While the tour covers the popular Fushimi Inari Shrine and Uji Byodoin Temple, we'll also spend some time in Fushimi sake district for sake tasting and local lunch at an old sake brewery. In Uji, the home of the best Japanese tea, we'll visit traditional tea houses and enjoy their special tea that many eminent Shoguns also appreciated.
At your hotel (subject to additional fee) in or selected JR/Keihan station depending on your hotel location
Fushimi Inari Shrine - 10,000 torii gates!
Fushimi sake brewery museum & tasting (400 yen)
Lunch at a former sake brewery
Option: Visit sake tasting bars and/or shops (additional costs: 300~1,700 yen depending on how many kinds you'll try)
Uji - home of Japanese green tea (lots of traditional tea houses, tea salons, macha sweets, etc. on the street)
Ujigami Shrine, UNESCO site, oldest remaining shrine building in Japan
Uji Byodoin, UNESCO world heritage site (600 yen & 300 yen to see inside the main hall)
Option: Traditional tea ceremony @500 yen with confectionery
Option: Tea workshop such as making Hoji-cha, maccha, maccha sweets, etc. (extra fee and reservation required)
Option: Gion at the end of the tour (extra hour required)
At your hotel (subject to additional fee) or JR/Keihan station
With this tour, not only visiting the photogenic Fushimi Inari and Byodoin Temple, you can also deepen the knowledge of sake and green tea, and enjoy the freshness and different kinds of sake and green tea served in a proper way.
Fushimi is a traditional sake district with 23 sake breweries including the giant "Gekkeikan" which was founded in 1673. We will visit the Gekkeikan museum to learn about sake making process and sake tasting, and have a local lunch in one of the sake breweries. You can also visit other shops and breweries for more comparison.
Uji is the home of Uji tea, where you'll see many traditional tea houses and different kinds of Japanese tea with opportunities to try special maccha sweets, green tea soba, maccha beer, etc.
Workshops are available if you're interested in making maccha, hojicha (roasted green tea), and green tea sweets.
This tour is also recommended for the foodies and those who get "templed out" in Kyoto!
Guide fee
- Transportation fee and lunch (you and guide)
- Entrance fee (Byodoin @600 yen and Sake museum with a bottle of souvenir sake @400 yen)
- Optional workshops and tea ceremony etc.
- Hotel pick-up
- Hotel drop-off (please request and pay 1,000 yen for transportation etc. upon the end of the tour)
Please note below before booking and contact me first for availability:
1. My schedule on GoWithGuide site is open for the next 3-month only. For further dates, please message me about my availability (multi-day tours only)
2. All my listed tours include hotel pick-up fee and guide fee. Please ask for quote for custom tours.
3. For tours in the peak season, I am currently prioritizing mult-day tour requests (at least two "full-day" tours per group), but also accept one-day request between the booked tours etc.
***Excursions ***
I can guide you in Okayama (including Naoshima and Kurashiki), Hiroshima (Onomichi, Shimanami islands cycling, Miyajima, etc.) and Shikoku (Iya valley etc.) if you pay for my transportation.
The above areas can be visited from Osaka/Kyoto in one or two days.
1. Morning tour starts @9:00. Fushimi Inari => Fushimi sake area and lunch => Uji.
2. Afternoon tour starts @12:00. Fushimi sake area & lunch => Uji => Fushimi Inari (evening visit in fall to enjoy lantern lights)
3. You must be 20+ years old for sake tasting.
4. If you'd like to do tea workshop, please let me know in advance.
5. This tour will be focused on green tea and sake. You can pick one of them and shorten the other part, but if you don't like either sake or green tea, you should not book this tour. Please make a custom booking.
6. As per your request, we can finish the tour in Gion area for the afternoon tour (extra hour required).
Seiko took us around Kyoto, Nara and Osaka on 3 different days and we had a great time. She is easy to get along ,very fluent in English and accommodated all our requests. When we were all ‘templed out’, she took us to see the urban sights in Osaka. My family especially enjoyed her food recommendations, knowledge of historical areas and impeccable timing so that we only waited a few minutes for each train ride. Thank you for a wonderful holiday!
Our tour in Osaka started off exploring the markets and streets learning about the history. We visited Osaka Castle and Seiko took us to many great photo spots to get the best pictures! We also got to check out Umeda where there was many places to eat. Seiko is fluent in English and Japanese and was great with translating. We would definitely book another tour with Seiko in the future in another region of Japan!
Thanks for having me as your guide for two days! Osaka is my second home town and I am glad you liked my style of Osaka tour. It was also nice to visit Osaka castle when most of tourists were gone and you took lots of great photos there. I really hope you can come back to Japan and look forward to showing more of my favorite parts of the city and surroundings. Have a great time for the rest of your days in Japan! Seiko
We had an amazing tour with Seiko, visiting 7 different sites and areas where we learned about the history and culture of Kyoto. Seiko is very knowledgeable and took to us to many great locations that included various shrines, temples, neighborhoods, and more. One of our favorite spots was getting a tour of the Nijo Jinya House! Would definitely recommend having Seiko guide you around Kyoto to get the best experience. She is also fluent in Japanese and English and was a great translator for us.
Thank you for your review! I always try to be efficient and flexible as much as possible to maximize tour time as trying to understand different needs by different people. We could visit all the sites very smoothly thanks to your fitness level and trusting me as your guide. Glad you liked the house because it is also one of my favorite places to take my customers, as well! It was a great day together!!! Seiko
My 12 yo son, sister and I had the pleasure of spending 2 days in Kyoto with Seiko this fall. We had an absolutely wonderful time! At first we were nervous about spending 2 full days with a "stranger" while on vacation. However, as soon as Seiko met us in the lobby of our hotel, we knew we had made an excellent choice. It felt like traveling with a friend! And at the end of our two days we were sad to say goodbye. It was an absolute treat to let Seiko be in charge while I relaxed and enjoyed our surroundings. No worrying about trains or schedules or where to go next. Seiko was relaxed, knowledgable, funny, super efficient in getting us to all our must see sites and has impeccable English. My 12 yo son enjoyed hanging out with her too! I will recommend Seiko to friends traveling to Japan, and will absolutely book with her when we return to Japan.
Thank you, Courtney! It was totally my pleasure to spend 2 days with you and your family. I sometimes feel nervous when I have multi-day tours as well thinking if I can meet their needs and expectations knowing it's once in lifetime experience for them. However, ever since I started communicating with you, I didn't have that kind of fear as it was clear to know what you want to see, etc. I especially feel honored to be a guide when I see children like your son giveing many quesions and trying to see and learn lots in a country with different culture. Hope you'll have a chance to come back someday and see you again!!!!!! Seiko