About us

We grew up in Japan, left, and came back to share the parts most visitors miss.

Tokoro Travel is run by two siblings who know this beautiful country inside and out. We bring you the perfect blend of local insider secrets and a welcoming global perspective.

A quiet street of traditional wooden houses in Japan

Our story

Half American, half Japanese, at home in both

We are siblings with one American parent and one Japanese parent.

After many years spent living in countries like Singapore, the U.S., and Poland, we always felt drawn back to our home, Japan. Not just because we grew up there, but because of the handmade dango shop in our neighborhood, the 100-year-old obaachan at our parents' favorite udon shop, and the tea fields we drove through every day.

Every time we came back, friends visiting from abroad asked us to show them around. The places they talked about afterwards were never the famous ones. They remembered the printer in Bunkyo who let them pull a print, the grandmother at the tea farm who poured a second cup, the wrestlers eating chanko after practice.

That is the Japan we want people to see. It takes relationships, time and a language most visitors don't speak. That part is our job. We still lead many of the trips ourselves.

The founders, Julia & Casey MacKinnon

The name

Tokoro means place

In Japanese, tokoro means a place, and also a particular point or part of something. We chose it because our work is about particular places: one studio, one field, one counter. Not Japan in general, but the specific corners that make it what it is.

How we work