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Katsura Imperial Villa is one of the most renowned examples of traditional Japanese architecture and garden design in Japan. Artisans of Leisure arranges private Japan tours that feature Kyoto’s best gardens, including Katsura.
Read about the highlights of our most recent visit to Japan, one of our favorite travel destinations due to its incredible traditional and contemporary cultural touring, wonderful cuisine, luxurious hotels and ryokans and spectacular landscapes. Artisans of Leisure arranges private luxury Japan tours.
The acclaimed digital art exhibitions by the international art collective teamLab are highlights of the contemporary art scene in Tokyo, Japan.
We love experiencing hot springs and thermal baths around the world—such as serene Japanese onsen and open-air baths at spas in cities such as Budapest and Reykjavik—in spectacular settings.
Artisans of Leisure can incorporate local thermal bath experiences and bathing traditions in all of our private international tours.
Synonymous with the Golden Age of travel, luxury train journeys evoke the romance of a bygone era in a way that few other experiences do. Read more about our favorite luxury train journeys that we can incorporate into our customized private tours around the world.
Japan is one of our favorite and most popular destinations. We constantly track the latest developments so we can offer our travelers the best of Japan. Here are a few of the newest hotels, restaurants and attractions which we can incorporate into any of our private, customized Japan tours.
Artisan of Leisure travel specialist Sashie MacNaughton shares her unique insider perspective on family travel in Asia.
Autumn is one of our favorite times to visit Japan. Read about highlights of the season, including traditional activities, cuisine and viewing the vibrant fall foliage.
Japan is an ideal family destination with incredible experiences for all ages and interests. Read about our favorite family activities and experiences in Japan that can be incorporated into any of our private Japan tours.
For a wonderfully immersive cultural experience, we arrange for travelers on our private Japan tours to spend the night in a private room at one of the best temple lodges at Koyasan (Mount Koya).
Artisans of Leisure can incorporate lessons in the traditional Japanese arts of refinement, including ikebana and tea ceremony, into our private tours of Japan.
Art and design pilgrims are drawn to Naoshima, Japan, to experience great art and striking architecture in beautiful natural surroundings. Artisans of Leisure arranges private Japan tours including tours that focus on contemporary art and architecture.
Staying at a luxury ryokan in Japan is an incredible way to experience many of the country’s traditions all in one place. These traditional inns exemplify beautiful Japanese design, exquisite Japanese cuisine and inimitable Japanese hospitality.
One of our favorite things about Japanese cuisine is the way it always incorporates the season through ingredients and presentation. One of the most fun, colorful, festive times of the year to enjoy this in Japan is cherry blossom season.
Yosegi-zaiku is a form of traditional wood marquetry from Hakone, a mountainous region near Mount Fuji, Japan. Artisans of Leisure arranges unique experiences of traditional crafts throughout Japan.
Japanese culture takes design seriously, so it’s not surprising that even the most prosaic Japanese buildings can be thought-provoking, including The Tokyo Toilet project.
Kurashiki is a picturesque historic town in western Japan that’s perfect for travelers wanting an off-the-beaten-path experience.
Ceramics are one of our favorite entry points into Japanese culture. Artisans of Leisure arranges private Japan tours that introduce travelers to the best of Japanese craft traditions.
Like many of our travelers, we love visiting gardens when we travel. Not only beautiful and relaxing, gardens are tangible reflections of local culture that offer insights into local history, aesthetics, religions, and culinary and medicinal traditions.
We recently returned from an incredible trip to Japan featuring off-the-beaten path destinations such as Naoshima (Benesse), Kurashiki, Miyajima and the luxury Guntu cruise on the Seto Inland Sea.
For anyone interested in sushi and Japanese food in general, touring markets in Japan is a must. We arrange early morning visits to the wholesale Toyosu Market in Tokyo to watch the tuna auction. We also arrange insider food tours of Tsukiji Outer Market. Artisans of Leisure customizes private Japan tours that provide an in-depth […]
Highlights from our recent private tour of Japan, including Tokyo and off-the-beaten-path locations in rural Tohoku.
Spring is a particularly magical time to visit Japan, one of our favorite destinations. Plum blossoms bring the first blush of spring to Japan in February, followed by the legendary sakura (cherry blossoms), which paint the country pink from the end of March through the beginning of April. Kyoto is wonderful in any season, but there’s […]
Sansou Murata is one of Japan’s most beautiful and unique ryokans, and a must-visit for anyone visiting the island of Kyushu.
Artisans of Leisure founder and CEO Ashley Isaacs Ganz is recognized as one of the world’s leading Japan travel experts. Read more about some of her favorite places she visited and experiences she had on her most recent visit to Japan. Q: You used to live in Japan and have traveled extensively throughout the country. […]
If you’re interested in Japanese pottery, we highly recommend having Artisans of Leisure arrange a private meeting with Robert Yellin. Considered a foremost authority on Japanese yakimono (ceramics), Yellin has lived in Japan since 1984 and has written and lectured extensively both in Japan and abroad. Yellin runs Yakimono Gallery from an early 20th-century teahouse steeped […]
If you’re visiting Japan, we recommend venturing high into the foothills of Kyoto to visit Kou-an, a glass teahouse by renowned Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka. The clear glass roof, floor and walls of Kou-an teahouse are held together by a thin metal frame, creating a fragile, transparent structure. The teahouse lacks any of the traditional […]
Travelers interested in Japanese history, religion and culture—all surrounded by beautiful rural landscapes—should consider a stay at the new Amanemu. A luxurious hot springs resort, Amanemu is set on hills above the forested islands and oyster farms of Ago Bay in central Honshu, Japan. The resort’s large spa focuses on the traditional Japanese onsen (hot […]
Autumn is one of our favorite times to visit Japan. The fall foliage is spectacular, and the seasonal cuisine is exquisite. We recently returned from an incredible trip through Kyoto, Tokyo and Kanazawa during the peak of Japan’s fall foliage season.
The arrival of autumn has us thinking of Pumpkin, Yayoi Kusama’s iconic sculpture on Naoshima, an island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea that’s one of our favorite destinations in Asia for contemporary art and architecture. The collection of museums and artworks set among the island landscapes and known as Benesse Art Site Naoshima provide many opportunities for […]
Enjoying a private dinner with geisha is one of Japan’s most exclusive and most unforgettable experiences. Icons of traditional Japanese culture, geisha and maiko (apprentice geisha) are professional performers who wear extravagant kimono, makeup and hair decorations while entertaining their guests Geisha typically perform in private ochaya (tea houses) that are clustered in historic neighborhoods […]
We have just returned from Tokyo, where we visited the new Aman Tokyo. We’re confident the Aman will quickly become one of the best luxury hotels in Japan, and we’re excited to be offering it as an option in our private Japan tours. Conveniently located near Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace, the Aman Tokyo […]
We recently returned from another wonderful trip through Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, a veritable storehouse of traditional Japanese culture, fantastic food, high-quality crafts, historic architecture and beautiful gardens.
Lacquerware is one of our favorite crafts from Japan, where is it known as urushi (lacquer), shikki (lacquerware) or nurimono (coated things). Ishikawa Prefecture is among the most famous of the many regions in Japan where lacquerware is produced. Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa and historically one of the most powerful castle towns in Japan, […]
Cherry blossom season is a wonderful time to be in Japan. Starting around mid-March in most of the country, the pale pink sakura flowers burst open in a shock of color that signals the end of winter and the start of spring. It can be surprising how widespread cherry trees are in Japan until you […]
Japan is one of our favorite destinations for viewing spectacular fall foliage. Destinations like Kyoto are truly magical, with the brilliant colors of the momiji (maple) leaves against the backdrop of temples, shrines and Zen gardens. We work with travelers to plan one-of-a-kind private tours in November that coincide with the best of autumn foliage. […]
One of Japan’s most iconic images is the floating torii, a red Shinto gate that rises out of the water of the Seto Inland Sea just off Miyajima Island (near Hiroshima). The gate marks the entrance to beautiful Itsukushima Shrine, a centuries-old UNESCO World Heritage Site noted for its traditional Japanese religious architecture and scenic […]
Highlights of the incredible cultural and culinary experiences we arrange on our private luxury tours of Japan.
When taking a luxury cruise, a great way to make the most of your time in ports of call is with private shore excursions and private overland tours. Artisans of Leisure has a vast network of expert guides and drivers in cruise destinations around the world, and we work with sophisticated travelers to customize private […]
The tea ceremony is one of Japan’s most interesting and enduring artistic traditions. More than a ritual for preparing and drinking tea, the tea ceremony is a means to aesthetic appreciation and social interaction that has had a profound influence on Japanese art, architecture, gardens, cuisine and philosophy. What happens during a traditional Japanese tea […]
Kyoto’s abundant traditional Japanese architecture is one of the most noticeable and impressive characteristics of the city. The opportunity to get inside these traditional buildings–including private homes and merchant’s houses, known as kyo-machiya–is a rare and fascinating experience in Japanese culture.
The founder of Artisans of Leisure, Ashley Isaacs Ganz, recently met up with cookbook writer and Asian food expert Corinne Trang. Ashley assisted Corinne with her extensive travels and culinary arrangements in Asia when Corinne was doing research for her acclaimed cookbook Essentials of Asian Cuisine. Q: You started your food career at Saveur Magazine […]
Kyoto is one of our favorite destinations in Japan, and the relatively new Hyatt Regency Kyoto is the hotel that best captures the city’s refined aesthetic, perfected hospitality and service, and incredible cuisine. The hotel is truly a work of art. Designed by Takashi Sugimoto of Asia’s renowned Super Potato design firm, the hotel features several Japanese […]
A highlight of Tokyo is experiencing the non-stop action, the neon, the pop-culture, cutting-edge design, and the crowds. But we also love taking our travelers to quiet sections of Tokyo that are filled with traditional Japanese shops, Edo-era wooden buildings, Buddhist temples, and other historic sites that escaped the WWII bombing One of our favorite places is […]
Tokyo is one of the best places in the world to see modern and contemporary architecture. Aoyama, Harajuku, Roppongi, Ginza and other neighborhoods are filled with important buildings by some of the world’s leading architects, including SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Ando, Le Corbusier, Kenzo Tange, Rafael Vinoly, Renzo Piano, Toyo Ito, Fumihiko Maki, […]
John is one of the travel experts based in our New York City office. He’s passionate about art and architecture, and helps design our tours around the world. Q: What are your favorite travel destinations? A: Each destination is fascinating in its own way, and I love exploring new places and discovering what’s distinctive about them—local […]
A seafood kaiseki meal is a must when visiting the Ise Peninsula in Japan—it is among the freshest available. Japan is known for seafood and its many preparations, ranging from such dishes as octopus tempura to the infamous blowfish sashimi. A multi-course kaiseki meal is one of the best ways to experience a variety of […]
Many of our tours include Benesse Art Site on Naoshima Island, and one of the activities we arrange from there is a private excursion to nearby Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku. The excursion can be done in just half a day and is recommended for anyone interested in Japanese art and culture. We arrange […]
Highlights from an Artisans of Leisure traveler’s private Japan tour, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji Castle and Hakone.
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