I didn’t choose to specialize in Japan - Japan chose me!
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan kept their borders closed for most international travelers until the end of 2022.
In Fall of 2022, I had a friend reach out about planning a 3-week honeymoon to Japan. This was right after they opened their borders back up. I had never booked a trip to Japan before; heck, no one had booked it for years! I dove into learning as much as I could as quickly as I could. I truly wish I could go back and rebook that first trip (or even the first ten trips!) because I would do them very differently!
After that sweet couple traveled to Japan in March 2023, I started posting about Japan trips on TikTok. The requests started coming in. I received my Advanced Master Japan Travel Specialist certificiation in May 2023, and the requests REALLY started rolling in! Again, I never necessarily wanted to specialize in Japan travel. It just kind of happened, so I decided to really dive into it!
As much as I love American-branded hotels (I’m looking at you, Marriott!), I took it upon myself to really dig in and learn about the Japanese hotel brands. I researched them until I was blue in the face. I started reading guide books cover-to -cover. Instead of completing the trainings with cruise lines and all inclusive resorts like my fellow travel agents, I spent my time learning everything I could teach myself about Japan while also trying to build business relationships with those properties and companies. Yes, the language barrier and significant time difference made it hard, but I have made some incredible connections!
At the beginning of 2024, I was invited by the Japan National Tourism Organization to visit Japan as their guest. What a huge honor! I bought my flights, packed my bags, left my sweet kids, and used my passport for the first time. Yes, that’s right - I had never used my passport until I went to Japan! I stayed in six hotels in six nights while I was there and toured the country with 7 other travel agents. It was an absolutely amazing experience for me to actually see all of the things that I had been learning about and actually go to the hotels that I had been booking for my clients.
In the fall of 2024, I was once again invited to visit Japan, this time as a guest of the city of Yokohama. After a wonderful 4 days, I was able to explore Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo Disneyland Resort on my own. What an amazing experience!
I have booked nearly 100 trips for clients to Japan. When I say it’s my specialty, I truly mean it! The amount of random (and sometimes useless?) knowledge about traveling to Japan that is stuck in my brain is overwhelming. But gosh - I sure do love creating these custom trips for my clients!
October 2024, Gion, Kyoto