Chisato M.
Available Areas
Nara (Living)
Languages
English, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional)
Availability Updated
--
About Tour Guide Chisato M.
Hello. I'm Chisato, originally from Kyoto.
I completed master degree of organic agriculture in the Netherlands in 2011. Especially, my specialization is agriculture, anthropology and food culture.
I often travel around rural villages in japan for my research on traditional knowledge, ethnobotany and local cuisine, "kyodo ryori".
My style of guiding is "experience the local communities"; visiting the ingredients where it grows, listening to the stories of local life, where generations have lived.
I try my best to organize a trip with unique experience for you in the off-the-beaten rural villages, especially in Kyoto and Nara. Please let me know your special interests, and I will suggest your trip schedule, such as cooking with locals, visit farmers, or stay at a farmhouse.
Example Theme:
- tea tour (harvesting and processing tea, tea house, matcha poder making, tea museum in Kyoto)
- traditional handicrafts (visit workshops, pottery making experience, kiln in hidden valley)
- culinary experience (food processing workshop such as tofu, soba, yuba, somen noodle, traditional knowledge of food preservation)
- fermented food products (learning how to make sake, shoyu, miso, amazake, pickle, nattou, umeboshi by yourself)
- plant and ethno-ecology (sansai wild plant harvesting and cooking)
- learning rural livelihood (charcoal making, weaving trees, paper making from mulberry plant, silk worm, visit to temple of plant medicine)
- temple stay (meditation, shojin ryori at mount koya)
* There are increasing number of requests from tea buyers to look for tea farmers to deal with foreign transaction of organic tea. It is very limited to produce high quality organic tea in Japan. I have engaged in tea promotion at a local government office in Kyoto before, and it is possible to introduce good tea farmers and processors. Please let me know if you are interested in buying tea leaves directly from farmers in Kyoto. I can arrange meeting with tea masters to learn how to taste and differentiate high quality matcha.
* Please note that the price would be based on group regardless of number of people. So, it could be a bit high price for solo travelers.
Important
IMPORTANT:
Please inquire at least 1 month before the tour departure date, when it is totally customized tour.
Please note that spring (March-April) and autumn (Septenmer-October) are peak travelling season in Japan, and it may not possible to offer special interest tours.
I recommend to reserve accommodations at least 2 months before your travel (half year before during peak travelling season).
Chisato M. Japan Tour Reviews
“1 day at Wazuka”
Chisato-san was very flexible with how we use the day. She met us at Kyoto in order to drive our rented car (where she also need to be registered with the car rental company for insurance coverage). We visited some beautiful tea plantations, incl the famous Hariyama plantation. We had lunch at a tea farmer's house... it's good food and nice presentation, we were fortunate to have a chance to pick some tea leaves which later was being cooked into our food! We also had luck to visit a tea making factory (it's unplanned but really appreciate the opportunity!). All in all, it's an amazing day trip! Thanks to Chisato-san.
“Great tour in Nara”
I had a wonderful time in Nara with Chisato as my guide. Chisato helped me schedule a one day tour of Nara with all of the sites that I wanted to see including a tea ceremony experience. She was very attentive as she guided me through Nara and explained the history and details of each site. Chisato communicates very well in English and she is very intelligent. She was flexible during the tour as she allowed me to shop for souvenirs and also took me to tea shops and sake stores that she thought I would find interesting. The Nara deer were fun to feed and Chisato even took pictures of me as I fed them. As I told Chisato that my next stop was Tokyo, she recommended me several tea shops in Tokyo and emailed me a list. I went to one of those tea shops in Tokyo and had a great experience drinking tea and learning about the different kinds of tea. In summary, Chisato gave me an excellent tour of Nara and was very helpful to my learning about tea. I highly recommend her as a tour guide in Nara and I hope to return to Nara in the future. Arigato godzaimasu Chisato!
Chisato M.
(11 reviews)Thank you for your review, It was my pleasure to talk about tea with you in Nara. Deers are indeed good reason to visit Nara, but I hope more people get interested in other cultural aspects other than major tourist attractions. Please let me know if you have a chance to visit Japan again in future. Thank you again for joining the tour to Nara.
“Tea Farm Guide ”
I had a great time with Chisato. She met us at the station, showed us around Uji, and took us all the way to the tea farm. She was a nice guide and we had a great time.
Chisato M.
(11 reviews)Thank you for your comments. It is my pleasure to welcome you to tea tour in Uji and Wazuka. I hope you enjoy staying at the tea farm, and hope to see you again. Thank you.