Roavi · Tokyo
Become a Local Friend in Tokyo
Create your Local Friend profile, share the places and experiences you enjoy, and connect with travelers visiting your city.
Free to create. You choose when and who you meet.
Roavi · Tokyo
Become a Local Friend in Tokyo
Create your Local Friend profile, share the places and experiences you enjoy, and connect with travelers visiting your city.
Free to create. You choose when and who you meet.
No commission · keep 100%
You set your rate
Free to publish
Locals are already sharing these cities with travelers. Yours can be next.
Bangkok, Medellín, Mexico City, São Paulo, Bali, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Santo Domingo, Tokyo, Lisbon, Ho Chi Minh City
Not a tour
This is not about memorizing a tour.
It is about sharing the version of your city that only you know.
Morning
Coffee, markets, your neighborhood.
The stop you make without thinking, the market that isn’t in any guide.
Afternoon
Food, culture, the hidden places.
The alley with no sign. The place you’d only find if someone showed you.
Evening
Music, nightlife, conversation.
By night, you’re not a guide — you’re just a friend showing someone around.
Your rate × your schedule
What locals actually charge.
You set your own rate. Payment happens directly between you and the traveler — Roavi never touches it. Here's what real Local Friends are asking on the platform today.
Your hourly rate
Hours a week
A month, roughly
$1,386
yours to keep · 0% commission
An example, not a promise. You're paid directly by the traveller; Roavi never touches the money.
You already know more than you think.
You know where to eat, where to walk, what to avoid, when to arrive, and where the city feels most alive. That local knowledge is what travelers are looking for.
Share what you love, on your own terms.
Roavi helps people discover and message one another. It does not create a booking or force either person to meet.
- Choose your availability
- Set your own rate
- Decide who you respond to
- Choose where to meet
- Say no to anyone, anytime
- Pause or edit your profile anytime
A few minutes
Four steps. A few minutes.
Set up your profile today. Start hearing from travelers.
- 1
Create your profile
Add your name, photo, city, and a short introduction.
- 2
Add your local interests and availability
Choose the food, culture, nightlife, or experiences you enjoy — and when you’re free.
- 3
Publish your profile in the Roavi directory
Your profile becomes visible to travelers — free, right away.
- 4
Receive and respond to traveler messages
Interested travelers message you directly. You decide who to respond to.
Build more trust with optional identity verification
Verification is completed through Stripe Identity. Once approved, a verified status appears on your profile — addable anytime from your dashboard.
Your profile, directory visibility, and messaging remain free without verification.
Verified identity status
A trust signal on your profile that helps travelers feel confident reaching out.
Profile performance insights
See how your profile views trend over time from your dashboard.
What someone who lives in Tokyo can open up
Tokyo is the easiest major city in the world to arrive in and one of the hardest to actually get into. The trains run to the second and the signage is in English, and none of that helps with the eight-seat place down an alley with no English menu, no online booking a visitor can use, and often no sign on the street. Most visitors do Shibuya Crossing and Sensō-ji and go home thinking that was Tokyo.
What you can show
- 1
Yokochō alleys — Golden Gai, Omoide Yokochō, Nonbei Yokochō in Shibuya. Sitting at an eight-seat counter next to the regulars is not something a visitor finds on their own.
- 2
Standing bars and kakuuchi: a drink shoulder to shoulder with people on their way home from work. The most ordinary thing in Tokyo and the furthest from reach.
- 3
Depachika food halls, a neighbourhood sentō, the Jimbōchō secondhand bookshops, Shimokitazawa vintage. Places that are an extension of living here, not attractions.
- 4
Transfers, ticket machines, ordering. Half of what people actually need is this kind of help, and it is worth more than commentary.
One practical thing to sort out before you start: if you are in Japan on a student or dependent visa, earning income requires permission to engage in an activity outside your status of residence, and that permission caps you at 28 hours a week. Most work visas and the Working Holiday visa are fine. Check your own status rather than assuming — it is a quick thing to confirm and an expensive thing to get wrong.
Travelers are looking for locals in Tokyo
Be one of the first Local Friends they meet. Build your profile today and get discovered by travelers heading to Tokyo.
See the Tokyo pageWorth reading first
Good to know before you begin
A few honest answers, so there are no surprises.
No. The Interpreter Guide Act was amended effective 4 January 2018 and the exclusive-practice rule was abolished, so you can be paid to show foreign visitors around without the national qualification. What you cannot do is call yourself a 'National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter' without holding it. One separate limit: driving people for a fee is a different regulated activity requiring a Class 2 licence and permission — guiding and driving are not the same thing.
Usually not. A large share of visitors to Japan are not native English speakers either — from Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, France, Spain — so slow, simple English often communicates better than fluent English. You need enough to arrange a meeting point and answer straightforward questions. Plenty of people use a translation app alongside.
Yes. Creating and publishing your Local Friend profile is completely free — there’s no cost to appear in the directory or receive messages.
No — and that is the point. A Local Friend is not a tour guide: you spend time with someone as yourself, you do not run a tour. Professional guiding is a licensed profession in a number of countries; spending an afternoon with someone is not. And if you do hold a guiding licence, put it on your profile — travellers look for it.
Yes. You set your own hourly rate, and you can change it anytime from your profile.
No. Roavi doesn’t process payments or take a commission on what you arrange with a traveler.
No. You decide who you respond to, and you can say no to anyone, for any reason.
No. Verification is optional. It’s completed through Stripe Identity and adds a verified status to your profile, but your profile, visibility, and messaging stay free either way.
Travelers message you directly through Roavi once they find your profile in the directory. You choose whether and how to reply.
Yes. You can pause your visibility or delete your profile at any time from your account settings.
Your city is already part of your story. Share it.
Travelers are already looking for someone like you.
No commission. No required schedule. You stay in control.