Crafted Windows Archives - Windows to Japan

Crafted Windows

Meet the people behind works of art, architecture, business, and design. We’ll take you behind the scenes and behind the veil. You’ll hear directly from inspiring people the source of their passion, tales of how they’ve perfected their craft, and stories from their everyday life.

Our Guided Days

Our Guided Days

“Personable” and “knowledgeable” are at the top of the list of qualities our guides possess. With the owner and manager of Windows to Japan holding many years’ experience in guiding themselves, they know what to look for in an excellent guide. Among our guides you’ll find holders of PhDs in Japanese studies, Masters students digging deeper into one of the many facets of the culture here, professional artists, culinary specialists, those with licenses in traditional Japanese garden design and many other spectacular skills. We take the time to personally interview and train each guide, checking to be sure that the language they use to present Japan is clear to the native speaker, and making sure that the guides know what travelers to Japan look for most. Our guides can open doors and opportunities travelers cannot find on their own, and they take extra steps to be sure that the guests not only see, but learn, experience, and remember. We look forward to showing you how guiding excellence can enhance your stay in Japan.
Geisha Night

An Evening with a Geisha

Brilliant red against radiant white. These are the colors illuminating faces behind teahouse windows in Kyoto’s Gion district. Movies and books strive to capture their essence, yet only by speaking with one can you understand the dedication, the talent, the people that make up all that is beautiful about Japan’s geisha. We offer you the chance to speak with one of these masters of Japanese tradition, and experience up-close some of Japan’s most classical arts, an affair conventionally reserved for Japan’s rich and well-connected. Throughout an evening of fine dining at one of Kyoto’s top-tier establishments, guests are treated to a performance that has been refined through years of schooling and apprenticeship. Our personally-selected geisha and guides make the evening even more memorable as they remove communication and cultural barriers, inviting you to participate in a few of the geisha games of old, and encouraging you to directly ask questions about the geisha lifestyle and life in Kyoto. By the end of the experience, you will have fascinating stories to take home, memories to cherish, and photographs that any fellow traveler will envy.
Day with an Architect

The Architecture and Urban Design of Tokyo

Buildings stretch across the horizon, creating an elaborate tapestry of architectural history. To many people, Tokyo’s cityscape is composed of towering, nameless beauties with histories unknown, complemented by expansive parks and winding streets just as full of hidden tales. This personal tour relays the secrets of Tokyo’s urbanscape and shares the stories of the concepts and designers behind the city’s grandeur. We offer a tour with a professional architect, a specialist who is among the most knowledgeable in the world of Tokyo architecture and urban planning.
Day with an Art Expert

Tokyo Art Cruise

What movements are taking place in Tokyo’s art scene as you read this? One specialist and friend of ours knows and is ready to introduce you to the art scene of Tokyo as only a long-time resident and connoisseur can. After taking some time in the morning to discuss your artistic tastes with our specialist guide, you’ll be treated to a customized tour through Tokyo’s backstreets and alleyways where you’ll meet up-and-coming and well-established artists in their own studios and private galleries.
Day with a Photographer

Photography in Backstreet Tokyo

All good travelers keep a camera on them to capture fleeting golden moments. This time around, capture the unique while perfecting your technique as you venture through backstreet Tokyo with our friend and professional street photographer. Boasting extensive academic research in street photography, Japan’s feminist movements, and the unique culture of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, our expert will take you well beneath the surface of photography methods and Japanese society. Take a deep breath, and dive in.
Golden Gai

Bar Crawling in an Endangered District

Voices carry from one intimate establishment to another in these narrow streets, and artistically creative ideas flow as freely as the fresh drinks that are poured in this sliver of Shinjuku affectionately called Golden Gai. Here, the bond between regulars and shop owners is strong; secrets are kept as such in this world where nearly everyone has a colorful past. Allow us to introduce you to a Golden Gai regular or bar master who will guide you through the narrow roads to visit establishments and chat with the prismatic locals as if you were one of their own. The evening may take you as far as Tokyo’s Kabukicho and red-light district, so prepare for a night to remember. In fact, remember it well as the coming Tokyo Olympics may take Golden Gai away from us forever. Such is progress.
Into Gion

One More Side of Gion

“Gion” and “geisha” seem nearly inseparable, but let it be known that Gion is a district within a very busy city, and just as with any other densely-packed city district, there are varied pockets of activity within. Let a former hostess lead you through some of Gion’s many snack bars, hostess clubs, and karaoke bars, all the while sharing with you stories of the similar but different industries, and teaching you the rules and etiquette of each kind of establishment. Be introduced to and chat with the colorful characters who run, work in, and patronize these places, and become a local, if only for one night.
Garden Tour

A Story of Secluded Gardens

Kyoto is known for being home to pretty gardens aplenty, but there are many that go sadly unvisited despite their beauty and detail. In these gardens, each patch of moss and every pebble is thoughtfully placed, combining to create landscapes of legend, sometimes in spaces only as big as an average-sized sedan. Our professional garden designer will take you to these hidden havens and teach you the meaning and ideas behind the botanically beautiful designs. With her help, you may even get a chance to see and learn about one secluded estate that is usually closed off to the average passer-by.
Calligraphy Specialist

Calligraphy as Art in the Modern Age

Kanji, or Chinese characters that make up part of the Japanese written language, are more versatile than many people give them credit for. The characters, depending on how they are written, can change a word’s meaning, and can even change the atmosphere in a given room depending on the artist doing the writing. Kanji is language, and is also an art form. There is one up-and-coming artist we can introduce you to who can tell you the meaning and philosophy that lies between and inside of each brush stroke as it’s laid to paper. Through her you will see meanings beyond the set definitions for each character she writes. She will teach you about the balance required, and the zen influence she incorporates into her work. She will show you the light inside of thick black ink.
Experience Noh

The Intricacies of Noh Theater

Within the mask lies meaning. A predecessor and strong influence to the more ubiquitously known kabuki theater, the slow and steady steps of Noh are the grounding for Japan’s more modern performance arts. We offer to take you to the studio of a professional noh actor who will make known the less than obvious skills necessary to create a convincing performance worthy of the prestige the art form carries. He will also present the roles played by each hand-carved mask, from young princesses to old wise men, giving you the chance to try walking the steps and executing the movements required of noh actors. For a moment in time, become a part of the rich history of this theatrical performance art.
A Master of Sumo

Sumo Through the Eyes of an Experienced Fighter

Learn about sumo wrestling — the training, the lifestyle, the competitions — through someone who has been through it all. Sumo tournament season is an exciting time for wrestlers and spectators alike, but we invite you to make it more so by attending a tournament with an experienced and famed wrestler who knows the sumo world like none other. As you watch the bouts one by one, he will inform you all about the hows and whys of the calls, the dress, the ceremony, the history and more. During the off season, our professional will take you through a tour of one of Japan’s sumo stables where you’ll be able to witness the training, living quarters, and lifestyle of Japan’s famous fighters. As our experienced wrestler makes his way through the stable offering advice and sometimes even admonishments to his juniors, you’ll get a truly in-depth feel for what daily life can be like for Japan’s historical rock stars.
Craftsmen: Countryside

Artisans in the Countryside

This relatively small island nation holds much within its valleys, mountains, and flatlands. Taking a break from the major sights and cities for a day or more, spiriting away for an overnight escapade, we would like to introduce you to a woman who knows well the many artisans and craftsmen that make their living in the beautiful, winding countryside of western Japan. Pottery, washi paper, knife and sword crafting are just a few of the makers and workshops you can meet and view during a day made just for you by this master creator of community ties. You’ll be welcomed into galleries, homes, and studios of those passionate for preserving traditional arts and methods, hearing stories of days past and how such local history will carry on into the future. Speak your interests, and you will be led through the hills and forests to the heart of fine craftsmanship Japan is so renowned for.
Craftsmen: Shiga

The Pottery Villages of Shiga

As a wonderful day trip from Kyoto, we invite you to take a trip with our guide and specialist in Japanese pottery who will take you north, to the villages of potters and artisans in Shiga. You will meet the creators, and learn about how they have adjusted traditional methods to fit the modern day, while keeping the look that Shigaraki pottery is so famed for accurate and authentic, keeping the art true to its history. As you are driven through the winding roads, you’ll realize that not only the pottery, but the scenery is breathtaking, perhaps being an influence to the art itself, reflecting a natural simpleness.
A Master of Gardens

Garden Walk and Creation with a Master Designer

Although blossoms and trees are more likely to catch visitors’ eyes, the keepers of Japan’s gardens, with a keen eye for detail, take care to maintain the poses of the barest branches and the placement of the simplest rocks. We invite you to walk through some of Kyoto’s famed and little-known gardens with our friend and garden designer entrusted with the palace and temple gardens of Kyoto. Taking the reins as the next generation within the family that has cared for Kyoto’s green spaces for centuries, your host for the day will astound with his show of experience and knowledge of Japanese garden history, and how he and his apprentices work to keep the gardens accurately intact for future generations to enjoy. Nearing the end of the day, you will get the chance, with the help of your guide’s experience hands, to create a miniature garden using techniques explained earlier in the day, making a bowl of authentic Japanese beauty to take home.
Butoh

The Strength of Butoh Performance

Breaking out from the constructs of conformity, appearing to first-time onlookers as a twisted, organic yet base form of dance and expression, comes the art of butoh. Visiting a master performer of this uniquely Japanese modern dance, you will be treated to a private performance, with the door being opened to questions unrestrained, inviting you to inquire as to the how and why this art came into existence amongst the protests and rapid change that took place after the second world war. For an evening, be a part of the movement that defied tradition, spurned established conventions of beauty, dismissed the romanticization of youth, and refused westernization, finding a rhythm and creating a following of its own.