Newsletter: Autumn 2025

New Tour

Saga and Nagasaki: Cultural Crossroads

Our latest tour, Saga and Nagasaki: Cultural Crossroads, is a leisurely 10-day, 9-night exploration of two historic prefectures in west Kyushu that served from ancient times as Japan’s portal to the wider world until the modern age.

Over the centuries Chinese merchants, Korean potters, Portuguese missionaries, Dutch traders and English adventurers made their way here seeking the patronage of samurai warlords and to find their fortunes. Here, most famously, Zheng Chenggong (a.k.a Koxinga), a Ming dynasty general revered in China was born and raised; William Adams, whose extraordinary life story is the source of the Shogun novel and Hollywood TV series, is intimately connected with the region; Thomas Glover, a Scottish wheeler-dealer, played a role in the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1860s; Takamori Saigo, one of Japan’s most lionised historic figures, plotted revolution; and Frenchman Jacques Mayol, the world’s greatest free-diver and inspiration for the hit film The Big Blue directed by Luc Besson, first learnt to swim. Saga and Nagasaki are also celebrated for highly-prized porcelain, green tea, beautifying onsen hot spring waters, internationally inspired and distinctive cuisine, and Madame Butterfly.

This fully-guided journey follows gentle paths, some aside the sea and others in beautifully rural countryside, through historic and elegant coastal towns, to the source of Japan’s porcelain in a once secretive village, on to onsen hot spring havens, and into inspiring and cosmopolitan Nagasaki City. Throughout we are enveloped in Japan’s warm hospitality, satiate ourselves on wonderful regional cuisine including the freshest seafood and seasonal produce, and luxuriate in onsen hot spring baths.

For further information on this tour please visit here.

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Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards

We are very pleased to announce that Walk Japan has been nominated for the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards for the third consecutive year.

We truly appreciate your great support. If you would like to rate Walk Japan for this award please click on the button below.

The rating leads to a survey by Travel + Leisure. To find Walk Japan please complete the survey first, then look under ‘Tour Operators and Safari Outfitters’, and then scroll down through the alphabetically listed nominees to find us amongst the ‘W’s.

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Community Project Update

Our agricultural and revitalisation endeavours continue apace with the recent completion of our rice harvest, which at close to seven tonnes was over twice last year’s yield. As we continue the recovery of paddies, which were badly damaged by severe flooding in 2024, we anticipate doubling our harvest again in 2026.

In the past months we have also added to our holdings with the acquisition of a beautiful but underused tract of farmland and also a kunugi sawtooth oak woodland. With the former, we are planning a community market garden that will be as pleasing to the eye as its produce will be to the stomach. The latter, which was beginning to be overrun by bamboo, as its ageing owner could no longer cope with it, will help us expand our shiitake mushroom cultivation.

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Recruitment: English Teacher

Cara, our much-appreciated English teacher, left us recently to return to her home in South Africa. So, we are looking for an experienced English-language instructor to fill her shoes. The ideal candidate is an experienced educator of English, skilled in hands-on and project-based teaching methods, and has a passion for the natural world. Class sizes are small of up to five students, ranging from five to 15 years, as well as adults. This is a full-time position based at our classrooms in our office complex on the Kunisaki Peninsula. The ability to drive a car is essential. Please contact us if you have suitable experience.

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Walk Japan On Tour Near You

Walk Japan On Tour Near You is when we travel the world to meet you on your home turf. In November and December 2025, we will be visiting Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane and Hobart. We will be delighted to meet anyone who has booked a tour with us, is considering doing so, or is just inquisitive about our company and our tours. Of course, we will also be very happy to catch up with anyone who has joined us previously in Japan.

Later this year please look out for further dates in the UK, where we will be in February and March 2026.

Please click the button below to book an appointment with us. If you cannot find a suitable time, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.

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In the World’s Press