About Walk Japan

Walk Japan Ltd. pioneers and specialises in off-the-beaten-track walking tours of Japan. Since 1992, the Company has been introducing little-known areas of Japan in contexts that are informative and make sense of sights and customs. These would otherwise remain elusive to most visitors. Avoiding tourist buses, which are typical of many tours in Japan, Walk Japan's tours bring this fascinating country up close by mixing in with its people and their way of life. We use public transport, with its many varied and efficient guises; and also use delightful, local inns (and the occasional temple) and family-run restaurants.

Walk Japan is skilled at unveiling many aspects of Japan during the course of its tours. Since its beginnings the company has taken many people from North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia to beautiful and interesting areas of Japan that would otherwise be difficult to access and fully appreciate. Currently, Walk Japan has 10 regular scheduled tours and is planning more for the future. Each year the Company also creates many different custom tours tailored to our customers' particular requirements.

The two founding partners of Walk Japan are Tom Stanley, and Dick Irving. Tom is also a director, and is joined on the company board by Paul Christie, who is the CEO & Managing Director, Llewelyn Thomas and, as a non-executive director, Ferry de Bakker. Ferry, who has a long and successful career in international business, was a customer of Walk Japan. He liked the company so much that he jumped at the opportunity to offer his invaluable experience to us.

All the tour leaders at Walk Japan are at minimum very proficient in the Japanese language and have an intimate knowledge of Japan and its people. Our staff are also rated highly by our customers and travel writers for their enthusiasm, friendliness, knowledge of Japan and professionalism. Besides Paul, Tom and Llew, who all make as much time as possible to lead tours to 'keep in touch with our customers where it matters most', our tour leaders include: Riwa Komatsubara, the first Japanese person to join our staff as a tour leader and who regularly takes time off to do so from her career as a TV director; Naomi Addyman, an Englishwoman born in Tokyo, who besides being a tour leader is also Walk Japan's tour operations manager; and Joel Challender, an Englishman, who used to travel the world leading tours for Japanese, and now lives with his family in Tokyo. In 2011, we also welcomed Greg Koch, Mario Anton, John Mcbride and Patrick Lovell as tour leaders.

Walk Japan has grown to be what it is today, a recognised provider of acclaimed walking tours in Japan, because of its customers. With their help over the years we have perfected our tours and, in return we have been able to consistently provide tours of high calibre and pleasure. Almost everyone who travels with Walk Japan rates their overall enjoyment as very good or excellent. 'It was more than I thought it would be' is not an uncommon comment from our customers. Our customers have told their families, friends and acquaintances about Walk Japan and a signifcant proportion of our new customers come by word-of-mouth. Many of our customers return to us on other tours; so far some have come on as many as four separate occasions - we think this is not bad considering we specialise in only one country. Word-of-mouth allows us to spend little on advertising, a virtue that allows us to invest more of our resources in the maintaining and raising the quality of our tours, in research and in staff training.

The world's media have also found out about us. Walk Japan tours have been featured in many publications including: The New York Times, The Australian, The Observer, Sunday Times, Melbourne Herald Sun, Sydney's Sun Herald Edmonton Journal and Toronto Sun newspapers; British Airways' High Life, Asian Journeys, Expat Living, BusinessWeek, Time Asia and Cathay Pacific Airways' Discovery magazines; and the best selling books Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations, The Rough Guide to Ultimate Adventures, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and Walking the World's Most Exceptional Trails.

All the Walk Japan staff have long careers with Japan and we all feel a great affinity and commitment to the country and its people. An expression of this is to use local businesses. Over twenty years we have provided a stable source of income to many family owned restaurants and accommodation in Japan’s rural areas. In some instances Walk Japan has become the main client for some ryokan, Japanese inns, in remoter areas we travel through. In at least one instance because of our sustained custom over twenty years an historic inn and the only accommodation left in the immediate area has been able to remain in business. Although we remain this ryokan’s largest customer it is now a thriving business again attracting many others and acting as a social focus for the immediate villagers. Not only have the son and his wife decided to continue their family tradition they have invested in upgrading the facilities in a fashion sympathetic to the building’s uniqueness and age.

Another expression of our commtiment to Japan is our community project in Kunisaki, Kyushu in west Japan. Centred on our local office, a refurbished farmhouse, our project is a long-term commitment by Walk Japan to reinvest in a small rural community.