News & Media

An interview with our CEO, Takeshi Sakamoto, was featured in Tokyorama, a media outlet for the Italian community in Japan.

Takeshi Sakamoto, CEO of Trip Designer Inc., was featured in an interview on Yamatogokoro Career, discussing how the Omakase Tour team, now 14 people (seven of them from overseas), hires for passion over experience. Trip Designer has run the Omakase Tour brand since 2015.

The Omakase Tour blog was selected by FeedSpot as one of its Top 30 Japan Travel Blogs, ranked 24th, chosen from thousands of blogs by relevancy, authority, and social engagement.

Omakase Tour is now listed on the JNTO Sydney website (Japan National Tourism Organization) as a Japan-based tour operator.

Omakase Tour's Yanaka walking tour was featured in the JapanKart blog, in a guide to exploring the historic Yanaka district:

Our team photo was taken by ON-1, Inc., a leading creative production studio in Tokyo.

Omakase Tour's Yanaka walking tour was featured in Magical Trip's guide to Tokyo's old-town neighborhood of Yanaka, starting from JR Nippori Station and taking in the area's historic temples, shrines, and atmospheric streets.

From December 2 to 5, 2024, Omakase Tour participated in ILTM Cannes 2024 for the first time, developing a network of luxury travel agencies, designers, and concierges across Europe.

From November 10 to 13, 2024, Omakase Tour exhibited at Connections Luxury Americas 2024 in Los Angeles, California, building a network of luxury travel agencies, designers, and concierges across the United States and Mexico. It was our first time exhibiting at the event.

Omakase Tour has launched a new Yuzen dyeing activity in Asakusa, Tokyo, introducing guests to the traditional Japanese art of Yuzen dyeing and kimono making. The activity is led by a craftsperson who created garments worn at an Olympic ceremony, and guests dye their own handkerchief using the Yuzen method.

Omakase Tour was awarded Tripadvisor's Best of the Best 2023 for our Yanaka walking tour. Tripadvisor selects the top 10 tours from over 4,000 across Japan, and Omakase placed fifth overall, with our Yanaka tour ranked the number one guided walking tour in Japan.

Omakase Tour updated its team introduction page as new employees from India and Italy joined the company.

Omakase Tour has added a new tour: the Takamatsu Art 6-Hour Tour including the world-famous Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, in the Kagawa area.

Omakase Tour has added a new tour: the Small Group Kyoto Food & Culture Dive, in the Kyoto area.

Omakase Tour has added a new tour: the Manga Drawing Class (1 Standard Lesson) in Nakano, in the Tokyo area.

Takeshi Sakamoto, CEO of Trip Designer Inc., was featured in ABC News (Australia), in a report on how Japan's tour operators were coping through the COVID-19 recovery.

Omakase Tour's Mt. Fuji climbing tour was featured in the Asahi Shimbun on July 2, 2022.

Omakase Tour's Kochi barrier-free tourism promotional project was featured in the Kochi Shimbun on November 18, 2021.

Omakase Tour's barrier-free travel seminar for Kochi Prefecture was featured in the Ryoko Shimbun (Travel News) on March 21, 2021.

Omakase Tour's Kochi barrier-free monitoring tour was featured in Accessible Japan. Our team travelled through Kochi Prefecture to inspect the accessibility of its facilities and sightseeing spots, working toward a new wheelchair-friendly tour, with feedback from Sarah Nishina, a wheelchair user who has visited 46 of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Takeshi Sakamoto, CEO of Trip Designer Inc., was appointed an inbound tourism expert and advisor by the Japan Tourism Agency, dispatched to support wide-area tourism promotion projects across Japan.

Omakase Tour received the Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice Award for the fourth year in a row, recognizing consistently outstanding traveler reviews.

Takeshi Sakamoto, owner of Trip Designer Inc., was featured in the Ryoko Shimbun (Travel News), the travel-trade newspaper.

Omakase Tour's Adachi Fish Market experience was featured in SHOYU. We introduced the writers at SHOYU to the culinary delights and local feel of this off-the-beaten-track Tokyo market.

Omakase Tour was featured in The Japan Times, which joined a barrier-free tour of Tokyo led by founder and CEO Takeshi Sakamoto:

Omakase Tour's Yanaka walking tour was featured by Lonely Planet in a video exploring Tokyo's historic Yanaka neighborhood.

Trip Designer Inc. was featured in Nikkan Sports on August 15, 2018.

Omakase Tour's Yanaka walking tour was featured in Sugoidesune Shisatsudan.

Omakase Tour's barrier-free Tokyo tour was featured in Yomiuri Online, in its coverage of accessibility ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Omakase Tour was featured in The National (UAE) among its picks for the best halal holidays:

Omakase Tour's Yanaka walking tour was featured in Ryoko Shimbun, the travel-trade newspaper, which joined the tour through the historic Yanaka district, lingering at Yanaka Cemetery and Nezu Shrine rather than the commercial shopping street.

Omakase Tour's barrier-free Tokyo tour was featured in the Asahi Shimbun on August 26, 2017.

Omakase Tour was featured in detik travel (Indonesia), in a story about the Heikegani "samurai crab" of Japan and Omakase's travel packages to Miyajima Island.

Omakase Tour's one-day barrier-free Tokyo tour for wheelchair users was featured in MATCHA, taking in Senso-ji, Shibuya, Meiji Shrine, and Sumida Park along wheelchair-accessible routes.

Omakase Tour's one-day barrier-free Tokyo tour for wheelchair users was featured in Metropolis. The tour covered Asakusa and Harajuku/Shibuya using public transport, with wheelchair users Josh Grisdale (of the Accessible Japan website) and Kazumi Nakayama, a Japanese wheelchair racing athlete who represented Japan at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

Trip Designer Inc. was featured in the Yomiuri Shimbun on March 17, 2017.

Omakase Tour's one-day barrier-free Tokyo tour for wheelchair users was featured by Kyodo News.

Omakase Tour's one-day barrier-free Tokyo tour for wheelchair users was featured in The Japan Times, in a piece on the tour's vision of accessible travel in the capital.

Omakase Tour's Sapporo Muslim-friendly tour was featured in Halal Media Japan:

The winter tour includes a visit to Nijo Market, known as "the kitchen of Sapporo."

Trip Designer Inc. was featured in TTG Asia, the travel-trade media for the Asia-Pacific region.

Omakase Tour was featured in The Brunei Times, in an article on halal travel information for Muslim tourists.

Omakase Tour was featured in detik travel (Indonesia), in a report on how Japan is becoming easier to visit for Muslim travelers.

Omakase Tour was featured in Have Halal, Will Travel, among its selection of authentic experiences to try in Japan for Muslim travelers.

Omakase Tour was featured in MATCHA, the Japan travel and culture web magazine.

Trip Designer Inc. formed a partnership with Have Halal, Will Travel, one of the world's leading Muslim-travel media platforms, to bring Omakase Tour's Muslim-friendly experiences in Japan to a wider global audience.

Omakase Tour was featured in Sogyotecho, a Japanese web magazine for entrepreneurs and startups.

Omakase Tour was featured in the Mutsu Shimpo, a local newspaper in Aomori Prefecture.

Omakase Tour was featured in Halal Media Japan, which introduced our cherry-blossom-viewing and karaoke experience tour for Muslim travelers:

The tour paired hanami at Shinjuku Gyoen with karaoke at a halal-certified venue.

Omakase Tour was featured in HalalJapan.jp, which introduced the launch of our interpreter-guided tour platform for independent foreign travelers.

Omakase Tour was featured in Halal Media Japan, which announced the launch of our interpreter-guided tour service for foreign independent travelers:

OMAKASE launched with six tour categories, including a Muslim-friendly tour featuring halal dining and a visit to Tokyo Camii.

Omakase Tour was featured on truelife.com (Thailand).

Omakase Tour launched on November 4, 2015 as an interpreter-guided tour platform of specialized interest tours (SIT) for foreign independent travelers (FIT), including Japan's first Manga tour and a fully halal, Muslim-friendly tour.