Half Day: This tour is a customized tour based on your request. For your information, I will suggest some spots here for you. Please select one course or let me know what you want to do in Saga.
Check out what we are going to do.
Feel free to personalize this offer.
At your hotel in Saga or Saga Station
1. Kashima: Gorgeous shrine and Brewery
2. Ureshino: Ninja, Hot spring and Green tea
3. Takeo: Hot spring, a Japanese garden and a sagred camphor tree
4. Arita: Arita Porcelain area
5. Karatsu: Karatsu Castle and historical area
6. Yobuko: Morning market and Boat riding to a huge lava plateau
At your hotel in Saga or Saga Station
Saga is rich in nature, which is just not found in urban areas and can cleanse you mentally and physically. Saga is blessed with seas to the north and south, gentle mountains for hiking and vast fertile lands bringing rich agricultural products. It offers a various range of things to enjoy such as; deep cultural history, hot springs, festivals, traditional and modern crafts, shopping, and gourmet food.
I would love to introduce beautiful hidden places in Saga, which are not famous or popular yet among tourists but very much worth visiting. Let's discover hidden gems!
For your information, I will suggest some plans here for you assuming we use public transportation systems.
guide fee, hotel pick-up
transportation fee (you and guide), lunch, entrance fee ★Ninja Village (1100 JPY), ★Takeo Hot Spring (400-600JPY), ★Takeo Japanese Garden (900JPY), ★Karatsu Castle (500JPY, oneway elevator100JPY), ★Yobuko Boat ride (1600JPY)
Please contact me beforehand. I 'll make your itinerary based on your requests.
We will be walking quite a bit outdoors and in open-air areas for most of the tour, so we recommend you to dress appropriately and wear comfortable shoes. We also recommend wearing sun protective gear because the sun can be quite strong, especially between May and October.
We spent a very fruitful 4 and a half hour with Nao as we learned so much from her and it surprised me to learn how much Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures have borrowed and learned from each other - becoming richer and more unique in the intervening centuries. As we were on a cruise, time management was a critical issue so we restricted our sightseeing to the Hakata district and enjoyed the walk as well as snacks which we tried at Nao's suggestion. She's flexible and very helpful, going out of the way to help me look for some dried Sakura shrimps - unfortunately with no success. We highly recommend anyone visiting Fukuoka and is on a time crunch to do a half day walking tour with Nao.
Thank you so much for such a great review, Alice! I am very glad to have accompanied you and your husband. The design competition in the traditional temple was amazing! Thanks to you, I also learned Chinese cultures such as tea, characters and so on. I hope you could find nice dried Sakura shrimps in Tokyo. I hope you would come to Japan again in the cherry blossom season and enjoy watching Sumo. Thank you again and take care! Nao
My husband and I had a simple request: could we hire a guide to escort us to an area near Kumamoto where his grandparents lived before immigrating to the US? We just wanted to see the home place and feel what it was like.Thanks to Nao’s research and contacts, we ended up not only seeing homes and burial sites of my husband’s ancestors, but meeting relatives who presently live on his grandparents’ home site! It was a magical day, one we will never forget. Nao’s translation skills were so valuable to us, but she offered so much more, including kindness and enthusiasm and a genuine interest in making our family’s connection. My husband now knows the place where his grandparents lived and is so happy to learn that his cousins are still making it a family home. Nao was our Sherlock Holmes! We also call her an angel because of her thoughtfulness and respect for privacy in negotiating the connections with our relatives. Just think! We were all unknown to each other until a few days ago! We, and our extended family in the US, owe many thanks to Nao!
Dear Shaun-san, Thank you very much for the review that couldn't be better! I am certain that I have been blessed with good opportunities and nice people. They supported us to connect the dots. And most of all, your passion lead us to the happy gathering. I was so happy to see you, your husband and your relatives meet, smile and talk, feeling the beautiful family ties and thinking of your great ancestors. I should be the one thanking you! I wish you a fun and fruitful time for the rest of your trip and I hope you visit Japan again for the next adventure in the near future!! Thank you again for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!