Unique experience in Nagano - We had such a great tour with Dai! I wanted to do a Shukubo stay while in Japan, but we got that and so much more with this tour. We tried oyaki, a regional specialty made over an open flame, visited a spice store, walked the busy market street leading to the temple, and got an excellent tour of Zenko-ji. We added the walk through the temple’s underground passage to find the key to paradise and the morning service as well. It was a day packed with new experiences for us and added something special and unique to our Japan trip - really an unforgettable tour!!

Excellent authentic experience - An excellent trip with authentic traditional food and lodgings. The guides, particularly Dai, were excellent and helpful even assisting with booking us on other excursions. Would highly recommend that if you are doing a temple stay this is the one you choose.

Kevin is great! - We were fortunate enough to get a tour with Kevin, who went out of his way to make it unique. His command of Japanese made the tour even better, as he was able to get all of our hard questions answered by locals!

Unique experience - Amazing experience, highly recommend! Our tour guide, Joyce, was also so welcoming and knowledgeable about Japanese culture. The temple lodging was our favourite stay of our trip!

10/10 would recommend - Very nice tour with lots of different things to see and a good amount of activities. Joyce was a great guide! We also loved the Oyaki, and the Sake tasting was fantastic!

Amazing tour - I had an amazing time with my guide, Joyce, on this Nagano tour. She is great tour guide, very knowledgeable about culture, traditions, town and food. She was very friendly and spoke fluent english. I had a really good time and enjoyed each moment of my tour. We visited many beautiful places and I participated in the fire ceremony with monks in Zenkoji temple. I tried unique food samplings and had sake tasting. I stayed overnight in temple Japanese style guest house and it was unforgettable experience. I really recommend this tour.

Samurai, Zenko-ji temple stay & Snow Monkeys - We had a wonderful time on our 2 day tour with Kevin! After meeting at Nagano station we were whisked away to Matsushiro. We were joined by a local guide and toured the castle ruins. After we visited the Samurai Residences and participated in a Katana Practice and watched a practice match. We also tried on a replica samurai uniform! Afterwards, we were taken for an overnight stay in a temple lodge which was a fantastic experience! The next morning, we enjoyed a tour of Zenko-ji Temple, a sake tasting and a delicious lunch. We finished the day with a visit to the Jigokudani Monkey Park which was magical! Kevin was friendly and provided excellent background information throughout. Thanks for a great tour!

Best tour of Nagano - This tour is really good as we learnt about Matsushiro Clan's history and heritage during the Edo period, we particularly enjoyed the 'katana' pratice with the master which we had so much fun and laughter..a memorable experience! We also enjoyed the Saki tasting, the temple tour and the wonderful vegetarian lunch. The trail to the monkey park is not as challenging as we thought but it was a wonderful encounter with the monkeys up close. Awesome! Joyce, the guide was very good and knowledgeable and she tried her best to help us with our request in anyway she can. It was a truly rewarding tour which we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves very much. 👍

Thank you Kevin - Obviously the temple is great and staying inside for the night in a wonderful traditional Japanese room with succulent meals was amazing… but nothing would have been the same without the kindness, flexibility and professionalism of Kevin

Interesting atmosphere, tasty food, comfortable accommodation - Enjoyable experience. The guide was friendly, and so despite being the only one on the tour that day it wasn't awkward at all. The temples was something to behold, and there were various little events to do on the tour relating to it which weren't expected, but were interesting! Going through the pitch black tunnel was quite interesting. The sampling at the brewery shop, the okaki shop, and other little shops was enjoyable. They had lots of different things to try in the brewery shop which weren't alcoholic so don't worry at all if you don't drink. The sweet 'amazake' non-alcoholic rice drink, and the plum juice were favourites. Advice: Do be wary and plan beforehand how much additional to the tour cost you are willing to spend, if anything. Likely the reason that the brewery partnered with the tour is to make use of the subtle social pressures surrounding coming into someone's shop and being given lots of free things - as well as the exposure showing new things that people would want to buy, of course. The staff at all the shops were lovely. Didn't realise how many free tasting experiences were on the tour! Also free Japanese seven-spice. The accommodation was very comfortable. Somewhat modern in facilities, so more like a traditional Japanese inn than a humbly prepared rest spot for a pilgrim. It was wonderful and the room felt very spacious and calmingly-simple. The hosts were pleasant people. The food was excellent. Such simple but tasty and diverse flavours and textures. The quality of the ingredients really showed. They were easily able to accommodate a vegan diet (simply removing one egg dish). Do ask before eating to make sure, but rest at ease to know that can be catered for. The bath facility was wonderful. With the door shut there is essentially complete silence, with only the gentle sounds of the lapping of the water as you sink into it. The bath is preprepared (Only thing to note is that it must be used at night, not morning. This is a nice wind-down though: It is very relaxing). The guide (Joyce. Thanks Joyce!) was helpful in providing information on how to plan the day after of the trip when asked. One thing to note if anyone reading this is also planning on going to the snow monkey park, the bus from Nagano station going straight there is very infrequent, so either plan wisely or take the express train to Yudanaka and take a bus from there. Personally couldn't find the time, but advice for those who also want to stick an onsen visit in to a trip (advice from the guide/ shukubo host): Onsens in specific hotels can only be accessed by those who pay you stay overnight, but apparently at Yudanaka station there is a free foot onsen, and a paid public onsen which doesn't require paying for a room. Last thing. There seems to have been some kind of miscommunication on the tour. At the door some tickets were offered, and the guide talked about them previously as if they were included in the tour, but they weren't. They were only 600 yen though, so it was okay. Just be aware of that. Thank you for everything! Enjoyed the trip thoroughly.