酒と洋酒
Japan/Journeys/The Sake & Whisky Trail

2 days · from Nagoya · up to 6 guests

The Sake & Whisky Trail
Two days of tasting, and a driver who is not drinking

¥600,000
¥300,000 × 2 days · whole group · about ¥100,000 each with 6

The single strongest argument for a private car in Japan: you can taste everything. Two days through the breweries of the Kiso valley, the sake town of Gujo, and a Japanese whisky distillery — with someone driving who has not had a drop and can translate what the brewmaster is telling you.

CouplesGroups of friendsAnyone who has tried to do a brewery tour by train

2 days, hour by hour

A starting point, not a script. Everything here can be swapped or dropped on the day.

Day One — Sake, at the source

09:00

Pickup in Nagoya

10:30

Gujo Hachiman

A water town beneath a mountain castle. The sake is made with the same spring water running through the street channels.

13:00

Lunch, then Takayama

Six breweries along one Edo-period street. The cedar ball hanging over the door means this year’s batch is ready.

16:00

A brewery, properly

Not a counter tasting — the tanks, the rice polishing ratios, the toji’s explanation of why this water makes this sake.

18:00

Ryokan & Hida beef

With a flight of everything you tasted today, at dinner.

Day Two — Whisky and the way home

09:00

A Japanese distillery

Mizunara oak, the climate that ages spirit faster than Scotland, and why the world caught on twenty years late. Bookings are genuinely hard — ask early.

13:00

Lunch

14:30

A miso or soy brewery

Aichi’s hatcho miso has been fermenting in the same cedar barrels under the same river stones for six hundred years. Unexpectedly the highlight for most guests.

17:00

Drop-off

Nagoya, Kyoto, or Centrair Airport.

What ¥600,000 covers

  • Private Toyota Alphard for the whole day — no other guests, ever
  • Your own English-speaking guide-driver
  • Up to 10 hours, door to door
  • Fuel, expressway tolls and parking
  • Hotel, airport, station or port pickup & drop-off
  • Itinerary designed with you before you arrive
  • Bottled water, umbrellas, phone chargers, child seats on request

On top, at cost — no mark-up

  • Brewery tours & tastings — ¥2,000–¥5,000 per person per stop
  • Distillery tour (booked months ahead) — from ¥3,000 per person
  • Ryokan, one night, half board — from ¥22,000 per person, at cost
  • Shipping your purchases home — arranged, at cost

Worth knowing

  • Distillery slots are the constraint, not the car. Give us two to three months and we will get you in somewhere good.
  • Non-drinkers get an equally good day — the fermentation, the water and the craft are the interesting parts.

Ask, and it is in the car

Travelling with a baby, or a wheelchair, or a business meeting in the middle of the day —
none of it needs to be a problem. Tell us on the form and it is simply there.

Infant & baby seats

Rear-facing infant seats for under-1s, fitted and checked before we arrive.

No charge

Child & booster seats

Japanese law requires a seat under age 6. Tell us the ages and we bring the right ones.

No charge

Stroller

A folding stroller kept in the car all day, so you are not carrying one through an airport.

No charge

Extra luggage vehicle

Six guests and six large suitcases do not fit one Alphard. A second vehicle follows.

From ¥40,000 / day

Self-drive rental car

Arranged through our own rental arm — including Tesla. Delivered to your hotel with the paperwork done.

From ¥18,000 / day

Licensed interpreter guide

A separate national-licence interpreter guide alongside the driver — for business visits, medical appointments or deep-history days.

From ¥60,000 / day

Interpreting in other languages

Chinese, Thai and Indonesian arranged through our own network in Nagoya.

Quoted

Airport greeting & luggage forwarding

Met at arrivals with a name board; suitcases sent ahead to your next hotel.

From ¥3,000 / bag

Wheelchair-accessible vehicle

Arranged with notice — we run a care business, so this is familiar ground.

Quoted

Pocket wifi & SIM

Waiting for you in the car on day one.

From ¥800 / day

Anything not on this list, ask anyway — the answer is usually yes.

Master Ken

Kensuke Ueoka — Master Ken

  • Kyudo — 4th dan
  • Japanese calligraphy — 6th dan, 30 years
  • Yabusame — horseback archery
  • Yoga instructor, RYT200
  • Triathlete
  • Born and living in Aichi

Founder, BUSHIDO LLC · Representative, Nagoya Inbound Summit

Kensuke Ueoka — Master Ken — was born in Aichi to a mother who holds the rank of kyoshi in kyudo, and he had a bow in his hands before he had opinions about it. Forty years later he holds 4th dan in kyudo and 6th dan in calligraphy, rides yabusame — archery from a galloping horse — and runs BUSHIDO LLC from the province that produced the three warlords who unified Japan.

He is also the representative of the Nagoya Inbound Summit, a director of a care company running a group home for adults with disabilities, and a triathlete who gets up early enough to be irritating. The range is not scattered: kyudo taught him the axis, calligraphy taught him concentration, and the care work taught him what it means for a person to live with dignity. He guides the way he was taught to shoot — quietly, without exaggeration, with complete attention on the person in front of him.

Master Ken personally guides six days a month and no more — those are the A Day with Master Ken dates. Every other day is led by a BUSHIDO Certified Guide he has trained and signed off himself. If you want Ken specifically, say so on the form and we will tell you honestly which dates are still his.

BUSHIDO is not tourism. It is transformation.

The other guides, and how they get here

Ken cannot be in six prefectures at once, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. So every other guide who works under the BUSHIDO name has been through the same gate.

01

Two days of training

The philosophy first — rei, harmony, the reason a warrior class built a tea ceremony — then itinerary craft, pacing, and the things we do not do.

02

A day shadowed by Ken

The first guided day is run with Ken in the car. Nobody is certified on paper alone.

03

Rated by every guest

Five stars and a written comment after each day. Two days below 4.5 and the guide retrains before working again.

04

Re-certified yearly

Standards drift quietly. We check them on purpose.

It is the reason we can say yes to Hokkaido and Fukuoka in the same week without the day getting thinner.

Check Availability

One private group per day — nationwide.
dates are currently open, synced with Ken’s own calendar.
Inquiring is free. Nothing is charged until your itinerary is confirmed in writing.















We reply within 24 hours — Ken reads every message himself.
Nothing is charged at this stage. You receive a written itinerary and price first;
a 30% deposit by bank transfer confirms the date.

If this is not quite it

Check Availability — from ¥100,000 / day