ABOUT

ABOUT US


Sharing the Japan We Love

Esprit Travel and Tours is one of the oldest US companies specializing in tours to Japan and has been offering custom tours to foreign countries since it was established in 1979. We provide individual custom tour planning for couples and families (FIT) and a limited selection of escorted group tours to Japan, the only destination we offer. In addition we also offer exclusive tours for small private groups, galleries and museum donors through private arrangements.


No matter what your preferred mode of travel, we guarantee you’ll have a deeply meaningful, highly personal and memorable travel experience. This is a promise we’re comfortable making because each of our journeys is carefully planned and expertly orchestrated to immerse you in the culture of Japan — its history, sights, customs, cuisine, arts and crafts. Most of all, we will introduce you to wonderful local people in warm, personal and enlightening ways.


Esprit prides itself on providing journeys that enlighten, enchant and live long in your memory. Due to the nature of custom travel planning, we are only able to accept a limited number of projects per travel season. We invite you to explore our website, enjoy our Living Artists of Japan videos and call us to discuss arranging your trip.


As part of our ongoing commitment to fostering culturally enriching travel to Japan, we also offer two other product lines:

It is our pleasure to lead travel experiences to Japan that unfold like a beautiful story you never want to end.

STEVE BEIMEL   Esprit's Japan Tour founder

Conde Nast Travel Experts at Esprit

In 2003, Nancy Craft was named to Conde Nast Traveler’s prestigious “Greatest Travel Pros on Earth,” list by Wendy Perrin. As a Japan travel expert, Nancy easily met Ms. Perrin’s requirement that those named to the list have extensive first-hand knowledge of the destination, as she lived in Kyoto for six years. While there, she studied various Japanese arts and became knowledgeable about the culture, history, arts, crafts, cuisine, and aesthetic influences of Japan. Today she puts this knowledge to use as a Japan travel expert planning custom tour itineraries that allow travelers to experience Japan in deeply personal ways that match their interests.


Nancy has been designing custom tour itineraries and leading tours to Japan since 1999, and has designed many of Esprit’s tours to Japan. She says, “I love showing people the wonderful art of Japan: the beautiful gardens, the quirky culture, and how the arts and culture interrelate.”


In 2020, Nancy was joined on this exclusive list by Elaine Baran, president of Esprit, who has spent the past 16 years traveling regularly to Japan to maintain our relationships with vendors and then creating unique, custom itineraries for individuals and groups.


Nancy and Elaine can both be found on a curated list of travel planners at Custom Travel Planners Network.

Esprit's Staff

It had been the good fortune of many of us at Esprit to live, work, study and explore throughout Japan. We had each, in our own way, entered into the life and the heart of Japan and felt sure we could share that with fellow adventurers. From the start, we saw that simply riding around Japan on a tour bus and getting off to see famous government buildings and major sites would not reveal the Japan we had come to know and love. It would not allow our travelers to experience the way one is intoxicated, even seduced, by a wonderful new world. So, we set out to plan and lead cultural tours that transcend mere travel. Today, it is our pleasure to lead travel experiences that unfold like a beautiful story you never want to end.

Steve Beimel

Founder

Steve is the founder of our Japan tours and currently living and working in Kyoto. “The most fulfilling part of my Japan-related life is working with so many amazing and talented men and women. It has been a great privilege for me to introduce our tour participants to these people, in a true spirit of cultural exchange.”

Elaine Baran

President

Elaine Baran has been involved with Esprit Travel for more than 30 years. She manages the business and marketing operations as well as provides custom travel services for individuals and private groups. She has an MBA from the University of Chicago, lives in Nevada and has been on the Conde Nast Top Specialist list as a Japan Family expert for the past two years.

Nancy Craft

Tour Planning Director

Nancy lived in Kyoto for six years where she studied Japanese textiles and related arts. Every year since 2003 Nancy has been named by Condé Nast Traveler Magazine as a Top Travel Specialist for Japan. She now lives in Colorado.

Andrew Bender

Tour Planner & Tour Leader

Los Angeles-based Esprit tour leader Andy Bender, MA/MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, is also an award-winning travel and food writer (including dozens of guidebooks and articles about Japan), and a cross-cultural consultant. Decades of living in and working with Japan have given him fluency in Japanese and a passion for the culture. “I’m a guide with Esprit because I love helping visitors discover the same fascination I have for the country.”

Danielle Jardine

Tour Planner

Danielle is a Colorado-based travel planner. She has always loved Japan and its rich culture and has been involved with Esprit since 2017. Her favorite destinations in Japan are the Dewa-san mountains and the Sekino-Ichi Brewery in the Tohoku region! Danielle focuses on custom travel services for both individuals and our wedding division, assisting families and couples to experience their dream Japan wedding.

Keiko Kamei

Senior Tour Guide: Tokyo

Keiko Kamei, MA, has a background in gallery management and art museum education and has worked with a number of galleries in the Tokyo area. She has a MA with a concentration in art museum education from New York University. Keiko works as a freelance art consultant and guide.

Chizuko Waller

Senior Tour Guide: Tokyo

Chizuko’s interest in travel goes back to high school, when she attended the Traveling High School in Odawara, a specialized school. After living in both Southern and Northern California she returned to Japan with her family and now works as one of our senior guides in Tokyo, showing travelers the special places she knows and loves.

Matthew Schultz

Senior Tour Guide: Kyoto

Matt Schultz was born in Kyoto and moved to the United States at the age of 13. Matt began cultivating an interest in pottery while still in high school. Though he later went on to study Spanish and Business at the University of Oregon, he continued to explore pottery. After graduating from university in 2009, Matt returned to Japan. In 2011, Matt enrolled in Kyoto Prefectural Ceramics Technical Institute for continued study in pottery.

Tomoko Kisaka

Senior Tour Guide: Kyoto

Tomoko was born and grew up in Kyoto. She has a B.A.degree in Child Psychology from the Kyoto University of Education. Tomoko travels throughout Japan as a tour guide but says she likes Kyoto the most. “That’s because Kyoto always makes its visitors want to return time and time again.”

Miyuki Aihara

Tour Guide: Tokyo

Miyuki was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She attended Waseda University in her hometown of Tokyo, where she majored in English. After graduating, she lived near Kyoto and had many opportunities to show some of Kyoto’s famous places to overseas neighbors. She enjoyed the experience so much that she decided to become a professional guide. In addition to helping people to know Japan and its culture, she loves learning about other countries through her interactions with our guests.

Kenzo Sato

Tour Guide: Kyoto, Matsumoto

Kenzo Sato was born and raised in a rural area of Kyoto. He now lives and guides in Kyoto after studying economics at university. He has guided cycling tours and rafting and river hiking tours in the area.

John Wells

Emergency Contact
Tour Guide: Kanazawa

John Wells is a Kanazawa-based artist, filmmaker, and audiovisual anthropologist. He makes documentary films and video art installations based on ethnographic research in rural Japan.


Junko Shinoda

Tour Guide: Kanazawa, Yamanaka

Junko is a native resident of Kanazawa. She studied Business Administration in Toyama, Japan and then spent years studying the English language in New Zealand and later Canada. She provides a personal experience that she hopes will make visitors love Kanazawa and Japan as much as she does,rough her interactions with our guests.
 

Benjamin Boas

Tour Guide: Tokyo, Kamakura

Benjamin is an engaging lecturer and has spoken at institutions such as Columbia University, The Japan Society, Osaka University, Tokyo University and Kyoto University.Benjamin is the author of two books about intercultural education published by Shogakukan. He has written for Studio Ghibli, the Japan Times, and many other publications.

Ayaka Tanimoto

Hotel & Restaurant Booking

Ayaka assists Esprit with hotel and restaurant booking in addition to her singing career.  She lives and works in Kyoto with her husband and child.

Yoko Hioki

Transportation Manager: Okayama

Yoko Hioki used to be known as Yoko Ono when she worked at Esprit Travel & Tours in the US office and Kyoto, Japan from 2000-2004. After years of business experience at Japanese companies and university, she has recently come back to Esprit. She has BA in Education at Okayama University in Japan and AA in Travel & Tourism at Long Beach City College in Los Angeles.
 

Carrie Podhirny

Administration Manager: Louisiana

Carrie provides administrative support from her office in Louisiana. She has over 20 years of experience providing professional support in both the private and public sector. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Emory & Henry College, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Carrie is captivated by the colorful and beautifully rich culture of Japan.

Our Photographs

Many of Esprit’s website photos have been provided by former tour members, independent travelers and staff. Over the years, we have had the privilege of access to their best works and we are grateful for their willingness to share their beautiful photos with us and, in the end, with you.


The old photo you see to the right is especially precious to us. Over 20 years ago it was taken by an Esprit staff member who has since passed away. It is a lasting tribute to the beauty, simplicity and spiritual essence of what we try to provide in our Japan experiences.


With this new website, we’ve availed ourselves of even more of their splendid pictures, along with the resources of Dreamstime, Pixabay, Unsplash and Pixta, to bring you photographs of the places you want to go and the experiences you would like to have.


We hope you enjoy this website and all the spectacular images that make it possible.

Let's Work Together

Get in touch with us to learn more about cultural travel to Japan.

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