Customizable Private Tours with Local Tour Guides

“Memorable day in Kamakura and Enoshima”

Yacco was a pleasure to work with. She went above and beyond in preparing the perfect itinerary for my family to include things that my teen was interested in doing. She is very knowledgeable and speaks great English. When the weather didn’t look ideal, she was able to reschedule our tour for a better day and it turned out to be the perfect day. We really couldn’t have asked for more. We truly enjoyed our day in Kamakura and Enoshima with Yacco. It was the highlight of our trip. Would highly recommend Yacco.

“Great way to eat our way through Kanazawa”

We booked this tasting tour for our port stop in Kanazawa and it ended up being one of the best things we did in Japan. Criselda picked us up at Kanazawa Station, which made the start easy, and we walked into Omicho Market before the crowds really showed up. She clearly knows the vendors there and they know her. Instead of us wandering around guessing what to try, she took us to stalls she trusts, explained what we were eating, and gave us the backstory on why the seafood along this part of the Sea of Japan tastes the way it does. We would never have found half of these places on our own. From the market we moved on to the Chaya district where we learned about the traditional production of gold leaf and ended with a tasting of sake ice cream and the famous Kanazawa gold leaf ice cream. It was a relaxing way to finish after three hours of eating and walking. What we appreciated most about Criselda: - She's easy to talk to and fun to spend a morning with - She gave us context on the food, history and culture without it ever feeling like a lecture - She paced things well and never made us feel rushed - She checked in on what we liked and adjusted along the way - At the end, she made sure we knew exactly how to get to our next stop Ten tastings sounds like a lot, but the portions were right and we left full without feeling miserable. As a private tour it was worth the price for us, especially since we got to ask as many questions as we wanted. If we make it back to Kanazawa, we'll book with Criselda again, probably for one of her other tours. Highly recommend.

“Tsubamesanjo Knives and Letter openers and Outdoor Gear”

Our day with Yoshiko was excellent! We had an issue with our hotel the night before and Yoshiko came to the hotel to help with translation. We also reorganized our trip for the next day because there was too much driving time between spots. We began with a fascinating tour of the Tojiro Knife Factory, and of course, bought a small paring knife. On the way to the factory Yoshiko noticed a local rice farmer was at the rice polishing station. We quickly pulled over for a short description of how rice polishing worked. Unexpected stop and well worth it! it shows Yoshiko, a lifelong resident of Tsumbe, is dedicated to showing visitors all that is offered. A strange request on our part was to visit the Snow Peak Museum and enjoy lunch at their Spa. The lunch was one of the best meals we had on this trip and the history of Snow Peak was interesting. The museum tour was held in Japanese and Yoshiko did a wonderful job of translating the high points. Lastly, we visited the Sanjo Blacksmith Dojo and hand hammered a letter opener from a 5-inch nail. That was very much fun and I can see us returning there for the knife session. We really enjoyed our visit to Tsubamesanjo and I expect to return and we will call Yoshiko again to help us with our visit. We enjoyed her company.

Yoshiko K.

(14 reviews)

Hello David, Thank you very much for sharing your feedback on the tour. It was so nice to spend time with you, your wife and your son. Whatever I explained, your reactions were so joyful and interested. It was good that we went to Tojiro first, so that your letter opener work was kind of hands-on practice after the factory tour. Thank you for giving me an opportunity of thinking about making a new tour to Snow Peak. Your visit here has brought me some new aspect to sights that I had previously taken for granted. Niigata Prefecture is the fifth-largest prefecture in Japan. I look forward to the day you visit again, then I can show you a completely different side of Niigata. Thank you for enjoying the ride in my little Daihatsu Move!