This Week in Tokyo, Mito, and Kyoto – 8 November 2022

This week showcased the full spectrum of (almost) everything Maction Planet does. I started the week by closing out the large group tour I was guiding around the country. This was followed by two days of travel consulting work in Ibaraki prefecture. I was back in maction in Tokyo for the rest of the week guiding Tokyo Private Tours. Wearing my Kanpai Planet hat, I hosted two food and drink-focused evening tours too. Other guides in the Maction Planet team were running tours around the country, and in my spare moments, I was travel planning for some guests coming in 2023.

Featured image – Producing memories: It was an honour to guide James W. Skotchpole and his husband around Tokyo, sharing with them my passion for the World’s Greatest Metropolis!

Danish Days: There is so much going on in this photo that it deserves a blog post of its own. Either side of me (centre) are Preben Pontoppidan, Export Manager for the House of Finn Juhl (photo left), and Alex Højrup Munch, co-founder and CMO of Stauning Whisky (photo right). We’re in the house of the Danish Ambassador to Japan, and we’re sitting in ‘The Whisky Chair‘, designed in 1948. Obviously, I’m drinking Stauning Whisky. All this is happening at the Danish Days in Daikanyama event, held at the Danish Embassy in Tokyo last weekend, showcasing sustainable food from Denmark. We continue…

Takigyo: As part of my travel consulting work in Ibaraki, I experienced Takigyo, waterfall meditation, at the Tsukimachi Waterfalls. Refreshing is an understatement. Though less known, 17 metres high and 12 metres wide, you can stand right behind the falling waters without them hitting you. Or you can do what I did.

Luckily, the soba restaurant which overlooks the falls, Momijien, offers home-roasted coffee to enjoy on the restaurant’s outside terrace while reflecting on the experience and warming up your body.

Kairakuen Ume: Kairakuen is one of Japan’s top three gardens. It’s famous for its ume (Japanese plum) trees, so there’s nothing more appropriate to drink at Koubun-tei, the house which stands in the garden, than an ume soda, in an ume-embossed glass, with an actual ume in it. Kanpai!

Sake signing: When I gifted a bottle of the sake I made to all 27 guests on my large group tour around Japan, I didn’t expect any of them to request a signing session of the label. Well, that is exactly what happened in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Kyoto on 1 November 2022!

This is the only sake ever made where people can watch over two hours of footage explaining exactly how it was brewed, and you can too, right here. Kanpai!

Maction Planet runs bespoke Private Tours and Experiences in Tokyo, and beyond. To book yours, or to purchase a gift card, contact us at info@mactionplanet.com

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