Japan Custom Tours - experience the best Japan has to offer

What are escorted custom tours?

Our simple philosophy is to share with our guests the aspects, sights and experiences of Japan that we love. To achieve that, we created Japan Custom Tours to help you experience the uniqueness of the country without many of the hurdles that separate the average tourist from the rich experiences that are available.

Either as part of a small group, or with the option to make your trip a private escorted tour, we can help you with where to go when you decide to go to Japan. We are passionate about Japan and the experiences and opportunities that it provides. To enable English speaking visitors to experience the country up close and personal, we keep our groups deliberately small (ten people maximum) as this allows everyone the time they want to take their time to enjoy their journey. Because we travel with you our role is to help you get the most out of your vacation. This includes taking care of many time consuming items, often small things, saving you time and pre-arranging activities, transport and more. We also take time to learn what you like and are interested in, sometimes adjusting the schedule so you get to experience something special or find an elusive souvenir for you.

The core functions that we do are:

Working with you to design a schedule that includes the things you want to do and see while in Japan. Most of the effort for your tour is done prior to your arrival.
We organise your accommodation using our knowledge of Japanese hotels and ryokan across the country, finding properties that suit our guests, good locations and superior options based on our first-hand experience to ensure suitable locations, service and comfort.
We organise tickets for things like the Japan rail pass. For special events or restaurant bookings we book ahead, especially for high demand events. While we cannot guarantee tickets, we will do our best, especially for popular events.
We travel with you, providing continuity from when you arrive in Japan until you leave. We provide assistance to you for the duration of your trip, both during the sightseeing part of the day and often with many behind-the-scenes details to help you trip run smoothly.

Because our tours are designed for small groups, we have flexibility to add in activities or you can take a break from the planned schedule. You can have time to explore on your own, or spend the day and evening finding out what makes Japan such a fun place to visit. We do not leave you to fend for yourselves at the end of the day, as food and dinner options can be one of the highlights of the trip (and the occasional late nights too).

One way to illustrate our approach to Japan is to view a JCT tour through the eyes of our guests. For one of our customised trips we were fortunate to have a keen people that made a video diary of their journey across their three week trip. They kindly provided a copy and you can view a copy by clicking on one of the two following icons.

Benefits to you

While every group and guest is different there are some common themes that emerge that we help most people with. Typical examples of what we do, we:

Getting from A to B. We are skilled at managing people and their luggage on the excellent train network and because we cover a lot of the country, know how to get you (and your luggage) easily from a Tokyo rush-hour to a small mountain village with the minimum of fuss.
We also know the best transport options to get between different sites, using taxis or trains (as the default), and less common the bus network (because we know you did not come to Japan to spend an hour waiting for a bus in Kyoto, or getting stuck in traffic in Tokyo).
Standing in queues to purchase tickets allowing you to actually be a tourist during your trip.
Meeting you at the airport. Transfers are an important part of our service and introducing you to how Japan works with a low stress hotel transfer after a long flight.
Finding meal options that suit you, and that can include ordering or recommending different dishes.
And providing information on different aspects of culture, history, etiquette and any other questions that you might have, both for the sights that we visit or on general.

Future Tour Dates

Not ready to plan your own action packed adventure? Have a look at the pre-prepared itineraries or the schedule of our next tours for some inspiration and ideas of how you could make the most of your time in Japan.

Introduction to Japan

We have developed this short Japan travel package covering seven days and six nights to provide a quick introduction covering selected major sights in Tokyo and Kyoto. The schedule allows flexibility to add additional days either side of the tour to include extra features or places that you want to explore. We can provide this tour to suit your dates (minimum four people).

For a more detailed itinerary, please click here.

Best of Japan

For those with a bit more time to visit Japan, this two week escorted tour of Japan provides a range of highlights and experiences. The schedule allows flexibility to include different locations, sights and activities depending on your interests or places that you want to explore. We can provide this tour to suit your dates.

For 2024 we have two scheduled "Best of Japan Tours" with committed departure dates (extra pre and post tour days are possible.

Thursday 6th June to Wednesday 19th June, and,
Saturday 12th October to Saturday 26th October. (Sorry, this tour is fully booked.)

For a more detailed itinerary, please click here.

Cherry blossom viewing - April 2024

Hanami (literally "flower see") is the Japanese word for cherry blossom viewing. People enjoy looking at and photographing the blooms during the daytime and also the evenings, and blossom viewing outdoor picnics are held, regardless of the cold. (Hot One Cup Sake in a can is a popular drink in the evening!) Peak viewing season is typically the first week of April for places like Tokyo and Kyoto, but we take pride in finding tranquil and uncrowded spots for our guests to enjoy the blossom season across the full March and April season.

Japan cherry blossom tours are very popular some of our cherry blossom tours sold-out several months in advance. For 2024 we are running our "Classic" blossom tour chasing the cherry blossom across Japan.

Please note, all of our places for cherry blossom tours during spring 2024 were fully booked months in advance. As at January 2024 we have opened up or bookings for the 2025 season. If you wish to book for 2025, please contact us directly.

For more information on the tours see our 2024 Sakura tours page for an indication of what you can expect for 2024. A copy of the Spring 2024 brochure can be downloaded here.

Japan in May

For May the weather starts to warm up and it is a nice time of the year to travel before the heat of the summer kicks in. We have hosted several interesting custom trips during May and into June, and we often re-run tours similar to the tours we have offered during May in the past.

Those schedules included the many of the beautiful gardens of Japan as well as an excursion to the historic areas or Kurashiki and Naoshima Island. Other locations include the historic cultural capital Kyoto, Hiroshima, Takayama in the Japanese Alps and of course the huge modern metropolis that is Tokyo. Check our May'24 Tour page for more details. We intend to re-run this popular tour in 2025

Autumn Leaf Viewing - Nov 2024

Autumn is the second most popular season to visit Japan. With the weather more settled and warmer than early spring, the leaf viewing season (koyo) lasts a little longer and presents more vibrant colours across the parks, hillsides and mountains. We are planning two main tours across the end of October and through November based on our experiences from previous years. Check out our current schedule for November 2024.

A Japan Grand Tour - longer trips

Previously we have organised an extended "Grand Tour" covering the 30 days of September and repeated a similar course the following year covering 35 days. More recently we completed a 30-day trip across November 2022 following the re-opening of Japan after the pandemic had closed borders to tourists for two and a half years, and have another private month-long trip planned for spring 2024.

We design our "Grand Tours" to include an interesting mix of locations ranging from traditional experiences through to the modern, industrial Japan of today. This allows guests to enjoy a range of famous, historic and noteworthy sights that showcase the variety and beauty of the country.

These extensive tours allow you to experience a wide variety of what Japan has to offer. Customisation remains an important element for these trips so discuss with us what you would like to do. We run our Grand Tour on request (schedule permitting) and can be a good option for a couple looking to explore more of Japan. Contact us for options.

We are offer these trips based on guest requirements. Check our Grand Tour page for some additional details and inspiration.

Remote Japan - Off the beaten track

The concept behind the Remote Japan tours is to head to the non-touristy places, away from the crowds and to some of the less travelled parts of the country. Our the feedback from our guests is that these experiences provide a more intimate and genuine window into the country, culture and scenic beauty.

For a more information, please click here.

Previous Tours and Feedback

We have a sample of earlier tours and what people had to say about their experiences. You can also check our reviews on TripAdvisor.

Travel to Japan - Custom Tours