Our Mission and Philosophy

"We recognize travel enlightens and promotes tolerance. Our mission is to offer well-balanced, educational, culturally-broadening, and most importantly, fun tours that inspire and inform."

The Samurai Tours Mission Statement

Our Philosophy

  • On our Cultural Immersion Packages, we prefer to use only traditional, Japanese-style ryokans for lodging. These unique Japanese accommodations provide a unique Japanese experience. Whenever possible, we prefer to stay in smaller, more intimate family-run ryokans that are off-limits to larger groups. Many of the ryokans we stay in have as few as 10 to 15 rooms and are located on quiet, narrow side-streets. Their owners take tremendous pride in their facilities, service and cuisine. On our Self-Guided Independent Packages, we prefer to use these same ryokans or smaller, local hotels rather than large chain hotels. These local hotels tend to be smaller and blend in with the surrounding neighborhood. We carefully select ryokans and hotels in the middle of the sights and culture rather than convenient to the transportation hubs. By staying in central locations, you are within walking distance of what you came to see. This saves you time and money, and gives you lots of independence. All of the ryokans and hotels, with the exception of the Buddhist temple on Koya-san, have en-suite bathrooms. The bathrooms will include a bath/shower combination, sink and toilet, while the Buddhist temple has shared bath and toilet facilities "down the hall."
  • We prefer to eat in smaller, more intimate restaurants. There are probably more restaurants per capita in Japan than anywhere else in the world and because of space limitations in Japan, many of these restaurants only have a small counter and/or a couple of tables that are (again) off-limits to larger groups. We always include Kaiseki-style dinner served at the ryokans. This is truly another unique experience that cannot be missed.
  • We feel food is an important part of traveling. One of the biggest misconceptions of Japan is that the Japanese only eat sushi. Nothing could be further from the truth. Japanese food is very diverse, and varies region-by-region. We introduce our tour members to the many different types of foods, and we always try to include at least one Kaiseki-style dinner on each tour. Known as the gourmet-style cooking in Japan, Kaiseki dinners are another essential Japanese experience.
  • We use only public transportation. We use the same trains, subways, buses, taxis and ferries that millions of Japanese use every day. By traveling this way, you will get much closer to the people and culture you traveled thousands of miles to discover. And no trip to Japan is complete without at least one ride on the Shinkansens (bullet trains).
  • No one likes to pack and unpack every day. Our tour itineraries minimize the number of "one-night stands." By staying multiple nights at one location, you become more familiar and comfortable with a destination, and are better-rested, and more-energized. An appropriate amount of free time is built into the itineraries for you to follow your own curiosity and interests. We also design our tours with the assumption that you will return to Japan someday. This means we don't try to see everything, necessitating hurrying from sight-to-sight, wearing everyone out. Our intent is to make our tours "quality" over "quantity."
  • We include many well-balanced cultural extras in our Fully-Escorted Cultural Immersion Packages such as tea ceremonies, calligraphy lessons, geisha walking tours and meeting a Maiko, an apprentice geisha.
  • Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable Samurai Tours and local Japanese tour guides are well versed in Japanese culture, history, art and architecture and will bring Japan alive with their insights.

At Samurai Tours, we emphasize the honor of serving you, drawing on the meaning "Samurai" which is "to serve."

Our Values

Mike Roberts, Owner, Samurai Tours

Culture: Our tours are tailored to break down as many barriers to the lifestyle, customs and traditions as possible to allow the maximum cultural exposure and experience.

Enjoyment: We strive to create a fun, informative and enthusiastic tour-environment our tour members look forward to participating in each day.

Quality: We are committed to continuously and proactively improving the quality of our services by constantly enhancing existing tours and developing new tours.

Value: We offer tours with the best combination of quality and price.

Honesty and Integrity: All business is conducted in a forthright and trustworthy manner, and all business practices will be consistent with our Mission and Values.

Mike Roberts, Owner, Samurai Tours

Mike Roberts
Owner, Samurai Tours