— Private Journeys Through Japan, Curated Since 2018
We design private itineraries through Japan — from Kyoto's hidden temples to Hokkaido wilderness, from sakura week to deep winter onsen. No groups. No tourist trails.
— What We Curate
Cherry blossom isn't a single weekend — it's a wave that climbs from Kyushu to Hokkaido over five weeks. We track the front in real time and reroute as it moves, so you land in petals, not in the days just past them.
Twenty-seven temples we know intimately — moss gardens at dawn before the busloads, abbots who'll receive your party for tea, sub-temples that don't open to the public except through introduction.
Snow on cedar branches, an outdoor bath at minus four, a tatami room kept warm by a kotatsu. The ryokan we use are family-run — often a single building hidden in a valley. No marble, no conference traffic, no English signage.
The Tokyo most visitors never reach — a basement bar in Yoyogi that seats eleven, a designer's atelier in Daikanyama, a Shibuya record store run by a former NHK engineer. Forty-plus venues, all on our private list.
Eight omakase counters we hold standing relationships with — chefs whose tables don't take English-language reservations and don't appear on aggregators. From a six-seat sushi room in Ginza to a kaiseki master in rural Yamanashi.
Japan's wild north — Niseko powder in February, Furano lavender in July, the indigenous Ainu villages of Akan in early autumn. Two distinct seasons, two completely different country journeys.
— Signature Journeys
Journey 01
Kyoto temples to Hakone onsen, with a private viewing of Mt. Fuji from a wood-fired bath. Slow, contemplative, deeply traditional.
Journey 02
Cherry blossom chasing from Tokyo down through Kyoto and Hiroshima, calibrated to the bloom forecast week by week.
Journey 03
Tokyo culinary nights, Hakuba powder skiing, and a private Kobe wagyu omakase to close. For travelers who want both edges of Japan in one trip.
— The Kiri Difference
A Kiri journey is built around one party. There are no other clients sharing a coach, no fixed start dates, no group dynamics to negotiate around. The itinerary follows your pace, your interests, your shifts in mood mid-trip.
What follows is the full service envelope around every journey we run — handled before you leave home, and on-the-ground while you travel.
Start with a conversationFrom the moment you land, a native Japanese guide fluent in your language travels with you. Not a meet-at-the-temple guide. A constant.
Counters that don't take outside reservations, kaiseki houses with a one-month wait — held for you, in your name, before you fly.
Shinkansen Green Car seats, station transfers, private driver days where rail doesn't reach. Bags forwarded between ryokan so you never carry.
A direct WhatsApp line and voice number to your dedicated coordinator. Reachable in your time zone for the full duration of the trip.
For travelers requiring a Japanese visa, we provide the letter of invitation, signed itinerary, and supporting documents your embassy requires.
Letterpress cover, your name, the full itinerary inside — with translated phrases, maps, and pages for your own notes. Mailed before departure.
— Stories
“Five years searching the web, three trips booking it myself, and I still never found the ryokan I knew had to exist. Kiri sent me there on a Tuesday evening, mid-snowfall, and I cried into the kaiseki. It's the only place I want to go in March now.”
Hana Aldridge
London · repeat traveler
“I have eaten through Tokyo with the standard apps. Then Kiri took us to a six-seat counter in Tsukiji that doesn't appear in any English-language source. The chef described, by name, the wagyu farmer in Hida he'd sourced that morning. It restored what I thought eating in Japan was supposed to feel like.”
Tomás Vidal
São Paulo · second trip
“Two kids under ten, two adults who wanted a real trip and not a sanitized version of one. Kiri built twelve days that had a Ghibli museum morning, a private temple meditation, a hands-on udon lesson, and a wagyu omakase the same night for just my husband and me — with our guide babysitting upstairs. They listened.”
Margaux Ferreira
Brooklyn · family of four
— Questions
Still curious about something? Drop the question into the contact form below — we'll answer within a day.
Fully private, fully custom, no group tours ever. Every itinerary is built around one party. We don't run sample tours and we don't sell off the shelf. If you want a packaged Japan trip, there are excellent agencies for that — we're not them.
From $14k to $30k per person for 10 to 14 nights, depending on season and choices. Hokkaido and sakura week sit at the upper end; off-peak Kyoto sits at the lower. We're not the cheapest option to see Japan. We're not trying to be.
Sakura season: 9 to 12 months ahead — the best ryokan along the bloom corridor are first to close out. Winter onsen weekends in Hakone or Hokkaido: 6 months. Off-peak Kyoto, Tokyo, summer Hokkaido: 3 to 4 months is comfortable.
Yes — for travelers requiring a Japanese visa, we support the application with a formal letter of invitation, a signed itinerary, hotel confirmations, and any other documentation your local embassy lists. We don't submit the application for you, but we make sure your file is complete.
Your private concierge handles rebooking, rerouting, and real-time changes. Weather closes a mountain pass and you'd rather extend Kyoto by a day — we move it. No change fees from us up to 48 hours before each leg. Vendor-side fees, where they apply, are passed through at cost.
Yes. Kosher, halal, vegan, severe allergies — we work directly with every restaurant in your itinerary in advance, and provide a translated card that explains your specifics in Japanese. Vegan kaiseki, in particular, takes long lead times; flag it as early as you can.
— Plan Your Trip
Share the broad shape of your trip. We'll respond within 48 hours with a draft itinerary and a 30-minute discovery call.