Our Artisan Pacific Travel Olympics Experience is our tour-based package for the 2020 Summer Games.  It includes hotel, transportation, guides, tours, a celebratory dinner, and other events. No [...]

Overview The Summer Olympics returns to Tokyo next year, and the time to plan for your trip is now.  There are 33 sports and 339 events planned across four weeks, from July 22 (two days before [...]

Today we’ll start a series on the venues and events of the Olympics. In each installment we’ll examine a few of the venues and games along with a few recommendations and observations on the [...]

Sumo is one of our all-time favorite sporting pastimes, anywhere.  And not to be missed when you travel to Japan. We tell you why in a previous blog post and today we highlight a few of our [...]

I started this post a few months ago, watching the end of the 4th game of the Japan “Climax” Baseball series on TV, after having watched a one-sided first World Series game earlier in the day. [...]

Cost Overruns Drive Potential Changes to Olympic Venues, Olympic Flame May Be Lit By Flying Car Construction for the Olympics is hitting it’s stride in a classic Japanese manner – [...]

The gardens of Japan are known world-wide for their beauty, fluidity, and character. Pathways offer unique, almost frame-like vistas as you walk through. Many of the country’s most culturally [...]

The absolute dog days of summer in Japan (mid-August) are marked by Obon. Obon (お盆) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved [...]

The Nakasendo Trail – one of the five main roads (Gokaido) of the Edo (Shogun) period. This exceptionally well preserved trail of post towns deep in the heart of Japans’ alps is an exceptional [...]

Japanese Fireworks Festivals Hanabi (花火) (fireworks), not to be confused with Hanami (cherry blossom viewing), are truly exceptional and a staple of Japan’s summer festival season. In Japan [...]