Food, Cooking, Sake, Shochu, Craft Beer, Whisky: One tour company in the World’s Greatest Metropolis.
We are Maction Planet Tokyo and Japan Tours, and our goal is to help you make delicious memories during your travels to Tokyo and beyond! We will show you places locals cherish for an off-the-beaten-path, foodie experience of daily life in Japan that you won’t soon forget.
Maction Planet started as a one-man show in February 2017, but quickly expanded. Out of our founder’s passion for helping visitors to Japan have a unique, exceptional experience blossomed a team of people completely aligned with the mission to showcase Japan’s history, culture, and of course, food! We now have over 270 5-star testimonials on TripAdvisor, and we are honoured to be go-to partners for Tokyo’s top hotels, the world’s most discerning travel agents and more.
Japan is an incredible country bursting with local delights and unique culinary exploits you won’t find anywhere else. In fact, in December 2013 Japanese cuisine was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Exploring this fascinating place doesn’t just involve visiting its most famous sites and natural wonders. It also includes tasting its culture, and the best place to start is in the capital city of Tokyo, a melting pot of Japanese and global gastronomy.
Through partnering with us on your food adventure, you’ll maximize your time and experience and treat your taste buds to boot. Our tours take you through the most authentic joints in town where you can taste the best of Japan. No prior research needed – all you have to do is show up hungry and curious. Along the way, you’ll learn more about the food, manners, culture, and insider’s info of the unique places that we visit. Not only will you taste inspiring food, but you’ll also get to hear inspiring stories from professional foodies.
Mac, Founder and Lead Guide of Maction Planet, with guests on a Private Tokyo Food Tour
Your food tour guides are avid foodies and proper culinary connoisseurs. All of our guides speak English, and they are also either natives or long-term residents who are happy to answer your questions. They’ll share their knowledge of the place and throw in some juicy facts about what’s on your plate or in your glass. We are dedicated to giving you an experience that will be a fun and unforgettable part of your trip to Japan. In addition to an overview of the extensive dining scene and amusing tales, your guide will gladly recommend other interesting venues that would otherwise go unseen, undrunk, and untasted.
At the end of the day, the main ingredients of any great gastronomical adventure are people and culture. Japan is home to an amazing blend of both. Join us and experience why Tokyo is the World’s Greatest Foodopolis.
Food tours: Maction Planet’s Tokyo Food Tours are a genuinely unique experience. We are constantly reinventing ourselves as more and more groups go to the same department stores and tourist stomping grounds. Instead, we take you off the beaten path to explore untouched areas of this great city. Unlike others, we are not formally affiliated with any establishments. We do not take commissions from any bars or restaurants that you will visit on any Maction Planet Tokyo Tour. We visit places based on your requests and desires, and we welcome the chance to open up the city’s historic food culture to you. In addition to English and Japanese, we can also run food tours in Russian and Chinese.
Cooking Classes: Maction Planet offers private, intimate cooking classes in Tokyo and Kyoto. Learn how to chop, cook, and serve like a master chef. Not only are our classes a fun, unique experience during your holiday, but learning from our professional instructors allows you to grasp the key culinary skills in Japanese cooking so you can make easy, healthy, delicious food.
Craft Beer: Tokyo has seen a huge explosion in craft beer over the last 10 years. In addition to an increase in imports from overseas, the number of Japanese breweries has boomed. The country’s beer is finally fulfilling the potential that has been brewing (pun intended) since the beer laws were relaxed here in 1994. With so many choices, we have curated a selection of the finest breweries and bars for our Tokyo Craft Beer Tours.
Enjoy unique access to some of Tokyo’s most local bars with Maction Planet
Whisky: Japanese whisky is regularly voted as some of the best in the world. On our Tokyo Whisky Tours, you combine the flavours of Japanese whisky with a guided adventure through local backstreets, historic traditions, and soaring sights – giving a real feel for the life and history of the city and beyond.
Sake: Sake is one of the true signature products from the Land of the Rising Sun. Experience this most Japanese of drinks with our Tokyo Sake Tastings, Tour and Experiences. Come with us on a journey through Japanese culture as you experience the diverse and surprising world of sake here on its home turf. If you want to try a number of sakes and learn about the diversity of styles and taste, you’ve come to the right place. We have intimate knowledge of the bars, izakayas, and specialist sake-ya that have the best sake selections in the city. For those wishing to dig deeper into the craft, we can arrange evenings with licensed sake sommeliers.
Shochu: Shochu is Japan’s indigenous spirit. Shochu consumption in Japan comes second only to beer in the battle for the title of “Most Popular Alcoholic Drink.” That’s right – it outsells sake (“nihonshu.” as it is known here). Maction Planet works with Christopher Pelligrini, author of The Shochu Handbook and one the world’s foremost authorities on the drink, to introduce one of Japan’s best kept secrets to the world.
For those who want to cast their net wider, we have worked with Christopher Pellegrini, to develop a specially-curated program of sake, shochu, and craft beer to allow you to sample the full spectrum of Japan’s alcoholic bounty.
… and of course we should mention Japan’s growing wine industry!
Unlike other more compartmentalised food tours, we can seamlessly integrate visits to Tokyo’s most interesting eateries around your fully customised itinerary. Enjoy great food around a Japanese baseball game or an FC Tokyo football match. Take your tribe to the best family-friendly restaurants. Sample shochu and food pairings with the world’s only dual-certified shochu sommelier. With Maction Planet, everything is bespoke so all of the above can be intermixed and tailored to your own personal preferences alongside history, culture, photography, art, karaoke and more!
Head over to our website now and email us at [email protected] to book your own foodie adventure. Itadakimasu!
