Yes, you can ask. Every traveler who fills in our questionnaire gets a box at the end for anything else they want us to know, and most people use it. What arrives there ranges from one line about a food they love to a paragraph about a knee that needs rests built into the day. Those notes do not sit in a folder. They are the first thing we read when we start designing, and they shape the route before anything is booked.
This page exists because the question we hear most, right after someone receives a proposal, is some version of: am I allowed to ask for this? Below is what people have actually written to us. Names, dates and anything that could identify a traveler have been removed or changed.
One thing to be clear about before you read on. A request tells us what to weigh. It is not a promise that the thing will appear in your trip. Some requests are easy, some depend on the season or the route, and a few are not possible at all. We will tell you which is which rather than quietly leaving something out.
"There is one place I want to see"
This is the most common kind of note, and it is welcome. People have asked us to build in a particular region rather than a city: the southwestern island of Kyushu, the two quiet prefectures on the Japan Sea coast, an old castle town at the western end of the country, a stretch of Okinawa reached by bike.
People have also named specific attractions: the Ghibli Museum, teamLab Planets, a private collection of vintage Nissan cars. Mount Fuji comes up more than anything else, usually phrased as a long-held wish rather than a sightseeing item.
What we do with it. A named place becomes a fixed point if feasible, and the rest of the route is designed around it. Naming a place does not mean you have to plan the rest yourself: it is the one thing we hold fixed while we use what the questionnaire tells us about you, information you may not think to hand a travel company, to design everywhere around it. If it does not fit the season or the length of the trip, we say so in the proposal rather than dropping it silently.
"There is one thing I want to do"
The range here is wide, and that is the point. At one end: someone wanted to ride a bullet train at least once, having never been on one. At the other: someone was considering entering an international half marathon held on a small southern island during their travel window, and asked whether it could be built in, adding that it was not a deal breaker if not.
In between, people have asked for a pottery class, a round of golf, a Japanese baseball game with no preference for a team, a cooking class, tea tasting, a digital art museum, an animation museum, cycling, and a day set aside for buying glasses.
What we do with it. Anything that can be booked, we book, and it becomes part of the design. Anything that cannot, we say so. A few of these are seasonal, sell out a year ahead, or cost more than a traveler's stated budget allows, which is a real answer rather than a polite one.
"This is what we eat, and how"
Food notes are among the most useful things you can send us, because they change many decisions at once.
Some are about pleasure: as many kaiseki dinners as the trip can hold, or the opposite, where a couple asked to eat where locals eat, street food included, and specifically did not want expensive dining. Some are about a particular dish someone loves, named by its Japanese name. Some are about drinks, with one household splitting neatly between sake, plum wine, tea and filter coffee.
Others are about necessity: vegetarian meals for part of a couple, and a traveler whose partner needs low-salt or no-salt food to keep blood pressure stable.
What we do with it. Preferences shape where we book. Dietary needs shape what is possible at all, and they are treated as a constraint rather than a wish, right down to the dietary card written in Japanese that travels in your Travel Bible.
"This is what my body can do"
We are sent this more often than you might expect, and always with a certain carefulness, as though the traveler is apologizing.
One person explained that they can walk, but only short distances, and need to rest often, and that this does not stop them going anywhere. A couple in their sixties said they were in good health but did not want long hikes or strenuous days. Someone asked to avoid heights and sharp drops. Someone traveling in midwinter asked for a plan B for bad weather.
What we do with it. This changes the shape of the days rather than reducing them. Rests get designed in, distances get shortened, and a wet-weather alternative sits behind the outdoor day. Nobody has to explain twice.
"We have already booked some of it"
A lot of people arrive with parts of the trip already fixed, and worry that this disqualifies them.
People have written that their flights are already bought, that they arrive at one airport and leave from another, that one night at a particular inn is already reserved and non-refundable, that they will book their own international flights, or that they can arrange their own nights in the city where their family lives. One traveler asked for no more than a single layover, and gave a preferred connection length.
What we do with it. We design around what is already booked. Flights are yours to book in any case, and a fixed night or a fixed airport is simply a constraint like any other. It does not make the trip any less. And if the nights we design and book still add up to five or more, not counting the ones you have arranged yourself, we can build the Mystery Trip to start or end at that stay.
"We have been to Japan before, so surprise us properly"
Repeat visitors write the most demanding notes, and they are our favorite kind.
One traveler had been coming once or twice a year for over a decade and asked to be surprised the way you would surprise a Japanese person. Another had visited seven or eight times and asked us to make it genuinely interesting. Another asked to avoid touristy areas and experiences altogether, including the famous city everyone recommends, unless we could find a version of it that was not overrun.
What we do with it. We treat "I have already seen the obvious" as the most useful sentence in the questionnaire. It moves the whole design away from the places our own article on crowds is about. This is also where the unglamorous groundwork pays off: our founder has visited all 47 prefectures and eaten at more than 5,000 restaurants, and the people who design your trip are well-traveled themselves, born and raised in different parts of Japan, with backgrounds in the travel and hospitality industry. That combination is what makes it possible to answer a note like that with somewhere real rather than somewhere plausible.
"We are marking something"
Anniversaries, honeymoons, a milestone birthday, a retirement, a graduation, a bachelor or bachelorette party. Sometimes the occasion is the whole reason for the trip, and sometimes it is one line at the end of an otherwise practical note.
One person asked simply for a single day of the trip to be a romantic highlight. Another was traveling to see their child who is studying in Japan, and wanted the trip built around that visit.
What we do with it. An occasion changes what we reach for on one particular day, and it can change how we work with you before the trip even starts. If you are planning a surprise for someone else, in a couple, a family, or a group, we can hold the pre-trip video call with just you, so the surprise stays a surprise. If you are traveling solo and marking the occasion for yourself, that same call is yours to use however helps: walk us through what you are hoping for, or leave the celebration entirely in our hands. If the occasion is the whole point of the trip, tell us, because it is the difference between a good week and a week you remember for a specific reason.
"I want the trip to mean something"
This one surprised us by how often it appears. Several travelers have asked, in their own words, to explore the idea of ikigai: what makes a life feel purposeful. One asked for meaning and challenge. One asked for time in the mountains, meditation, and something of the philosophy behind how people here have lived.
What we do with it. We cannot promise anyone a revelation, and we would not try. What we can do is build days that leave room for one: a quiet trip pulled toward nature, small ryokan and hotel stays instead of busy ones, an afternoon at a temple where you can sit with the practice of Zen rather than photograph it. We design around the atmosphere someone is actually asking to feel, and put you with people whose work is their life rather than their job.
What we cannot do
Honesty is more useful than encouragement, so:
- We cannot guarantee an experience that depends on the weather, the season, or a single family's calendar. Some of the best places in Japan take one group at a time and close when the family takes a week off. We cannot promise the weather, but we design around it: a backup plan for the place and time you would have visited, ready before you need it, for days when you would still rather be out and active. And if a rainy day calls for slowing down instead, a hotel afternoon or a nearby cafe is yours to choose just as easily. Either way, the day still works.
- We cannot fit everything into a short trip. A request list longer than the number of days is a real problem, and we will tell you which items are competing with each other.
- We cannot make a place uncrowded. If you ask for the famous shrine in high season, you will get the famous shrine in high season. But a trip that runs from Japan's best-known sights to the way people actually live day to day is its own kind of wide, and we hope you will take that as part of the experience too. In the countryside, it works differently. There are few tourists, but plenty of residents, and a small town's restaurants are built for its own population, not a Mystery Trip's worth of extra guests. That is why we always offer more than one option, but if a meal takes a little longer than expected some evening, we hope you can take it in stride.
- We will not pretend a request landed when it did not. If something you asked for specifically is not in the trip, it will be missing on purpose, and you will know why before you pay.
How to use the box
Write in it the way you would text a friend who is planning something for you. There is no format. The most useful notes we receive are specific and slightly awkward: the food you cannot eat, the thing you are quietly hoping for, the reason this particular week matters, the thing you physically cannot do.
You are not being graded. You are telling us how to spend your week well.
Have a question about your own trip? [Message us on WhatsApp](https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=15716042898&text&type=phone_number&app_absent=0) anytime.
FAQ
Can I make special requests on a mystery trip?
Yes. The questionnaire ends with an open box for anything you want us to know, and it is the first thing we read when designing. Requests shape the route before anything is booked. They are treated as selection criteria rather than guarantees: if something cannot be done, we tell you in the proposal instead of leaving it out quietly.
What if I have already booked my flights or one of the hotels?
That is common and it is not a problem. Many travelers arrive with flights bought, different arrival and departure airports, or a night already reserved somewhere. We design around what is fixed. International flights are yours to book in any case.
Can I ask for a specific place to be included?
Yes, and it becomes a fixed point that the rest of the route is built around. If it does not work with your season or trip length, we say so in the proposal rather than dropping it silently.
What if I cannot walk far, or have a health condition?
Tell us, in as much detail as you are comfortable with. Pace, distance and rest are designed in rather than added on, and dietary needs are treated as a constraint, not a preference. Your Travel Bible carries a dietary card in Japanese for restaurants.
We have been to Japan several times. Is a mystery trip still worth it?
Repeat visitors send us our most useful notes. "I have already seen the obvious" moves the entire design away from the places everyone else is sent to, which is the part we are actually good at.
Sources
- Our own Mystery Trip Questionnaire responses. Examples on this page are summarized rather than quoted, and names, dates, ages and any identifying details have been removed or changed.