Thank you Yusuke San for leading the tatami hands on tour today. Professional, courteous and knowledgeable! The tatami tour is an interesting experience, learning about tatami’s long history and how they come from nature. Well worth doing the tour to learn more about Japan’s history and meet local artisans!

Thank you Yu for the wonderful tour, lovely insights, and the cherry-blossom beautiful paths in Gion you took us on. We also loved learning about our new favorite local treats and sweets in the Nishiki Market. We really enjoyed your company!

The sachet tour was something I would have never ever considered doing if it had not been for Kyoto Hands On Tours. I had no idea about the culture of scented sachets in Japan before taking part in this tour. This tour proved to be a fascinating specific cultural learning activity and an interesting talking point around Japanese History. With the help of Yusuke, my guide who could speak very good English, I could find out more about the particular scent that the shop uses and much more. On a hands on level I loved being able to chose my own beautiful fabric and thread color to create a special memorabilia from Japan. If you are interested in Japanese history, less known aspects of Japanese culture or just want to try something a little bit different I definitely recommend this tour!

I’ve been to Kyoto a couple of times but this is the first time I tried my hands at doing some activity like making sweets. I’m so glad Kyoto Hands on Tours facilitated it for me.Learning something new and experiencing something out of the ordinary makes me stoked. The Master who taught us was super duper nice and has a 60 years experience under his belt.The Hands on Tours staff too are sweet and kind and made me feel special.I don’t think I was able to make my sweets really good but that makes me look forward more to doing it again in
the near future and with Kyoto Hands on Tours around anything is possible.Thank you, Guys.Best of luck!!!

This was an awesome way to learn about how tofu is made, eat (lots of) delicious artisan tofu, and learn more about Japanese culture! Our guide, Yusuke, was great and gave us fun recommendations for our time in Kyoto. I can’t recommend this enough - it was one of the highlights of our time in Kyoto!

Had the best time with Yusuke in both Kyoto & Hiroshima (where Iko joined us with her wealth of knowledge). I fell in love with Japan and the experiences have left me wanting to come back for more. As guides Yusuke & Iko shared their knowledge so gently & their English is superb. In fact, it felt more like we came to Japan, met with our friends & they showed us around. Loved the Okonomiyaki for lunch, so delicious & authentic ... and also away from the crowds of other tourists. Thank you ... highly recommended.

Our guide Yusuke is a competent, very pleasant city- and culture-guide. He knows a lot about culture, sports, history, sights etc. and leaves you enough space to live out your own interests.
Many thanks to you; we are happy to recommend you. We booked an eight-hour tour, which is definitely worth it.

My husband Keith, and I have just returned from an amazing trip to Japan. During that time we spent a week with Yu from Kyoto Hands On Tours in Kyoto and Mt Koya. We couldn't have had a more pleasant, knowledgeable and empathetic guide than Yu, from pushing Keith in a wheelchair, or walking slowly so that K wasn't pressured. Yu helped me searching for woodblock prints and NOTHING was too much trouble. We enjoyed his knowledge of Japanese history, cuisine, culture and sport. Being with Yu was like having a good friend show you around his part of the world. We have no hesitation in recommending Kyoto Hands On Tours for first timers or returners!

Our group of 4 spent 5 amazing days in this ancient city of Kyoto, 2 of those days we spent under the expert guidance of Yu from “Kyoto Hands On Tours”. Our first day Yu took us to the main sights of Kyoto. Yu did his homework and made sure there was emphasis on the spectacular cherry blossoms. We also did an out of the way temple with the most beautiful cherry blossom tree in full blossom. We found Yu very knowledgeable, his use of the bus helped us so much to maximize our time on the tour, and we saw so much under his guidance. He was funny, friendly and his English was extremely good. Day 2, Yu took us to Fushimi Imari-taisha shrine, and then onto Nara to see the most iconic sights of that city. We appreciated our days with Yu and have no hesitation in recommending him and Hands On.

We were in Kyoto Sep 3 - 5 and were incredibly keen to experience a meditation session with a genuine monk. I scoured the internet and found Hands on Japan to be the only tour that offered guided meditation with a monk, copying sutras AND raking the rock garden / "dry landscape" garden / zen garden. It was out of season and Hands on Japan no longer had any dates available for the experience so I contacted them and, to our delight, they organized a tour just for us!

Yu, our guide, made the whole experience. He translated perfectly between the monk's Japanese and our English, enthusiastically chaperoned us across Kyoto to the destination and back and even tailored the length of the tour to help us make another reservation later than day.

This tour was everything we were hoping for from a zen / temple / meditation tour. Can't recommend it highly enough.