A carved woodblock and tools on a printmaker's workbench

Experiences

Time with the people who keep Japan's traditions going.

Some of our experiences sit you at an artisan's workbench. Others get you moving: running, hiking, cheering in the stands. All of them are private, and your guide translates as you go.

All experiences 13 Heritage & Craft 8 Active & Immersive 5

Heritage & Craft

Workshops, studios and traditions with deep roots

Visits to family studios, stables and farms that rarely open to visitors. You watch, you ask questions, and often you try the work yourself.

Prints and books on display at Takahashi Kobo ukiyo-e studio in Tokyo

Heritage & Craft

Ukiyo-⁠e woodblock printing

Print your own image at Takahashi Kobo, Tokyo's oldest working ukiyo-⁠e studio, guided by the sixth generation.

Tokyo
About 2 hours
From $299
A seventeenth-century book of stencil-dye pattern samples (katazome mihoncho)

Heritage & Craft

Edo Sarasa dyeing

Stencil-dye Edo Sarasa with Some no Sato Ochiai, a family dye house founded in 1920 in Shinjuku’s old dyeing town.

Shinjuku, Tokyo
2 to 3 hours
From $149
A long-sleeved silk kimono with hand-dyed hydrangeas and cherry blossoms

Heritage & Craft

Hikizome silk dyeing

Brush-dye your own silk with Fujiya Dye Studio, a Tokyo hikizome workshop founded in 1952.

Shinjuku, Tokyo
1.5 to 2 hours
From $149
Sumo wrestlers training at a sumo stable in Tokyo

Heritage & Craft

Morning sumo practice

Sit a few metres from the ring as wrestlers train at a Ryogoku stable, with every drill explained as it happens.

Tokyo
150 minutes
On request
Rows of green tea bushes in the tea fields of Wazuka, Kyoto

Heritage & Craft

A day in the tea fields

Walk the terraced fields of Wazuka with a family of growers, then taste this year's leaf in their kitchen.

Kyoto
Full day
On request
Flames and sparks at a swordsmith's forge in Japan

Heritage & Craft

The swordsmith's forge

Watch a licensed smith fold and hammer steel, then ask him about the work through your guide.

Seki, Gifu
Half day
On request
An Edo kiriko cut-glass tumbler on a table

Heritage & Craft

Edo kiriko glass cutting

Cut a pattern into your own glass under the eye of a kiriko artisan in the old Sumida workshops.

Tokyo
120 minutes
On request
Brushing lacquer along the crack of a dish during a kintsugi repair

Heritage & Craft

Kintsugi with a lacquer artist

Mend a broken plate with urushi and gold at Hariyo Urushi, a Tokyo lacquer house since the Edo period.

Tokyo
120 minutes
From $349

Active & Immersive

Days spent moving through Japan like a local

Early runs, mountain trails and loud stadiums. The Japan that residents know, with a guide who makes sure you are in on it.

Nijubashi bridge over the Imperial Palace moat in Tokyo

Active & Immersive

Tokyo running tours

Choose a distance and a route, from the palace loop to the Sumida River, with a guide who runs beside you.

Tokyo
From 60 minutes
From $60
Fans watching a baseball game inside a Tokyo dome stadium

Active & Immersive

A night at the ballpark

Cheer with the fans at Jingu, Tokyo Dome or Belluna Dome, with a guide who explains the rituals in the stands.

Tokyo
240 minutes
From $130
Stone steps through a cedar forest on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail

Active & Immersive

Kumano Kodo day hike

Cedar forest, worn stone steps and a grand shrine at the end of a private section of the old pilgrim road.

Wakayama
Full day
On request
Red lanterns along a forest path on Mount Takao near Tokyo

Active & Immersive

Mount Takao and a temple lunch

An hour from Shinjuku: forest trails, a mountain temple, and a vegetarian lunch cooked to the monks’ recipes.

Tokyo
Half day
On request
A vendor preparing seafood at Tsukiji Outer Market, Tokyo

Active & Immersive

Tsukiji outer market at dawn

Eat your way through the outer market with a guide who knows which stalls the chefs buy from.

Tokyo
180 minutes
On request
Plain washi paper texture

Something else in mind?

Not finding what you’re looking for?

Reach out and we’ll see what we can do. Much of what we arrange is on request: a craft, a sport or a place you are curious about.

Anywhere in Japan
On request

Begin here

Looking for something you don't see here?

Much of our work is arranged on request. If there is a craft, a sport or a place you are curious about, tell us and we will find the right person.

Ask us