Published on Oct, 2024

Atsuko was our tour guide and she is amazing! I would definitely recommend her. She was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot of the history of the temple and shrine we visited on the tour. She is very organized and made sure we were having a good time. She had a binder to make sure she talked about everything and even gave us recommendations on where to eat while in Japan. She is what made the tour one of the best we’ve taken. The lunch was delicious and we got to pick what we wanted from a local restaurant and the matcha making part was very informative.

Published on Sep, 2024

Had an amazing day with Atsuko with my family. She have shared history and cultures about Uji and goes into depth with the religious places and their practices. Had a great time making the matcha and the correct way to drink it. And ending the tour with an awesome lunch and matcha ice cream.

Published on Dec, 2023

While planning our trip to Japan, my partner and I wanted to find a fun event where we could learn about the matcha ceremony and buy good matcha in Uji. We stumbled upon this tour and decided to sign up, not knowing what to expect. The tour was a small group of my partner, me, and our tour guide, Sanae. Before attending the matcha ceremony class, we stopped by some temples in the area and some local shops. The whole experience was elevated by the knowledge and personality of Sanae who was able to give historical context of not only that day, but also some previous days. The Matcha ceremony was also a blast. Sanae introduced us to Toby who showed us how to grind matcha and what goes into different grades of matcha. My partner and I would happily recommend this tour to anyone who will be travelling around Kyoto especially if you can get a tour with Sanae.

Published on Dec, 2023

This was a lovely tour of the town of Uji, given by Tomas and Dani. It blended food tastings with the history of Uji (and Japan), along with a visit to the oldest original Shinto shrine in Japan and an ancient Buddhist temple. Our food samplings started after our shrine visit with a lunch of matcha soba (thin noodles with a very pleasant, mild matcha taste) and tempura. After walking through the town, we stopped for a hands-on lesson in grinding matcha (note... it's a good upper arm workout), preparing the tea (note... frothing the tea is harder than it looks!) and properly enjoying the tea. And we finished the tastings with matcha ice cream that was very good. Our final visit was to the Byodo-in Temple, which is spectacular, and the adjoining museum, which has some lovely artifacts from the temple, including originals of the phoenix sculptures from the roof. We enjoyed the temple so much, in fact, that after saying goodbye to our guides at the end of the tour, we spent more time on the grounds admiring the temple and the colorful fall foliage reflected in the surrounding water. Transportation from Kyoto is on your own, but the train is very easy to take there (just be sure to arrive at the Keihan Uji station rather than the Japan Rail Uji station). I'd highly recommend this tour, and hopefully you'll get either Tomas or Dani as your guide.

Published on Oct, 2023

Sanae with arigato Japan was a wonderful tour guide! we saw some great sites, ate delicious food (and lots of it), and the tea of course was 11/10. Definitely will be the highlight of our time in Kyoto.