What GuideTunes strives for
The “I don’t quite get it” of travel,
turned into “now I understand, and I feel it.”
Every place holds a story you can’t see at a glance
Every place you travel to holds a story you can’t notice simply by being there.
Why was the building in front of you built where it stands? What history did this town live through to become what it is today? How was a dish born, and how did local people come to love it?
You can enjoy the view and the food without knowing any of this. But once you know the meaning held within a place, what is right in front of you begins to look a little different than before.
What GuideTunes strives for is not simply to convey information. It is to take the feeling you have while traveling—
“Amazing—but I don’t really get it”—
and turn it into the discovery of “I see—so that’s what makes this place interesting.”
Look at the view in front of you, not at a screen.
To learn more about a place, you usually have to read signboards or search on your smartphone. But while you’re reading text, your eyes leave the building, the streets, and the food in front of you. You’ve come all this way, yet you keep looking at a screen instead of the place itself. GuideTunes wants to change that kind of travel time.
By listening to the story through your ears, you can learn the background of a place while keeping your eyes on the view in front of you.
Not a service for looking at your smartphone, but a service for taking your eyes off it. That is the audio guide GuideTunes strives to be.
A quiet temple in the morning
A walk through town by day
The city at night, lit up
Travel at your own pace, not on someone else’s schedule
Guided tours have a real appeal: they let you learn a place in depth. At the same time, they come with meeting times and fixed routes, and the languages you can join in are limited. Even if you want to linger at a place that intrigues you, you may have to move on. Conversely, even at a place that doesn’t interest you, you have to keep to the group’s itinerary.
With GuideTunes, there is no set start time and no meeting point.
Stop when you want to stop; move on freely when you want to move on. We strive for an experience where travelers themselves decide how their travel time unfolds.
Turn not just the sights, but all of travel, into an experience
The appeal of travel does not lie in famous sights alone.
Even a place that seems to hold nothing at first glance has a history and culture all its own. Alongside sights like temples, shrines, and architecture, GuideTunes also introduces food culture—ramen, sushi, tempura—as well as how towns came to be, and the everyday customs of Japan.
Listen to how a dish was born while you eat it. Learn what once stood in a place while you walk through it. We strive to turn all of travel—including getting around and eating—into time full of discovery.
Don’t let language differences become a wall in travel
People around the world speak many different languages. Yet the information prepared at tourist sites is often limited to just a few of them. Only those who understand English get the detailed information. And because a particular language isn’t supported, some people have to give up on getting to know a place deeply.
GuideTunes wants to change, little by little, the situation where the travel experience differs by language. Travelers should be able to learn a region’s history and culture in the language they understand best—to listen not to a literal translation, but to words that carry the cultural background as well. We strive for an environment where visitors from any country can enjoy a place in the same way.
First from Japan, one day to the world
GuideTunes began as an audio guide for travelers visiting Japan. Japan is full of long-standing buildings and towns, a food culture that developed in its own way, and customs that feel obvious to locals yet puzzling to travelers. One by one, we’re turning these into content you can understand by listening.
And in time, we want to expand beyond Japan—to sights, towns, and food cultures all over the world.
From travel you only look at, to travel you listen to and feel.
GuideTunes is not a service that hands you the “right answer” of travel. It is a service that uses audio as a starting point, so you grow curious about the scenery and culture in front of you and feel it in your own way.
Not just to gain knowledge, but to come to like a place a little more. To feel a country and its culture a little closer than before. To keep the stories you learned in your heart even after the trip ends. We want to add these experiences, one by one.
From travel you only look at, to travel you listen to and feel. That is the shape of travel GuideTunes strives for.
What your tip makes possible
Your tips go toward content research and production, translation, audio production, system development, and running the service.
Help us shape the future of travel.
GuideTunes has only just begun. We’ll keep adding new places and languages, and grow it into an audio guide that’s ever more natural and easy to listen to. If you’d like, an optional tip helps us build the next guide — and for even more, there’s GuideTunes Supporter, our monthly membership.