About us

The Japan Experts

After three years teaching English in Japan, we founded InsideJapan Tours in the year 2000. Our mission? To help fellow travellers get beneath the surface of the culture we love.

We’re now delighted to offer bespoke photography tours to Japan. For groups of two to twelve people, we’ll create a photography tour to suit exactly your interests.

Perhaps you’d like to shoot a sumo wrestler on the streets of Tokyo, or capture the spectacular winter mating dance of the red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido. Maybe you fancy getting into a kitchen to photograph sushi chefs in action, or to document the ancient rituals of a mountain fire ceremony.

Using our network of connections, we can open doors to once-in-a-lifetime encounters that’ll ensure you return home with images like nobody else’s.

Alastair Donnelly & Simon King
Directors, InsideJapan Tours

Junko Okimoto

Our photography tours are accompanied by Junko Okimoto, a tea ceremony instructor and master of ikebana and French style flower arrangement. She is also an expert on kimono culture and will be available as a model for photoshoots throughout the tour.

After becoming a master in the sogetsu style of ikebana flower arranging, Junko studied flower arranging in Paris for two years. She attended the “Université Paris-Sorbonne Littérature et Civilization Française” after which she took a diploma at “Ecole Française de Décoration Floral” and first class diploma of D.A.F.A. (Diplôma D’animation Florale Artistique). After returning to Japan, she's offered professional level flower arrangement courses and created private installations.

Junko speaks fluent English and French and looks forward to showing you the intricacies of Japanese culture,