The company
Two guides, one vow
Kisetsu was founded by two tour guides who met on a bus they both hated — forty-nine seats, four countries, eleven days, zero memories anyone kept. They quit the same week and wrote one vow on a napkin: never again a journey you can't feel.
Since 2019
Small on purpose
Mika grew up between Sapporo and Osaka and has opinions about both. Dan was a photojournalist who came to shoot the blossom front in 2014 and essentially never left. Between them: nineteen years of leading trips, one shared hatred of flag-poles held aloft in temple courtyards, and a combined ramen count officials describe as "concerning."
The company runs four journeys a year and refuses to grow past them. More departures would mean guides we haven't travelled with and restaurants we haven't sat in. The waiting list is the business model's only flaw, and we can live with it.
The people
Your guides
Held stubbornly
House rules
The window seat rule
Anything worth passing is worth seeing. Fuji side of the shinkansen, river side of the teahouse, alley side of the bar. Booked, always.
Eat where the cooks eat
Our restaurant list is built by asking chefs where they go after service. It has never once failed us, or you.
Leave the schedule loose
The unplanned hour is the souvenir. Every day has one; guard it from your own itinerary instincts and it will pay you back.
“We don't sell Japan. Japan sells itself. We sell the pace at which it can actually reach you.”
Travel with people who count in seasons.
Begin