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 tours and holidays.

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.

Rachel Grainger
Senior Product and Operations Executive
Email: [email protected]
Call: UK 0117 2443279
Location (Bristol, UK)

Rachel's interest in Japan began with a school art project at the age of 14, and led her to study Japanese at university.

Rachel first visited Japan in 2005, on an InsideJapan Small Group Tour called Essential Honshu. She is the first person in IJT history to go from customer to member of staff!

During her time at university, Rachel made two further visits to Japan. The first was in 2006, when she spent her summer holiday working at a hairdresser's in Hiroshima and a pizza restaurant in Kyushu (as part of the WWOOF programme). Then, from 2007-8, she lived in Tokyo for a year while studying at Seijo University.

After returning to the UK to complete her degree, Rachel moved back to Japan and spent the next five-and-a-half years in her adopted home of Tokyo. From working in an English language school, she moved on to use her Japanese skills as a translator for a mobile gaming company, and spent her spare time eating kushiage (grilled, skewered meat) and attending live recordings of Japanese TV shows.

In 2015, Rachel returned to England and moved to Bristol, where she joined our team as a product administrator. When she's not putting together holidays, Rachel is a keen hiker and all-round outdoors person, enjoys crafts, and is a self-described "cat lady". Her advice to first-time travellers to Japan is to keep an open mind, try new things, and don't worry about the fact you can't speak Japanese! People are so friendly you'll soon realise it doesn't matter.

Where is your favourite place in Japan, and why?

I'll admit I'm biased, but my favourite place in Japan is my old stomping ground of Shimokitazawa, a district in central Tokyo. It's only five to ten minutes from famous areas like Shinjuku or Shibuya, but it's much more old-fashioned - with narrow streets, lots of second-hand shops and a quirky selection of shops, caf�s and bars. I guess you could say it's the Japanese version of hipster!

Relive a favourite moment in Japan...

A trip to Okinawa

My fondest memory from my time in Japan is the trip I took to Okinawa - despite the typhoons! My friends and I spent four days on Okinawa's main island, driving around the coast and checking out the beaches and aquarium, but the highlight of the trip was Ishigaki Island. The guesthouse we stayed at was wonderful, the people were so friendly (even more so than usual!) and the views were simply stunning.