Personalised research from a Japan specialist. US$64 per group.
You've planned complex trips before. You know the difference between a genuinely useful guide and one that lists the same 40 places everyone else does. Japan is different enough that even experienced travellers find themselves back at square one: new rail system, new food culture, new etiquette, a scale of regional variation that doesn't fit in any single book.
The problem with generic Japan guides is that they're built for everyone, which means they're optimised for no one. Your specific combination of cities, interests, dietary needs, group size, and travel pace doesn't appear in any chapter because nobody wrote it.
That's what we build: a guide written for your trip, by someone who knows Japan in depth and has done the specific research your itinerary requires.
Tell us about your trip. We'll build your guide.
A custom-researched travel guide built from your intake form and reviewed by a Japan specialist before delivery. Specific to your regions, your interests, and your trip structure.
Day-by-day structure for your specific cities and regions, with transport routing, accommodation area recommendations, and realistic timing. Not a generic framework with your name pasted in: a guide that reflects the actual sequencing your trip requires.
If you're looking for craft workshops, traditional textile districts, serious hiking routes, or architecture worth the side trip: we research those specifically, for the areas you're visiting, at the level of detail you need to actually find and use them.
Transport passes appropriate for your specific routing (the JR Pass is not always the right answer), IC card logistics, communicating dietary requirements in Japanese, booking requirements for the places you'll actually want to get into, and seasonal considerations for your travel dates.
Clean, readable, organised for the way you'll use it on the ground. Works offline. Print the pages you want. Reference on your phone. Share with travel partners.
Price
US$64 per group. One payment covers your entire travelling party, regardless of size. Payment is processed when your guide is delivered.
Tell us about your trip: cities and regions, travel dates, party size, interests, dietary requirements, and anything specific you want us to research. The more detail you give us, the more specific your guide will be. The form takes about 10 minutes.
A Japan specialist works through your intake form, researches your specific regions and interests, and builds a guide around your trip. We maintain a constantly updated library of Japan travel information, so everything we put in your guide is current and verified, not scraped from a stale blog post. A human specialist reviews and stands behind every recommendation before it goes in.
We deliver your guide by email and process the US$64 payment at the same time. If something isn't right or your plans have changed materially, get in touch and we'll work it out.
On payment: Your card details are collected securely when you submit the intake form. No charge is processed until your guide is delivered. Payment is handled securely by an industry-standard payment provider, so your card details remain private.
Turnaround: Most guides are delivered within 3 to 5 business days of receiving a complete intake form. If your trip is soon, tell us in the special requirements field and we'll let you know if we can accommodate a faster timeline.
This guide is a good fit if:
This is probably not the right fit if: You're planning a first trip to Japan and still working out the basics (JR Pass, IC cards, how to book accommodation): our free guides cover that ground. The custom guide assumes you know what kind of traveller you are and what you're looking for.
Jason and Rachael Stirk are the authors of the Essential Guide to Japan, originally published in 2019 after years of research, travel, and the kind of trial and error that doesn't make it into the polished version of anyone's Japan story.
Between us, we've covered Japan in depth across multiple trips: regional cuisine, textile and craft traditions, temple and shrine architecture, mountain hiking, sake brewing culture, and time spent living in the country rather than moving through it quickly. Our Japanese is functional rather than fluent, which means we know exactly where the practical edge cases are for independent travellers navigating Japan without a guide.
We built Trundle Japan because we were tired of watching people with genuinely interesting Japan trips struggle to find the specific information they needed, or end up boxed into generic tour packages that spend four hours travelling to see Itsukushima Shrine for 45 minutes before heading back. Generic guides serve the median traveller. We're interested in the ones with more particular tastes.
Every custom guide is reviewed by one of us before it's delivered. We don't sign off on recommendations we wouldn't make in person.
From our first bespoke guide clients, 2019.
"Brilliant job. Your insight will let us plan our days so much more effectively. Very much appreciated."
"It's an awesome guide and has been so helpful in that it covers much more than just the destinations itself. Even though I've been to Japan already, there was so much in the guide I didn't know about."
A PDF guide built around your specific intake form. The structure varies depending on your trip, but typically includes: day-by-day itinerary for your regions, interest-specific recommendations (restaurants, sites, experiences), transport routing and pass advice specific to your route, practical notes on booking requirements and reservations, and seasonal or timing considerations for your travel dates. You get a complete document, not a list of links.
As specific as your intake form allows. If you tell us you're interested in natural indigo dyeing workshops in the Tokushima region during the first week of October, we'll research that and come back with what's actually available, how to book it, and how it fits into your routing. If you give us vague interests, the guide will be proportionally less targeted. The intake form is worth taking seriously.
Tell us. If your plans shift materially before we've started work, we'll incorporate the changes at no extra cost. If the guide is already in progress, we'll let you know what's practical to adjust. Minor changes are usually straightforward; a complete itinerary overhaul may require a new intake.
3 to 5 business days from receiving a complete intake form. For trips with unusual routing or very detailed research requirements, it may be closer to 5 days. If you need it faster, note that in the special requirements field and we'll be upfront about whether it's feasible.
We use research tools, including AI-assisted research, to gather and synthesise information efficiently. Every guide is prepared and reviewed by a human Japan specialist before delivery. We don't ship AI-generated content unchecked; the human review is the point. If we're not confident in a recommendation or our research, it doesn't go in.
You can, and it'll give you a plausible-sounding itinerary. What we provide over generic AI-generated content is research, verification, and accountability: AI tools confidently include outdated information, closed restaurants, and routes that don't work the way they're described. We fact-check, cross-reference current sources, and stand behind what we put in. The guide also reflects your specific combination of interests and constraints, which a generic AI prompt doesn't capture.
When your guide is delivered. We collect your card details securely at the time of the intake form, and charge when we send you the completed guide. If something isn't right, get in touch and we'll sort it out.
Yes. US$64 is per guide, per group, regardless of party size. Whether it's two people or ten, it's the same price. One caveat on specificity: if your group has ten people with ten different sets of interests, the guide will cover each one proportionally less deeply than a smaller group with tightly shared interests. The more aligned your group's interests, the more targeted the recommendations can be.
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