Start your trip

Three ways to travel

Choose what you hand over.
We’ll shape the journey.

Every Japan Ikigai Trip is handcrafted and kept off the record. The difference is where you want us to take the lead.

Explore the three shapes See Omakase departures

Pricing

How much does a mystery trip to Japan cost?

Every trip is designed from scratch, so there is no shelf price. What changes the number is how long you travel, how much of the trip is yours to shape, and the budget you give us. There are three shapes, and this is what each one starts at.

01Complete trust

Omakase

We choose everything. You pick from the dates we open.

A fixed price per person

Two people sharing

  • 5 nights / 6 days$2,500 USDSolo: $2,950 USD
  • 7 nights / 8 days$3,300 USDSolo: $3,930 USD
  • 13 nights / 14 days$6,200 USDSolo: $7,370 USD

The price is fixed. The trip inside it is not. Your dietary needs, places you have already been, no-go list, and the season all shape a journey designed from scratch inside that number.

You hand over the choosing. We read your answers closely and design the journey we believe you will enjoy most—private, self-guided, and never shared with another group.

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02Your dates, our design

Signature

Your dates, your budget, your no-go list. We design the rest.

From $3,000 USD per person

5 nights / 6 days, two people sharing

  • 7 nightsFrom $4,000 USD
  • 10 nightsFrom $5,800 USD
  • 21 nightsFrom $12,200 USD

You tell us when you want to travel, what you love, and what to avoid. We design and book every day of it, then send you a personal proposal with a voice message before you decide anything.

Start the questionnaire
03A journey for the occasion

Milestone

For the occasions that deserve a proper journey.

From $4,000 USD per person

No ceiling; shaped around the occasion

A honeymoon. An anniversary. A retirement. A graduation trip. A birthday that deserves a real journey rather than a dinner reservation.

One day is designed entirely around what you are marking, using places and people we cannot reach on an ordinary week. If someone wants to arrange a piece without you knowing, we will hold the secret and build it in.

If you are traveling alone, we will be the ones celebrating you. Marking it is our job, and we take it seriously.

Start the questionnaire

Trip length: 5 nights / 6 days minimum, up to four weeks. The average is about 10 days.

The stays

Where you will sleep

Every stay is graded against a written standard before it can enter an itinerary, and someone on our team has stayed at, eaten at, or verified each one.

A

Chosen for position

Within a ten-minute walk of a major station or airport, or part of a hotel group whose standards we know. These are the nights that make the next day work.

S

Chosen for character

Fifty rooms or fewer, with real regional value. Often fifty years old or more, or housed in a building the region itself considers worth keeping.

SS

Chosen because there is nothing else quite like it

Twenty rooms or fewer. A century or more of history. Registered cultural properties, or a place we have judged their equal after staying there ourselves.

OmakaseA + S
SignatureA + S + SS
MilestoneS + SS

01

What your price covers

Accommodations, your long-distance transport inside Japan, booked experiences and Taste-Local meals, 24/7 support in English, and your printed Travel Bible.

International flights to and from Japan are the one big thing you book yourself.

See what’s included

02

How payment works

30% when you confirm, and the balance 60 days before your trip starts. The 30% secures your trip and lets us start arranging it; it is non-refundable from that point.

You can pay in full at the start instead. The price is the same either way. We arrange each trip as one complete design rather than itemizing it.

03

When to book

At least 3 months before you travel, and up to 12 months ahead. The hosts, makers, and small inns worth building a journey around often take only one group at a time.

The more notice we have, the more of Japan is genuinely open to you.

04

How long we hold your proposal

14 days, for all three shapes. The two weeks are room to think, look at flights, and talk it through while the price and trip we quoted stand still.

For Omakase, your proposal holds for 14 days; the departure place does not. Once a length is taken, it closes. We will tell you immediately if it goes while you are deciding.

Omakase

The next departures

We choose everything. You pick from the dates we open. One private, self-guided group travels on each line below.

How applying works

  1. 1

    Pick a date and a length from the list below.

  2. 2

    Answer the Mystery Trip Questionnaire. Tell us your dietary needs, where you have been, and anywhere you would rather not go.

  3. 3

    We reply within one working day with your proposal and payment link.

  4. 4

    Your place is confirmed when payment completes. Applying does not hold the date.

Then you simply arrive. You will not know where you are going until three days before your trip starts.

The next release

New departure dates are being prepared.

Join the list and we’ll let you know as soon as the next dates enter the booking window.

These are the dates your mystery trip begins, not the date you leave home. If you are flying from abroad, book your flights to land on the date shown or earlier.

When do I find out where I am going?

Three days before your trip starts. Your printed Travel Bible is waiting at your first night’s accommodation.

None of these dates work? Signature is built around your dates instead

Keep the secret

Planning this as a gift?

A mystery trip makes an unusually good gift, and it is one of the few we can wrap without spoiling. We have arranged wedding gifts, retirement gifts, and one surprise a daughter spent a year saving for.

Because gifting changes how everything is worded, timed, and delivered, we handle these one at a time.

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Ready when you are

A journey no one else could take.

Tell us what matters. We’ll take it from there.

Design my mystery trip—free See the next departures