hometown and has been working as a guide in Hokkaido since 2022.

Shoji’s work as a guide is wide-ranging, from bar-hopping tours to working at golf courses and ski resorts, as well as organizing private luxury tours. As someone who enjoys a tipple, she is especially fond of beer, sake and whisky.

Interviewed by Jiji Press Ltd