Welcome, and thank you for visiting my website!
My name is Kazu, and I was born and raised in Himeji, Japan.
Over the years, I've had the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world through tour guiding, international exchange activities, and friendships.
Today, I work as a freelance English-speaking tour guide, offering a wide variety of tours across Japan.
Through my guiding experiences, I've come to realize that every traveler has different interests, expectations, and ways of enjoying Japan.
That's why I'm now focusing on creating one-of-a-kind, fully customized tours tailored to each guest's interests and preferences.
Having guided a diverse range of tours, along with my experience working in the sake industry, I bring both practical guiding experience and specialized knowledge of Japanese sake to the experiences I create.
I'm also the organizer of Himeji International Exchange, a community that brings together Japanese residents and people from around the world through language exchanges, food events, and cultural activities.
While Himeji and the surrounding regions are my home base, I'm happy to travel anywhere in Japan upon request.
Whether you're interested in Japanese history, traditional culture, local food, sake, or something completely different, I'd love to help you create a memorable experience that reflects your interests.
On this website, you'll find:
・Information about my customized tours
・Reviews from past guests
・My background and experience as a tour guide
Thank you again for stopping by!
I hope to have the opportunity to help you discover Japan in your own unique way.
Kazu
One-of-a-Kind Tours, Tailored to You
No two travelers are the same, so why should their tours be?
I offer fully customized tours designed around your interests, preferences, and travel style.
Rather than following a fixed itinerary, I'll work with you to create a unique experience that reflects what you truly want to see, do, and discover in Japan.
Whether you're interested in exploring historical landmarks, experiencing traditional Japanese culture, discovering local food, visiting sake breweries, or simply enjoying places off the beaten path, the possibilities are endless.
As a Himeji local with experience guiding a wide variety of tours and a background in the sake industry, I can offer local insights, cultural knowledge, and experiences that go beyond typical sightseeing.
While I'm based in Himeji and primarily guide in Hyogo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara, I'm happy to travel anywhere in Japan upon request.
*How It Works
1. Share Your Interests
Tell me where you'd like to go, what you'd love to experience, and anything else you have in mind.
2. Let's Design Your Tour
I'll create a personalized itinerary based on your requests, interests, and available time.
3. Enjoy Your One-of-a-Kind Experience
Explore Japan at your own pace, with a tour designed just for you.
Your Journey, Your Way
Whether you have a specific plan in mind or just a few ideas, I'd be delighted to help turn them into a memorable experience.
Interested?
Let's create your one-of-a-kind tour!
Travel Trough People
We had a wonderful time with Kazu. We really enjoyed his tour and very interesting facts and commentary around the castle and its history.
We also really enjoyed his lunch recommendation, it was fabulous…. Thanks again for spending time with us today.
We had the best experience in Nara with Kazu.
Thank you for being so informative and being a great tour guide we had a wonderful time.
We loved the food from the restaurant he recommended for us. We would love to host him whenever he decides to come to Canada.
I'm a big fan of Nihonshu.
Nihonshu is widely known as Japan's national drink.
Why do I love it so much?There are three reasons for that.
First of all, Nihonshu tastes surprisingly different from bottle to bottle.
Nihonshu is divided into more than 10 categories depending on its making process and raw materials.
Also, there are about 1,400 酒蔵 -sakagura-, Nihonshu brewries in Japan and each one of them brew Nihonshu with their own styles.
So, there are tons of 日本酒 out there.
It's a lot of fun to try as many bottles of 日本酒 as possible and find your favorite kinds of日本酒.
Second, Nihonshu goes very well with food.
It is said that Nihonshu is food-friendly beverage.
It pairs amazingly well with not only Japanese food but also any kinds of food.
Once you start having Nihonshu and food together, you can't leave the table.
Lastly, Nihonshu is enjoyable at a wide range of temperatures.
Nihonshu changes its face depending on what temperatures you drink at.
Generally, premium Nihonshu like Daiginjo and Ginjo is served chilled, not warmed.
But it doesn't mean you can't warm high grade Nihonshu. Each Nihonshu has its best temperatures and you'll never know until you try it.
Those are the reasons why I love Nihonshu.
If you have never had Nihonshu before, I highly recommend try it out!
In my free time, I like to play freestyle basketball.
Have you ever heard of it?
Freestyle basketball is different from normal basketball. It's like doing performance on the stage with basketball.
Ballers compete with each other by showing their ball-handking skills and creative tricks.
Literally, you can do anything as long as you include a ball in your performance.Some are skilled at dribbling.
Some are crazy about spinning. And some use multiple balls.
Some even put dancing moves and acrobatic moves in their routines.
In freestyle basketball, it's free and there's no rule.
That's why I love this sport.
English was my favorite subject back in my school days.
I was so much into American culture back then like NBA, English songs, movies and TV dramas.
These interests naturally grew my passion towards English and encouraged me to study harder than any other subject.
Since then, I have been learning English and I’m positive I’ll continue working on it for the rest of my life.
What makes me so passionate about English? There’s one thing that comes to mind immediately when I think about this question, which is.....
“English opens up lots of possibilities.”
Before restarting English and taking it seriously at the age of thirty, what I thought I could do was very limited.
It was so dark and I felt like my life was going nowhere.
However, things completely changed after gaining English skills.
English gave me an opportunity to work at sakagura, Nihonshu brewery.
English motivated me to teach English and having had the teaching experience challenged myself to become a Japanese teacher as well.
And most importantly, English inspired me to do something that helps out people abroad have a better understanding of Nihonshu.
Looking back on it, I could have never imagined doing any of those without English.
English has given me a lot of inspiration and will keep doing so for the rest of my life as long as I keep working on it.
This is why I like English and put my passion towards it.
I was born and raised in a small city, called Himeji in Hyogo prefecture in Japan.
I spent my whole school days in the city. As a kid, I was pretty active.
I’d often go outside and enjoy playing sports with my friends.
I was especially into baseball and basketball. I studied hard as well.
I made it to a college without any trouble.
After graduation, I earned my first job.
Everything went smoothly up until that time.
As I started working as a door-to-door sales rep in the education industry, I found that things would never be the same.
I couldn’t adjust myself to the new environment and ended up quitting.
After that, I realized that it was not something I really wanted to do and thought to myself,
“ I’m going to do what I really want to do from now on.”
and I decided to challenge myself to become a pro freestyle basketballer.
In my 20s, I put in a lot of time and effort in basketball to realize my dream.
While chasing the dream, I was working at a pizza shop and a bento (lunch box) store to make a living.
After working the night shift, I went to a park near Himeji castle every day and practiced till I got drenched in sweat.
I really enjoyed doing what I love.
But, I found that it was tough to bring myself to a pro level.
And as the time went by, I started thinking this way,
“Okay, maybe it’s not for me... I love basketball but it's not something I can do for a living. I did all I could, so I have no regrets. I need to find something else I can be as passionate about as I’m about basketball to live my life.”
Before I turned 30, I decided to move on to the next chapter.
When I was 29 years old, I changed direction and decided to take English seriously to get some English-related jobs because English was the only thing I had always been interested in aside from basketball.
But, my English back then was not good enough to get a job.
So, I took a break from working at those 2 stores and took an intensive English program to study hard for two years.
It was tough but I loved it.
I thought I found my passion after basketball.
After the program, the passion led me to becoming an English teacher and teaching 300 students for six years.
I liked being a teacher and the experience motivated me to teach Japanese to people from abroad.
I had a 5-year-experience of teaching Japanese to 500 students from more than 10 countries.
While doing those 2 language-related jobs, I also worked at a local sake brewery for 6 years. (The brewery was looking for somebody capable of English.)
Interstingly enough, I didn't know anything about sake up until seven years ago, when I started at a locl sake brewery.
At the very beginning of 2019, I met a woman who was working a freelance teacher and tour guide.
It was the first time getting to know someone like her, which was really inspiring to me.
As I got to know her, I came to think this way,
"I want to do something by myself too just like her.
It didn't take long until I decided to combine my passion, sake and English, and create my own sake tour and workshop designed for people visiting Japan.
However, I thought I felt like I was still not ready becasue my knowledgable about sake was not good enough to make that happen.
In order to have a better understanding of the beverage, I joined events, attended seminars and participated experience programs.
This is how I earned myself several sake certificates and it gave me confidence to finally start doing my own sake tour and workshop.
In fall of 2019, I met a guy from the Netherlands.
I found that he loved sake and we hit it off pretty quickly. The next day, we went to a sake bar that has more than 300 selections of sake to choose from.
He looked so excited about having those many choices of sake.
We tasted more than 10 different styles of sake that night.
I still vividly remember him looking so happy every time he had each sip of the sake.
Thanks to the Internet, we still keep in touch with each other and talk about anything like, how things are going, family stuff, jobs, and of course sake too.
He often tells me how much he loves to visit Japan and enjoy sake again like we did at the cool bar in Himeji.
One time, when we had a chat online, he said,
“I haven’t opened the bottle that I bought in Himeji. I keep it for a special occasion.”
I was like in my mind,
“What? It’s been a month already since you left and you love sake so much.
You still keep it ? Why??”
He told me,
“Sake is really difficult to get in the Netherlands. Compared to Japan, there are a lot fewer selections of sake to choose from and sake is much more expensive here.”
After having this conversation, the outbreak of COVID19 hit the whole world.
Because the disease went so viral, the prospect of his making a trip to Japan remained unclear and this ongoing situation was likely to continue for a while...
My sake tour and workshop also stopped
This has disappointed him badly because he thinks not being able to visit Japan means he will have to put up with a situation where he drinks only limited brands of sake that are available at supermarkets or liquor stores around his place.
I felt really sorry for him because I know how much he loves sake.
Up until then, sake was more like for myself.
However, knowing the fact that it's difficult for him to enjoy sake back in his country inspired me to do somethig for people like him.
Also, I’ve come to think that there must be a lot of people like him, who want to drink sake but almost give up doing it thinking that there’s nothing they can do about it for now.
This motivated me to challenge myself to write my first original book to make their sake-lives at home better.
After the book, I kept thinking about what I could do for someone like him, those who are intersted in sake.
It was challenging but, at the same time it was a lot of fun to keep figuring out a way to make difference.
Before I knew it, sake also became my passion just like basketball and English.
Four years later, as international travel gradually returned and Japan reopened after the pandemic, I was finally able to resume sake tours.
Since then, I have had the opportunity to welcome guests from a wide range of countries and lead various experiences, including sake brewery tours and sake hopping tours.
Meeting people from different backgrounds and sharing Japan's rich sake culture with them has been one of the most rewarding parts of my journey as a guide.
While sake has always remained at the heart of what I do, my interests as a guide have gradually expanded beyond sake-related experiences.
I have taken on a wider variety of tours, including bus tours in Kyoto and Osaka, private walking tours, and eventually multi-day tours across different regions of Japan.
Through these experiences, I have developed a deeper appreciation not only for Japan and its culture, but also for my hometown of Himeji, where I was born and raised.
Through these experiences, I have developed a deeper appreciation not only for Japan and its culture, but also for my hometown of Himeji, where I was born and raised.
Meeting people from a wide range of countries and backgrounds has helped me see Himeji from a new perspective and recognize the unique value of the city.
In many ways, this journey has brought me back to where it all began. When I was 17 years old, I had the opportunity to participate in an exchange program organized by Himeji City and visit the United States for the first time.
That experience opened my eyes to the world beyond Japan and sparked a lifelong interest in English, international exchange, and cross-cultural communication.
This realization eventually led me to start Himeji International Exchange (HIE), a community designed to bring local residents and people from around the world together through language, culture, and shared experiences.
Through HIE, I hope to create opportunities for meaningful connections and help people discover a side of Himeji that goes beyond its famous castle.
Looking ahead, I hope to serve as a bridge between Japan and the rest of the world, both as a tour guide and as a community organizer.
Through my customized tours, I want to help travelers discover Japan in their own unique way, while continuing to create opportunities for people from different backgrounds to connect through Himeji International Exchange.
Ultimately, I hope to contribute to making my hometown of Himeji a warmer, more welcoming, and internationally connected community, while building meaningful connections with people from around the world through my work as a guide.
Let's Create Something Memorable Together
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about me, what I do, and what I hope to achieve.
For me, guiding is about more than simply showing people around. It’s about connecting with people, sharing experiences, and creating memories that stay with us long after the journey ends.
Whether it’s your first visit to Japan or you’ve been here many times before, I’d love to help you discover something new and make your time here truly your own.
Every traveler is different, and that’s what makes each experience special.
I look forward to meeting you and creating something memorable together!