Travel to Japan - Custom Tours
At Japan Custom Tours we do not do other destinations, just Japan. We
deliver a personal service for our guests that is matched to their requirements.
This could be a simple tour covering the high points of Tokyo and Kyoto, or a
more complex schedule taking in particular events, sights and cities. We
can lead you along the well worn paths, or off the beaten track to more rural
and remote areas, depending on what you want.
By working with you we can tailor your visit to Japan so that you get more of
what you want. This includes drawing on our experience travelling
extensively across the country and helping identify top activities, unique
experiences and steering you away from the over-rated tourist spots that
sometimes make it
into guidebooks. We work on understanding what you like and focus on the
elements that will provide you with an amazing and memorable trip to Japan.
Our speciality is customized tours, putting together the necessary elements
that often start with a vague plan or a list of destinations. We organise
your accommodation, transport and things to do each day according to your
interests. Operating a flexible schedule allows you to add in or
substitute different things depending on the opportunities that present
themselves. The pre-planning and on-the ground personal service saves you
time and money, allowing you to get more out of your vacation in Japan.
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 (in May 2017) 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, and take you back again. 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.
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 six days and five 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 a more detailed itinerary, please click
here.
Cherry blossom viewing - March and April 2019
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 with our 2016 cherry blossom tours
sold-out several months in advance and our 2017 tours started filling shortly
after. For 2018 we are running at least four tours chasing the
cherry blossom across Japan.
For more information on the tours see our
2019 Sakura tours page for an indication of what you
can expect for 2019.
A copy of the
Spring 2019 brochure can be downloaded here.
Japan in May 2019
For May 2017 we had two interesting custom trips, and we are re-running tours
similar to the trips offered in 2017 and 2018. Those schedules included the
many of the beautiful gardens of Japan as well as an excursion to the historic
trails of the Kumano Koda. 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'19
Tour page for more details.
Autumn Leaf Viewing - Nov 2019
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 in the process of designing our 2019 edition
having completed five weeks with guests during the brilliant season that was
2018. Check out our
current schedule for November 2018.
We are also running a special "Best of Japan" tour during November featuring an
emphasis on Japanese gardens. The additional information can be found on
our November Garden Tour page.
We are accepting bookings for our autumn 2019
tours.
Christmas in Japan, New year in Tokyo - December
Our successful Christmas 2015 tour covered Takayama, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Matsumoto
, Nagoya before heading back to Tokyo for New Year itself. The midnight
hatsumode (first shine visit of the year) at Meiji Shrine and some enthusiastic
karaoke in Shinjuku were just a couple of highlights that also included some
excellent food and scenery. As this is a busy time in
Japan for travel and accommodation, we need to secure accommodation well in
advance of year end. The schedule from our 2015 tour can be found
here .
Plum Blossom Luxury Feb/March
Building from a custom inquiry we designed a luxury tour for up to six guests starting late February.
Running across many of the famous sights and sites of Japan. Check our
Feb'18
Tour page for more details or 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.
We have a sample of earlier tours and what people had to say about their
experiences. You can also check our
reviews on
TripAdvisor or
Google.