Tell us about you
Spend about five minutes telling Chikuni who is travelling, what matters to you, your pace, interests and the Japan you're imagining.
PRIVATE JOURNEY DESIGN · JAPAN
Your Japan.
Designed around you.
Not another list of places to visit. A considered journey shaped around how you actually want to experience Japan.
Start My Japan Journey →Begin with a complimentary personal Journey Outline.
A DIFFERENT WAY TO PLAN JAPAN
You don't need more recommendations.
You need the right ones.
Japan can be overwhelming to plan. Thousands of hotels. Endless restaurants. Conflicting advice. Everyone telling you where you “must” go.
Chikuni starts somewhere else: with you.
Tell us what matters, how you like to travel and what you've imagined Japan might feel like. We'll use real local knowledge, thoughtful judgment and intelligent technology to propose a journey that fits.
“Sometimes our most valuable recommendation will simply be:
Don't do that.
Travel better by doing less — but choosing well.”
HOW IT BEGINS
Your journey starts before
you arrive in Japan.
We think about your Japan
We look beyond the obvious route and consider where your time — and your money — will make the greatest difference.
Receive your personal outline
We'll send our first proposal: the route we'd recommend, how we'd divide your time, why we've made those choices, and a few ideas selected specifically for you.
NOT A GENERIC ITINERARY
A proposal,
not a prescription.
We'll make a clear recommendation because that's what you're asking us to do. But it's your journey.
If something doesn't excite you, we change it. If there's something you've always dreamed of doing, we build around it.
Chikuni gives you direction without taking away the pleasure of discovery.
CHIKUNI INSIDER
The details that change
the whole experience.
When to go. When not to go. Whether a private car is really easier. When to forward your luggage. Where we'd spend more — and where we wouldn't.
The things you probably wouldn't know to ask are often the things that make travelling in Japan effortless.
ABOUT CHIKUNI
More than three decades
in Japan.
Chikuni was founded by Desmond McPartland after more than three decades living and working in Japan.
His relationship with Japan began with a 15-year career in Tokyo as a Design Director, Vice President and Partner in an international architectural design business. After several years sailing in the Caribbean, he returned to Japan and established The Bears Japan in Hakuba, Nagano.
Today, that experience informs a different kind of journey design — combining an understanding of Japan with the judgment to know what is genuinely worth a traveller's time.
Chikuni brings that experience together with meticulous journey design to create deeply personal journeys through Japan.
Chikuni is a private Japan journey-design service operated by The Bears Japan K.K.
Experience it better.
HOW IT WORKS
From first thought
to your Japan.
Tell us about your Japan
Share who is travelling, what matters to you, how you like to travel and what you've imagined Japan might feel like.
Receive your complimentary outline
We consider the route, pace and experiences that fit you, then send our first personal Journey Outline.
Decide whether to continue
If our thinking feels right, invite Chikuni to design the complete journey. We agree the scope and design fee with you before paid work begins. There is no obligation to continue.
We design the details
Your complete journey is developed around the decisions that matter — places, stays, food, movement, timing and the spaces between them.
Travel with your journey in hand
Your Journey Book captures the experience. Your Journey Companion makes it practical. Where included in your agreed service, Chikuni provides itinerary guidance when plans change.
FOR PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS
A Japan specialist
behind your team.
Chikuni works alongside private concierges, family offices and trusted travel professionals whose clients are travelling to Japan.
Chikuni operates from Japan through The Bears Japan K.K., allowing professional partners to draw on established, on-the-ground experience while retaining their own client relationship.
We provide the specialist Japan knowledge and journey design. Your team retains the client relationship and manages reservations, payments and supplier arrangements.
We design Japan. Your team takes care of the client.
See how the experience and practical details work together in our Journey Book and Journey Companion.
Talk to Desmond →CONTACT
Let's talk
about Japan.
YOUR JAPAN STARTS HERE
Tell us what you've
been imagining.
We'll take it from there.
Start My Japan Journey →Complimentary personal Journey Outline · No obligation