Your Japan Private Tours: guided & self-guided tour packages & city tours

04/12/2024

24/10/2024

Ohara village, Kyoto secret spots, fall foods, Shiga & Otsu: This post is kind of all over the place but easy to negotiate with my handy index below. The main ideas I cover in this article are: the incredible high-value village of Ohara just NE of downtown Kyoto ; a very special temple in downtown Kyoto for praying to the living & the dead ; the modern and contemporary serenity of Kyoto's Garden of Fine Art ; kaki persimmons, matsutake luxury mushrooms and wagashi tea masterpiece sweets ; and, finally, all about the prefecture east of Kyoto: Shiga and it uncrowded worlds. Learn more! https://www.kyoto-tokyo-private-tours.com/blog/10-23-2024.html

18/10/2024

Two interviews: 1. June-2000 conversation with the "mama-san" or manager of a geisha tea house in the Miyagawa geisha district. 2. February-2002 interview at the home and studio of a renowned Kyoto-based Buddhist sculptor. And careful with the geisha of Gion! They have been chased and confronted by determined paparazzi for years now. And this year a few tourists went way too far! As a result the Gion geisha district is cordoned off in the evenings to prevent "idiots" from going where they shouldn't go. If you do wish to catch a maiko or apprentice geisha en route to her work engagements be sure to be on Hanamikoji Street between 16:30 and 17:30. You will see them, all dressed up with wig and all, walking north on Hanamikoji or slipping discreetly into a waiting taxi. So do respect the rules when in Gion in the evening hours, OK? Thank you from everyone concerned!

And note that these "acts of rudeness" have also occurred at the sumo practice sessions in Tokyo's Ryogoku sumo district and other popular experience locations. Don't be rude! Don't be pushy! And don't think you understand Japanese etiquette. Try to do as the Japanese do and you will be fine, OK?

Save time & have a better time anywhere in Japan with my travel design expertise (since 1990). 100% designed for who you are & what you want! Learn more! Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google search) | Whatsapp: (415) 230-0579

01/10/2024

This post or article covers a number of interesting Japanese topics. First we look at two unique features of Japanese traditional homes: the tokonoma ceremonial alcove and the engawa wooden walkways that lead you around the edges of the house and overview traditional Japanese gardens. The next topic is the exquisite omamori talismans sold at most Japanese shrines & temples: for protection, luck and love! Next we go back to the 10th century when Japan's first two "samurai families" the Genji and the Minamoto clans battled each other for territory across Kyoto. Then we look at something that is still used in Japan: bead-system wooden soroban calculators. But fact is you really have to look for elderly people running wholesale and retail businesses on old covered market streets. Think Nishiki street or Sanjo just south of Nijo Castle in Kyoto; Osaka's Kuromon and Korean market; and Tokyo's Outer Tsukiji Market and select ultra old covered market streets. And last but not least, I have provided a good selection of Zen temple sleeping & and meditation temples near Kyoto and Tokyo.

-Japan's unique tokonoma alcoves & engawa walkways,

-Omamori talismans at Japanese shrines and temples,

-Minamoto no Yosh*tsune learns to fight with Kurama's tengu goblins,

-Japan's amazing soroban bead calculators,

-Zen temple overnights & mornings in Kyoto & Tokyo.

15/06/2024

*Anger begets more anger, and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love.* Mahavira, 600 BC, royal Indian 24th preacher of Jainism

These words were said 100 years before the Gautama Buddha and 600 years before Christ. How many wise truths are taught in kindergartens or elementary schools or high schools across planet Gaia? Very few . . . In Japan too . . .

*Jainism:* Jain monks take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (chastity ; *bummer*), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness). These principles have affected Jain culture in many ways, such as leading to a predominantly lacto-vegetarian lifestyle. *In Jainism the function of souls is to help one another.* It is the faith's motto, and the Namokar Mantra is its most common and strongest prayer.

26/02/2024

It was never meant to be a Teddy Bear! The cute white head represents our emotions, the next stone our thoughts, the next our bodies and the final big stone represents our auto-conscious mind (fck un-con or sub-con!!!). But it’s also a Teddy Bear. So sentient life is both complex & cute! Who knew?

28/11/2023

Nezu short for nezumi or rat is my only netsuke or old ivory samurai or Edo merchant sash waist accessory. And in the Chinese 12 animal characters the rat (and yes I’m a rat) reached the reposed and dying Siddhartha Gautama or the Buddha first. Rats are clever! Nezu rode on the back of the cow, saving his energy, and then dashed to the Buddha. The cow was second, and the erratic wild boar arrived last of all (no focus!). 2024, from Feb 10, is the year of the Dragon, the wood dragon (just in time for heightened CO2 awareness!). In Feb, Japan is awash in a subtle sea of pink; timeless hardy plum blossoms arranged on zig zag dark boughs, all imported from China, unlike cherry trees, which are native to Japan and China (momiji maples too!); cherry blossoms start from March 20 or so and Dragons love them! Learn more!

03/08/2023

Kids just wanna have fun and that has been true in Japan since they invented fired ceramics! Don't forget manga and anime but do consider the old-world ways of kids in Nippon. Japanese kids: heroes, foods, games, and naming traditions: https://www.kyoto-tokyo-private-tours.com/travel-planning-resources/japanese_kids_heroes_foods_games_names.html

18/07/2023

Not everything in Japan is kawaii or cute. Far from it! In the old worlds of Japan (and in the Japanese horror films) Noh masks like this one could be possessed by all manner of malicious spirits . . . And like Shakespeare plays, the modern Japanese generally have no "deep" understanding of their Noh theater form . . . The Japanese are different but in the end we are all the same . . . But not quite and that is why travel is so amazing!

05/07/2023

Kimono clothing old & new: An industry caught in time

A symbol of traditional Japan, the kimono industry, mostly centered in Kyoto, fueled fortunes. Samurai wore them and then, from 1870 to 1950, 80% of Japanese women wore kimono on a daily basis. Today, a Japanese woman may wear a kimono once or twice a year.

Kimono are very expensive even if they are made with machine looms. A good new real kimono can cost USD $ 250,000! A wedding kimono would be much more . . . I rented the kimono for my Japanese wedding in Kyoto and the one-day rental cost was roughly USD $ 12,000 (which also included wig, makeup and other); my black kimono was USD 1,000!

Kyoto’s Muromachi area is literally the eastern end of a Silk Road that went all the way to Belgium. And for hundreds of years the leading merchants of Muromachi’s design and national kimono wholesale and retail networks were “kings.”

Today, Muromachi is a ghost of its illustrious past. And yet the kimono lives on. Made by National Living Treasures and dyed by masters from around the nation. And through a handful of Japanese designers who have found new ways to use the craft magic found in kimono design . . .

Tours, walks, off the beaten track, anime | manga, special interests, transportation, restaurants, for families, couples and small groups of friends on all 5 Japanese islands since 1990 . . . Contact me today! WhatsApp +1-415-230-0579; yourjapanprivatetours AT gmail.

01/07/2023

Here is what the glory of a sunny day in October looks like in the countryside (if you're lucky!)

01/07/2023

October on deck and let the Momiji madness begin!

There are two truly crazy months in the Japan travel calendar: October and March. Until 10 years ago the over tourism months were November and April! Yes, climate change! Big time!

Autumn in Japan is all about momiji maple leaves, orange persimmons, and golden gingko leaves. Now, post Covid, Japan's crazy season for autumn foliage now begins on October 20th (used to be Nov 10).

For the foreign tourist the problem is the Japanese tourist. Kyoto gets 52 million visitors a year; 50 million are Japanese and overwhelmingly day trippers . . . So, book hotels for October months in advance, please!
It’s not hard to plan around Japan tourism madness. Think timing and out of the way places (go to the famous ones early or late).

The Japanese are famous for going home at 16:00-16:30, like clockwork almost . . . But do note that the car | taxi gridlock persists until 19:30 in certain zones; so, use public transportation and your legs as much as possible. Parallel streets, especially in Tokyo, are also a way to get away . . . to reduce the “noise.”

Tours, walks, off the beaten track, anime | manga, special interests, transportation, restaurants, for families, couples and small groups of friends on all 5 Japanese islands since 1990 . . . Contact me today! WhatsApp +1-415-230-0579; yourjapanprivatetours AT gmail.