Founder · ELEVATE K.K.
The relationships behind these days took years to build, and most of them only work in Japanese.
I'm Japanese, born and raised in Tokyo, and I have been based here my whole life. Growing up, I would visit relatives in the U.S. and Germany, and I have spent short spells living in each — just under two years in total. What gives me the vantage point isn't time abroad; it is having grown up native in both languages, with family both here and abroad. I understand Japan from the inside and know exactly how it reads from the outside, so I can open its doors in a way that feels natural and effortless, never overwhelming.
Before Elevate, I studied politics and history, then joined a consultancy advising business leaders on communication and negotiations with the Japanese government, including prime ministers, ministers and other senior politicians. The work was about building mutual understanding and reaching agreement, and part of it was looking after CEOs and senior executives of Fortune Global 500 companies visiting Japan. Later I headhunted for companies across many industries. Both were, at heart, about strategic communication: understanding quickly what matters to someone, and helping people from different worlds understand each other. Along the way, I have built a wide network of entrepreneurs and business owners across Tokyo and the rest of Japan.
My interests run wide. I am a serious foodie, I love fashion, and I am drawn to Japanese craft, art in every form, and nature. What ties it all together is curiosity about everything life and Japan have to offer, and what we can learn from them.
My world is Japan's cultural and culinary treasures — but also the quieter art of slowing down. The most memorable moments here are rarely rushed: an unhurried tea ceremony, a still garden, a meal savoured slowly. I design days that leave you not only inspired, but genuinely restored — with a sense of calm and well-being that lingers long after you've flown home.
And you don't need to know a single custom to feel at ease. Reading the culture as fluently as the language, I quietly take care of the etiquette and interpret the meaning beneath it — so you can simply be present, and enjoy.
I was selected as a Japan Ambassador in 2025. A great deal of that work is travelling the country to places with real depth of history and learning them properly rather than reading about them — and much of what I am able to offer here comes directly out of it. I am always studying — Japanese culture, its philosophy and the values underneath it — and currently for the 伝統文化検定, Japan’s certification in traditional culture.
I grew up going to an art atelier from the age of three, and I still paint today. It helps me connect naturally with artisans and galleries.
I started Elevate in 2024 because so many people who love Japan never meet the Japan underneath: its aesthetics and philosophy, and the families and artisans keeping rare traditions alive. I wanted guests to understand what they were seeing, to take something of it home, and for their visits to help those traditions thrive.
ErikaFounder, Elevate
Most of them for years, and one of them since we were children — the family who have made the same thing since the 1600s, the next head of a tea school, a chef who cooks for eight at a time. Where I know them, you arrive as my guest rather than as a booking, and you feel it from the moment you walk in. And where you simply want a particular table, I will arrange that just as gladly.
Japan runs on what is left unsaid. A phone can translate the words now; understanding why something matters still takes a person. That is the part I do.
Having lived on both, I know precisely which parts of Japan feel strange from the outside, and why. Knowing that is what lets me make it feel easy.
Japan overwhelms almost everyone who comes to it, locals included. My work is to curate it for you, so your days go to what you will still be thinking about a year from now, and none of them to logistics. The measure of a trip here is not how much you saw. It is how you feel on the flight home.
That matters more now than it used to. An afternoon mending a broken bowl with lacquer and gold, or tea made for you in the same room, leaves you nowhere to be except where you are. People arrive tired and leave steadier, and it is rarely the part they came for.
Japan still teaches much of what a busy, always-connected life makes easy to lose: giving the present moment your full attention; treating each meeting as if it may never come again, which the Japanese call ichigo ichie; leaving space rather than filling it; and seeing beauty in imperfection. None of it needs studying. You feel it in the right room, with the right person.
It runs both ways. When someone travels a long way to meet an artisan, and understands what they are looking at, that matters to the artisan — often more than the money does. Your day is richer, the work is valued properly, and a little of Japan's own worth is elevated in the process. That is what the name means.
Tell me a little about the trip you have in mind. Every inquiry is read and answered personally, usually within a few business days.
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