Being an active part of the Google Local Guide program as a long-time American resident in Japan has helped me focus on bridging gaps. There are linguistic gaps I can help with when there is more detailed information only in Japanese that I can help explain in English, but there are also local insights and stories that I can add to help enhance the visitor experience. I love retelling interesting stories of culture, heritage, and inspiration which I have heard from locals and visitors over the years. At this beautiful bridge in Kintaikyo for example, there is a popular local festival where people wear traditional costumes as they did 200 years ago when they parade across this classic bridge. But many visitors may not realize that it is also a popular location to eat wacky flavors of ice-cream (like wasabi) or eat noodles cooked on hot roof tiles. This is a fun part of being a local guide to share these stories as well as local insights.
I also enjoy adding insights from my research and academic studies on how businesses, services, and destinations in Japan are succeeding in promoting sustainability- balancing the needs of people and the planet. Quite often places don’t realize that sustainability is an increasingly attractive point of appeal as it’s just naturally what they have always done to run operations in an efficient way. 2019 data claims there are over 70% of international customers looking for sustainable options when traveling, so this is an increasingly important aspect to highlight in Google map reviews as local guides.
I truly enjoy my role as a local guide to act as a bridge to help users navigate the gaps of language, culture, and local know-how. As time goes on and I collect more stories and insights, I’m able to reach farther across the gaps.
