Our team at Inside Japan Tours

The sun never sets on the InsideJapan Tours team (well, maybe on Sundays) as we have offices in Bristol (UK), Broomfield, (USA), Brisbane (Australia) and Nagoya (Japan). On this page you can meet the people behind our Japan holidays and tours.

We have a wide range of backgrounds and interests, but you can be sure that the one thing that ties us all together is a love of Japan, Japanese culture and a passionate desire to share that with other people.

From the accounts department, through the travel consultant teams to the tour leaders and guides on the ground, you can rest assured that everything we do is to make sure you have the best possible experience of Japan.

Brett Plotz
Insider
Email: [email protected]
Location (Japan)

Proud video game otaku and Japanophile Brett joined the InsideJapan tour leading team in 2015 and is currently based in the city of Yokohama � famous for its massive Chinatown.

A former journalist, Brett traveled and worked all over the world before visiting Japan for the first time over 15 years ago. After staying a number of years, he moved on but felt Japan always pulling him back. Inevitably, Brett returned to Japan a couple years later and has been here (and with ITG) ever since.

Although based just outside of Tokyo, Brett has traveled extensively throughout the country in the past decade, showing clients around his adopted home country. He has served as a consultant and writer for various local governments and entities throughout Japan and the world, having written for a number of magazines and newspapers, as well as TBS Television Tokyo, Japan Rail, and the Japan government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.

Whether guiding celebrities, tech moguls, or anyone at all choosing to come to Japan, Brett maintains being a tour leader is the best job in the world. To that end, Brett was honored with being named Tour Leader of the Year at the World Guiding Awards in 2019, one of the most prestigious awards in the tour leading industry.

When he's not leading tours he loves frequenting all the game bars and arcades, exploring obscure bars and restaurants, going to all the crazy festivals, eating tonkotsu ramen, and generally just waiting to see what interesting things each day will bring.

What is your top piece of advice for people visiting Japan for the first time?

"For people visiting Japan for the first time, I would tell them to try everything at least once. You'll never know if you'll actually like that raw horse meat unless you try it. Also, you didn't like ramen when you were in college? Well, try it again in Japan. It's completely different and you'll love it. Another piece of advice: don't be afraid to get lost. It's how you discover things. Just start walking and see what happens!"

Relive a favourite moment in Japan...

Following in the footsteps of samurai

"A buddy of mine and I decided to take a couple weeks' vacation and travel in the footsteps of the famous samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. We did tons of research and asked local experts where we should go and what we should see and do. We planned this massive trip all the way down to Kagoshima and it went off without a hitch. We hit so many famous places and really just breathed in the history. It was a super niche little 'tour' we made up, but its still one of the greatest trips I've ever been on."