Kanazawa Samurai & Geisha Walk with 2 Craft Visits and Lunch

Our family of four had a fantastic time on this tour today, led by our wonderful and knowledgeable tour guide Tomo! We loved learning more about the traditional Kanawaza crafts or laquer and umbrella making and about the history of the city and samurai and geisha districts. We highly recommend!

Interesting tour that takes you to places you otherwise would not visit. Very friendly guide that speaks good English.

The visits to the two workshops (umbrella and lacquerware) allowed us to discover Japanese craftsmanship that is internationally known but that we sometimes forget to do. It was very interesting. Regarding the visit to the Ninja temple, we did not enjoy this visit. Even if this building is an interesting place to visit, it is better to speak Japanese to do it: Upon arrival, you are given a catalog in your language and a very fast tour in Japanese follows, addressing only the Japanese people. In each room we had to read a passage but with little light and when we changed rooms we did not have time to read everything and observe what the person was showing. This generated a rather stressful situation. If we had to do it again we would not do this temple visit.

Tetsuya was fabulous, really knowledgeable and answered all the random questions that came up from ourselves and the other couple in the group. Excellent English and great to hear about the history and culture as well as pointing out the key points of interest. The lunch is delicious and plentiful. This was the perfect way to get to know a little about this historical city.

While the historic districts are beautiful, the absolute highlights of this tour were the artisan visits. Learning about urushi lacquer paint at and seeing the traditional craftsmanship at the Matsuda Japanese Umbrella Shop were fascinating experiences. Our guide, Tetsuya Ota, was fantastic- he did a seamless job translating for the shop owners and explaining the intricate processes. The summer heat was honestly unbearable, but Tetsuya managed the pacing perfectly. We even managed to sneak in a quick stop at a dessert place for some much-needed refreshments. Highly recommend!

Amazing experience. Our guide Tomo was outstanding. So warm and welcoming and knowledgeable. We toured the Samurai district and visited one of the houses and spent a short period of time in a geisha district where we had lunch with our guide in a local restaurant. The highlight though is visiting two local craft shops. One produces lacquer from tree sap, the same way it has been done for hundreds of years. The shop has been run by the same family since the Edo period! Then we visited the last remaining workshop that creates washi paper umbrellas, by hand. The skill and artistry on display are truly special.

This was the best tour in our trip. Our guide Yoto was amazing and shared lots of cultural information. The craftsman we visited were really interesting and shared a lot about traditional trades in Kanazawa. She was very kind to my daughter and son, showing them origami while sharing a meal with us. The lunch restaurant was great. I highly recommend this tour to everyone!

The visit with the local craftspeople was interesting, and our guide was pleasant and attentive. We would have appreciated more historical context about the Samurai District and deeper insight into the world of the geisha.

I very rarely rave about walking tours but this one deserves a mention beyond doubt. So much was packed into the four hours yet still we did not feel rushed at all.Our tour guide, Tetsuya, was a wonderful knowledgeable and fun guide who was able to answer all of our questions. The traditional crafts of lacquering and umbrella making were both interesting and astounding and held the attention of both of my teenage children. There was plenty for lunch and the ninja temple was just the perfect end and completely unmissable. I cannot recommend enough. Money very well spent, arigato gozaimasu Tetsuya🙏🏽

Tomo was incredibly kind throughout this excursion, she took us to visit two traditional workshops for making lacquer and Japanese umbrellas, as well as a samurai house and the "ninja" temple not far from the geisha street where we all had lunch together. An excursion that the whole family enjoyed (2 boys aged 11 and 14).