Private days · Tokyo & Kyoto

Experiences

A few of the doors that open on an introduction, and the days built around them.

One private group at a time. Planned personally.

Hands setting out teacups on a red cloth for a tea gathering

Private Guided Days

A day with a Tokyo native, designed around your interests and your pace. Every reservation arranged and every conversation interpreted, so nothing is lost between you and the people you meet.

Days begin at ¥200,000 per person · Tokyo
Days begin at ¥250,000 per person · Kyoto

~10 hours · up to 5 guests

Each day is quoted individually and given to you as a single figure before anything is confirmed. Where a day is built around a particular experience — a workshop, a private viewing — that shapes the number. Everything the day needs is inside it.

Multi-day and extended itineraries are built the same way. Kyoto is best experienced over at least two days.

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A raked gravel garden with moss and stones

A few of the doors I open

A handful from a far deeper repertoire. Most of what I arrange is never listed.

Private tea ceremony

Tokyo

An authentic ceremony led by the descendant of a family who have practised the way of tea for generations — conducted in Japanese, and interpreted for you throughout.

Private kintsugi lesson

Tokyo

A hands-on private lesson in kintsugi, the art of golden repair, with a master artisan. You take home the piece you mend — imperfection is to be embraced rather than hidden.

Vintage kimono atelier

Tokyo

By referral only — a serene space where you choose vintage kimono fabrics to be tailored into bespoke suits, dresses, and jackets, giving rare textiles a beautiful second life.

Bespoke tailoring

Tokyo

By referral, a private appointment at a Tokyo tailoring atelier — where made-to-measure suits, jackets and tuxedos are cut from Italian and English cloth and finished by hand in Japan.

Private rickshaw ride

Tokyo

Set off from a Tokugawa family temple and ride the old backstreets of Shiba by private rickshaw — past landmarks and quiet corners at a graceful, unhurried pace, in the neighbourhood where Edo quietly became Tokyo.

Private temple & monk

Kyoto

A conversation with the head monk of a Kyoto temple, in a part of it closed to the public and opened through a friendship of many years. He shares Zen as he practises it — not as history, but as something you can carry into an ordinary week.

Private sake brewery

Kyoto

A brewery founded in the 1600s, closed to the public, shown to you by the family who built it — the fourteenth generation, or the fifteenth who will have it next.

Private tequila tasting

Tokyo

A private tasting at the only boutique in Asia of an ultra-premium tequila house, an intimate space where Japanese and Mexican craft meet in stone and wood. I know the people behind the house, so the tasting comes with the stories behind every bottle.

Forge your own knife

Kyoto

Make a knife by hand in a working forge north of Kyoto — heat it, hammer it, sharpen it yourself. Around three hours, and it comes home with you the same day.

Beyond these, I also arrange invitation-only spaces and gallery viewings, and private events for a celebration, proposal, or milestone — quietly, on a case-by-case basis. And if there is an artisan you have long wanted to meet, I am glad to reach out on your behalf, even where I have no connection yet, and discover their work alongside you. If you would like a piece made for you, that is a commission.

Because most of my partners work only in Japanese, these experiences belong to the days we spend together — the doors open on an introduction, and little of it would make sense without interpretation. For the days we're not together, I still choose carefully: the places worth your time, and the reservations worth having. There's simply more room to wander, and to let the city find you. That space is deliberate — the best days in Japan are rarely the fullest ones. Pricing is a single fee for the day, rather than a list of parts.

Most of these doors open on an introduction

A sake brewery shown to you by the fourteenth generation of the family who founded it. The family who invented their craft in 1608 and still practise it. The tenth generation to lead a school of tea. These are not people who know about the history; they are the people it is still alive in. They welcome my guests because of friendships I have built over many years, in Japanese.

I have been painting since I was three, and that creative side helps me connect with artisans and fellow creators. They can tell when someone makes things too, and the conversation goes somewhere it otherwise would not.

And then the part that is harder to name. 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 half I do, and it is the difference between having seen something and having understood it.

Private gallery viewing

A private viewing at a members-only Ginza gallery, entered by introduction, where paintings move through the hours and the seasons in light, movement and music — a technique patented in 49 countries. The gallery holds an exclusive agreement with the Mucha Foundation in the Czech Republic, and its works are held by royal households, a former head of state, and names known worldwide.

Arranged and always accompanied by me — woven into a guided day, or arranged as a visit on its own. The fee covers entry for the group; where it sits inside a guided day, the day rate applies as well. Most guests come simply to see the work, and there is never an expectation to buy — though if a piece does stay with you, it can be yours.

¥300,000 per group · up to 5 guests · approx. 60–120 min

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Corporate & Executive

Programmes for teams and executive groups, designed end to end. Above five, a day is orchestrated rather than guided — experiences running in parallel, a venue taken privately, the right people brought in alongside me. For business visitors, that can include introductions to entrepreneurs and business owners in Japan, where it serves the purpose of the visit. Every programme is designed around what your group needs, and quoted accordingly.

From ¥250,000 per guest · minimum ¥1,200,000 per day

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The days we're not together

My recommendations for the rest of your trip, and the reservations an introduction opens — part of your guided days rather than an addition to them. Hotels and transport stay yours to arrange, with my advice whenever you want it.

Included

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