Riki's August 2022 Newsletter

Our first post-COVID tours are ready to go We are delighted to tell you that our first tours since the COVID pandemic began are ready to go! We have five tours scheduled until the end of the year, starting with City Lights & Alpine Trails at the end of this month. All tours are sold out except for our ceramics & art tour - Earth & Fire in November, and our penultimate aesthetic tour -  Autumn Colours also in November. The last couple of years have been a tricky time for us since COVID appeared at the start of 2020, but we made it to the other side and we are thankful to everyone who has supported us. When will Japan open to international travellers? You may have heard that Japan is now open to international travellers, but if the truth be known, there are still several restrictions in place. First of all, you can only visit Japan as part of a guided tour (like mine). And although you "can" visit Japan independently, you are required to be locally guided every day, and as this is extremely costly, independent travel as you know it, isn't really a thing in Japan yet. We are hoping that next year, independent travel returns to normality because it was actually the largest part of our little business. Our 2023 tours are on sale We are happy to announce the release of our tours for the first half of 2023. The year kicks off with our Classic Sakura tour at the end of March. Next up is our North Sakura tour in late April, which takes you on the road less taken for cherry blossoms in the far north of Japan. Spirit of Japan, our walking tour of the Kumano Kodo and the Nakasendo, departs in May and is always very popular. Lastly we have a May departure of our signature tour, City Lights & Alpine Trails. Please get in touch if you would like to join any of these tours.