Our Artisan Pacific Travel Olympics Experience – our tour-based hotel package – for the 2020 Summer Games includes hotel, transportation, guides and tours. It also includes a [...]

Update May 2: The ticket lottery process for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games for the USA, Canada, and other countries has been announced.  Dates are as follows (subject to change): Opening of [...]

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 [...]