Custom Trips
What you get
You travel on your own schedule, without a guide beside you, but with the groundwork done by someone who knows Japan from the inside.
A written itinerary for every day of your trip, with timings, travel between places and the reasons behind each choice.
Studio visits, experiences, guides and drivers, confirmed before you fly. You approve each one first.
Restaurant picks for every neighbourhood you stay in, from counter seats to the place locals queue for at lunch.
Trains delayed, plans changed, a question at a ticket gate. One message reaches someone who knows your plan.
Two ways to travel with a guide
Most guests start with a day tour or two. Others keep a guide with them from arrival to departure. You can change your mind as the plan takes shape.
Day Tours
A full or half day with a private guide in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa or Kamakura.
Multi-day Journeys
Your guide travels with you from city to city and handles the trains, the check-ins and every conversation along the way.
Sample journeys
These are routes past guests have enjoyed. We rewrite them for every trip, and you decide whether a guide comes along for all of it, some of it or none of it.
Sample journey 01
Day one in the old craft districts of Asakusa and Kuramae. Day two at a sumo stable and a woodblock studio. Day three is yours to shape: a sunrise run around the Imperial Palace, a night game at Jingu, or a slow morning in a Bunkyo garden.
Sample journey 02
Temples early, before the crowds arrive. A full day in the Wazuka tea fields with a family of growers. A kaiseki dinner, and a morning with a Kyoto textile dyer.
Sample journey 03
Gold leaf and lacquer workshops in Kanazawa, then the mountain town of Takayama for sake breweries, morning markets and a night in a family-run ryokan.
How it works
You don't need to know what you want yet. Most plans start with a date range and a few interests. We fill in the rest with places we know well and people we trust.
Dates, cities you have in mind, who is coming, and anything you already know you want to do.
A written itinerary, day by day, with the reasons behind each choice and the costs laid out clearly.
Swap days, add a studio visit, slow things down. We adjust until it reads like your trip.
Everything is booked in your name. While you travel, one message reaches someone who knows your plan.
What a plan looks like
A page from a real style of plan. Every day reads like this: what, when, how to get there, and why it is worth your time.
See experiences we plan aroundThe 5 km loop around the moats, before the city wakes up. Your hotel is a ten-minute walk away.
A private two-hour session with the sixth generation. Take the Yurakucho Line to Edogawabashi.
Two counters we like on the stone lanes nearby, with a table reserved in your name.
Seats on the first-base side, bento picked up on the way in, and notes on the cheer songs.
What is included
Begin here
A few lines about who is coming and what you are curious about is enough to start.
Sample journey 01 · Day by day
Three days in the Tokyo most visitors walk past: the workshops of the old east side, a sumo stable at dawn and a printing studio that has been cutting woodblocks for six generations.
Day 1
Asakusa and Kuramae
The trip starts in the low-rise streets east of the centre, where Tokyo still makes things.
Day 2
Ryogoku and Bunkyo
A morning ringside at a sumo stable, then an afternoon at the workbench.
Day 3
Tokyo
The last day follows whatever caught your interest. Pick one, or mix them.
Sample journey 02 · Day by day
Five days in Kyoto at an easier pace: temples before the crowds, a day in the tea fields of Wazuka, and time with the people who still dye, grow and cook the old way.
Day 1
Kyoto
Settle into your hotel, then head out as the light starts to fade.
Day 2
Eastern and southern Kyoto
Set out early, when the paths are empty and the light is soft.
Day 3
Wazuka
An hour south of the city, a family of growers walks you through their terraced fields.
Day 4
Central Kyoto
A morning with a Kyoto textile dyer, then the city’s kitchen.
Day 5
Arashiyama or the Philosopher’s Path
An unhurried morning before you move on.
Sample journey 03 · Day by day
Six days on the Japan Sea side and up into the mountains: gold leaf and lacquer in Kanazawa, then the old town of Takayama for sake, morning markets and a night in a family-run ryokan.
Day 1
Kanazawa
The Hokuriku shinkansen brings you from Tokyo in about two and a half hours.
Day 2
Kanazawa
The city makes almost all of Japan’s gold leaf. You see it beaten and applied.
Day 3
Kanazawa
A day in the old city at walking pace.
Day 4
Shirakawa-go and Takayama
A private car takes you up into the Hida mountains.
Day 5
Takayama
Takayama is at its best early, when the market stalls open along the river.
Day 6
Hida-Furukawa
A last quiet morning before the journey back.