Esprit creates and leads custom tours for a variety of organizations, including museums, colleges and universities, horticultural societies, and artists' and alumni groups. These fully customized tours are planned in coordination with the sponsoring organization. This ensures that the destinations, activities, accommodations and schedules are all in tune with the group's interests. Each tour offers a wealth of specialized activities relating to gardens, art, crafts, textiles and ceramics, theater, cuisine, cultural traditions and rural life. Through impeccable, personalized planning, Esprit helps groups offer a spectacular travel experience to their members.

Once your group arrives at its destination, you'll discover what lies at the heart of Esprit's success — its tour leaders. They have experience living, studying, and working in the countries where they lead tours and are fluent in the local language. They effortlessly orchestrate tours that deliver so many exquisite experiences as to be thoroughly intoxicating. But what makes traveling with them truly special is how much you'll enjoy their company. They are amazingly knowledgeable, gifted raconteurs, thoughtful hosts and passionate about your destinations.

Because they are so passionate about the arts, culture, traditions and folkways of the countries they travel to, Esprit tour leaders have gotten to know many sensei, or masters, over the years. Their friends include indigo dyers, Buddhist monks, garden designers, architects, printmakers, tea ceremony masters, basket makers and artisans. Your group will have the chance to meet some of these friends, who share your interests, and spend time with them one-on-one in their homes, studios and gardens.

To ensure that your group doesn't miss any of your tour leader's enlightening commentary, he or she will use a short range radio to communicate with your group, through the pocket-sized radios and headphones that you'll each carry. This allows each person to go at their own pace and travel freely through gardens, markets, museums, train stations and other public spaces without missing a word. It also means that your group can take full advantage of your tour leader's expertise and ask questions along the way.

Named for the 7th year in a row to the prestigious Condé Nast Traveler "Greatest Travel Pros on Earth" list, Nancy Craft, our independent tour planner director, is your best choice for planning a rewarding and thoughtfully crafted trip to Japan.