During your stay in Japan, will you stay at hotel? Will you have dinner at restaurants?

Maybe almost traveler will do that. Yes, maybe you will be able to feel some Japanese culture from your accommodation or meal at restaurant. But unfortunately it will be a little bit difficult to talk with Japanese people (not a service person but “normal” people) or feel real Japan such like knowing how Japanese people living or eating every day.

Why don’t you plan more original experience during your stay in Japan?

If you agree that you would like to experience original time and want to nice memory in Japan, our home visit program is one of the best activity. If you join our home visit program, you can visit Japanese people’s house and enjoy conversation with Japanese people with their delicious home cooked dishes.

“This activity was one of the best things I’ve done in Japan so far.” said Kaydee who comes from USA and participated the home visit program on Oct. 2011.
Do you want to know why Kaydee said like that? If you want to know, I will explain below.

But first of all I know maybe you say, “Visiting unknown people’s house? I’m in nervous…”. Don’t worry about it. Check the host family’s page, they introduced themselves about their family and how welcome you.

Host families living and working at Tokyo or close to Tokyo every day. They are 20-30 years old. One of them have children or living their parents, or just married modern couples.The common thinking of them is they want to communicate with travelers as well and want to introduce their real living of Japan for travelers who come to Tokyo.Additional they can speak English so you don’t have to worry about the languages. You can feel real Japanese life from them.

When you join home visit program, you will meet host family at nearest station of their house and go to their house along with them. The road to house is the real Japanese living town, not a sightseeing spot and something most travelers don’t see.Michiel, who was a traveler from London and visited host family on September 2011 said “If I didn’t join this home visit program, I think I would never have seen the real place where Japanese people live”.

After arriving the host family’s house, start to have a dinner or lunch with them which they prepared for you. The dishes is their home cooked dishes, which you will never taste at the restaurant.In Japan, usually the dish is not just one but some dishes on the table at once so you can try some home cooking during your stay.

For example, Suzuki family will serve you the Hirekatsu which is the deep fried pork with sauce. And other dishes is salad, sashimi (fresh fish), miso soup and rice. Michiel said “There are a lot of choice and almost of them are my first dishes.” Of course the menu will be different whenever you visit. Another host family, Muro family will serve you the real green tea like tea ceremony style after the dish. All host family will introduce the nice culture by each nice style!

Do you feel it’s kind like a home stay program? Yes, it’s kind like that but a big difference is the staying time. Staying a whole day or more requires a lot from both the guest and the hosts, but our home visit program is more easy, because the staying time will be just about 1 or 2 hour. So you can casually join and the host family can easier prepare for your visit.

The cost of joining this program is 2,300 yen. Not only do you get to enjoy a delicious meal but you can also experience real Japanese living with people who welcome you like friend and you can enjoy home cooked dishes which you never eat at Japanese restaurant at your town or even in Tokyo restaurant.

Why not have this experience as part of your stay in Japan? After you say goodbye to the host family, I believe you can feel like Kaydee and it will be one of your best memories from your trip to Japan.

If you would like to join this program just contact us via each host family’s page two weeks before your desired visiting date and we will arrange your visit to host family. Most of the host families can welcome you on Saturdays or Sundays for lunch/dinner!

Oh, Michiel has written down his experience on his blog, so check it as well 🙂

Megumi Kusunoki, (@nagomistation) currently a cooking instructor in Tokyo started Nagomi Kitchen in hopes for people around the world to learn more about real Japanese food. Combining her passion for tourism as a former scuba diving instructor, bus tour guide, and marketing and sales manager for an online guide for tourists coming to Japan, and food, Nagomi Kitchen was born out of a labor of love. She hopes that through Nagomi Kitchen more people will become more familiar with Japanese food and ingredients and be able to incorporate Japanese home cooking into their daily meal.

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