Custom Tours & Hiking Tours

Custom Tours

In addition to the two day walks described in this site, I work with a small team of long-term Kyoto expats and Japanese associates to create and lead custom tours of Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and rural areas of Kansai. Tell me your specific interests and we can work together to plan a tour that’s just right for you! Options include:

• Accommodations in traditional Japanese ryokan (inns)
• Dining in wonderful Japanese restaurants — from the best sushi to sublime Japanese vegetarian cuisine
• Tours of geisha districts
• Geisha entertainment in traditional chaya (teahouses) and restaurants
• Shopping tours — find that perfect kimono or antique tansu (chest)

Hiking Tours

Few people realize that Japan has some fantastic hiking and mountain climbing. Within a few hours of Kyoto, there are some truly great hikes, ranging from easy half-day trips to multi-day backpacking trips. Unfortunately, it can be tricky for the foreign traveler to do some of these hikes without a guide: you’ve got to figure out local transport in rural areas, decipher maps and trail markers written in Japanese, and avoid getting lost on confusing sections. I co-authored the Kansai chapter of Lonely Planet’s Hiking in Japan guide and have walked all of the routes described in that book, many more than once. If you’d like to sample some of Kansai’s great hiking but don’t want to do it alone, please let me know – I’d love to share the joys of hiking in Japan with you!

Fees and Payment

See Fees and Contact for details on the costs of these tours.