Tomioka Silk Mill & Myogi - Private Day Tour from Tokyo

In 1872 the new Japanese government built its first modern factory in a silk-farming valley in Gunma, hired French engineers, and taught the daughters of samurai to run the reeling machines. Tomioka Silk Mill still stands almost exactly as it was, and UNESCO listed it in 2014. Very few overseas visitors get there. We take you in a private van from Tokyo.

We collect you at your hotel and drive north-west for about two hours. At the mill your guide walks you through the 140-metre reeling hall, the cocoon warehouses and the French director’s house, explaining how this one building turned Japan into the world’s largest silk exporter. Volunteer demonstrations show cocoons being unwound by hand.

From Tomioka we drive into the hills to Mount Myogi, a jagged wall of rock towers that looks more like China than Japan. Myogi Shrine sits at its foot behind a 165-step stone staircase, with lacquered halls carved in the style of Nikko’s Toshogu. Lunch is the famous toge no kamameshi, a rice pot cooked in a clay bowl, at the shop that invented it.

In the afternoon we stop at the Konnyaku Park in Shimonita, where Gunma’s strange jelly food is made and served at a free all-you-can-eat buffet, and finish at Megane-bashi, the four-arch brick railway viaduct built in 1893 on the old Usui Pass line, now a walking trail. Back in Tokyo by early evening.

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. There are no per-person supplements and no booking fees. Silk mill entry and lunch are paid by each guest on the day.

Good to know

Myogi Shrine’s stone stairs are steep; the main hall can be reached by an easier side path. The silk mill is closed on Wednesdays; we tell you before booking if your date is affected.

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.