Evening Hanami (Cherry Blossom) Experience with a Local

We did the Hanami cherry blossom evening tour along the canal at Naka Megura. The setting was gorgeous. Wes took us to a restaurant we never would have found on our own and introduced us not only to new foods but tips on etiquette at the table in Japan. We had a fantastic night then walking the canal and grabbing some snacks and drinks. Perfect evening

We had the best tour in Tokyo and a great guide. Thank you for sharing the Cherry Blossoms with us and your city.

Do not waste your $$$ go on your own and you will have an amazing time. Guide was horrible. We stood in an ally for half the time. You will not be able to pick your own food.

This company is very unreliable. They cancelled our tour 24 hours before we were scheduled to go. They said the tour guide was sick. Seems like they should have a back up plan. Very poor customer service.

Ray was a wonderful tour guide & gave us a great explanation of the culture. I would highly recommend booking a tour with this company!

Even though the cherry blossoms were not in bloom, Ray, our guide was able to give us a good tour. He explained the culture and customs to us and even how to toast in Japanese. At the end we were able to fine a few blooming trees for pictures.

Kay was fantastic! Highly recommend the tour ! Get to eat and drink at trusted sources and the cherry Blossoms were magnificent

+3

We had a fantastic Hanami evening tour with Haruka. We stopped off at a local store for some sweet snacks before strolling along the river in the early evening whilst it was still light. We were able to see the Cherry Blossoms at the height of their bloom and it was truly beautiful. We then went to a local bar for some food and had some typical food from the region - pork skewers and seaweed. It was now evening and although dark, the whole area was lit up with lights around and under the trees to show off the Cherry Blossoms. We had a glass of champagne to celebrate and join in the walking hanami. We also had a good luck fish shaped pastry to end the evening. We had a lovely evening and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this tour. We only wish we had booked more Arigato Food Tours as this one was definitely a highlight of our trip to Japan.

Fantastic tour! Ryan was our guide, and he was very knowledgeable and friendly. His English is perfect. Glad we did this on our first day of our trip because we were able to ask him a ton of questions to learn about the city, the culture and get recommendations for the rest of our trip. The river lined with the beautiful cherry blossoms illuminated by the traditional Japanese lanterns was a sight to behold. A must see!

We just spent the last two weeks in Japan, and we had Arigato Japan Food Tours in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. The short version is that you should do it, especially if you are a first-time visitor to Japan. Overall, we would recommend doing a walking food tour your first evening in each city to get to know your way around. This is my first TripAdvisor review. But since we did four tours with them and a lot of people use this to figure it out, we thought we'd contribute. We are a family of five from Santa Barbara, California, with our three kids being 20, 18, and 16. Overall, Lauren, Kristin, and the Arigato crew were very accommodating and very responsive. We could not have asked for more from a communication perspective. The longer version is as follows... The Tokyo cherry blossom evening tour with Ryu was good, but mainly because Ryu is so personable. They arranged a private tour for us for a Sunday evening, and the Meguro River (Naka Meguro) was absolutely packed. He knows his stuff and has a unique Japanese-Chinese perspective. Your goal with trips like this is to get local and get a bit outside our comfort zone. Ryu did that by taking us to places we just wouldn't go into on our own. The Kyoto trip was awesome. We had Yoshiko as a guide with Augustine joining us as a guide in training. Kyoto was the best. The Gion region was awesome. The sakura (cherry blossoms) were blooming. The food was great across the board. As a whole, our family liked Kyoto the best. Augustine is a nutritionist, as is our 20-year-old son, so they hit it off and sat together at dinner. Yoshiko knows the area very well. We ate and drank well on this tour, and there was an entertaining bunch from Wisconson with us. Don't skip Kyoto. Make the short trip to the bamboo forest and Ryoanji Temple. Walk the river. Eat weird stuff. We stayed at the Cross Hotel in Kyoto, which we would very highly recommend. Great location and really good buffet breakfast. Cross Hotel is a no-brainer in Kyoto. Osaka was just okay compared to the others. Partly, our hotel at the Fraser Residence Osaka was not as good as our other hotels. It felt like a cruise ship inside. We have to get two rooms everywhere because we have five people. Our Arigato Japan Food Tours guide was Ibu. He was good but not as good as some of the others we had. He's not a Japan native, so he had a more Western perspective, which was actually helpful. It was mainly a walk around a huge shopping mall in Dotonburi. The food/restaurant choices were not all the impressive, and there was a focus on fried food. Ibu was great and spoke perfect English, but the tour stops were just okay. Hiroshima. Not sure where to start. We only had two days there. It's definitely worth more. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hiroshima, which was fine and reasonably well located. We connected with our Arigato Japan Food Tours guide, Steven, at the Akushu Cafe. Once we found him, we learned we were the only five people on the tour and that it was essentially his first time leading a tour. The start of our walking tour got eye rolls from our teenage girls. But after just a few minutes talking with Steven, I realized we were on to something special. He is a unique character with fascinating life experience. As an Irish-German living in Hiroshima with a Japanese wife and siblings and family all over the world, Steven has a very rich perspective on life and on Japanese life. Steven took us to places that were way, way more local than we would have gone on our own. We ate like locals and with locals. We drank sake and wrote our names on restaurant walls. By the end of a late evening tea with Steven, we finally said goodbye. We could have spent hours more with him. One of the most interesting people we've met in Japan. Overall, no regrets. We spent a few thousand dollars with Arigato Japan Food Tours across four cities. Consensus is that Kyoto was the best city to visit and that Steven in Hiroshima was our best Arigato Japan Food Tours guide. These guys do a great job and communicate very well. Traveling in Japan is not easy compared to other countries because the English here is very limited. We would highly recommend Arigato and would do it again.