Omiya Bonsai & Railway - Private Day Tour from Tokyo

After the 1923 earthquake the bonsai masters of Tokyo moved north to Omiya, where the soil and water suited their trees. A century later the Omiya Bonsai Village is still the centre of the bonsai world – a quiet grid of lanes with six working nurseries and the only public bonsai museum in Japan. Every serious bonsai grower on earth knows the name; almost no tourist bus stops there.

We collect you at your Tokyo hotel at nine and drive forty minutes to Omiya. At the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum your guide walks you through the collection: trees of 300, 500 and in one case about 1,000 years old, displayed the way they would be in a tea house, with an explanation of how a tree that size is kept alive in a pot. Then we walk the village lanes to the nurseries, where you can watch the gardeners work and, if you like, buy a young tree that can travel.

Lunch is in Omiya, then the Railway Museum: forty real trains under one roof, from the first steam locomotive imported into Japan to the early shinkansen, driving simulators, a working diorama the size of a tennis court and a rooftop deck where the real shinkansen pass every few minutes. Children and adults come out equally happy.

On the way back, if the day allows, we stop at Hikawa Shrine, one of the oldest shrines in the Kanto region, with a two-kilometre approach avenue of zelkova trees.

What you pay is what you pay

The price is one fixed amount for your whole group: the private van, fuel, tolls, parking and your driver-guide for the day. Entry tickets for both the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum and the Railway Museum are included. There are no per-person supplements and no booking fees. Lunch is optional.

Good to know

If one of the two museums is closed on your date (the bonsai museum closes on Thursdays, the railway museum on Tuesdays) we will tell you before the tour and you can choose a substitute stop of the same type or a full refund of your booking, guaranteed. Photography is allowed in most of the bonsai museum but not in the main collection room. Bonsai purchases need an export certificate for most countries – your guide can explain what is possible.

Flexible day

This is your private tour, so the day is flexible. If you want to skip a stop, stay longer somewhere or add a place nearby, write it in the booking notes or tell your driver-guide on the day and we will adjust the route where time allows.