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.

Arielle Schlickman-Elak
IT Support Engineer
Email: [email protected]
Call: US 303 952 0379
Location (Broomfield, USA)

If it's Japanese arts you're into, Arielle's your go-to girl...

Although Arielle didn't officially start studying Japanese until she went to university, her formative years were spent busily honing her Japanese interests in her home town of Worcester, Massachusetts.

After catching an episode of the anime series Rurouni Kenshin at the tender age of 10, Arielle found creative ways to overcome a lack of access to Japanese classes. Her flourishing interest saw her diligently learning Japanese phrases after school, watching as much anime as she could, and spending hours sewing and gluing outfits to become her favourite cosplay characters (she even won top prize for her Utawarerumono character).

It wasn't until she was studying a double major in Japanese and Studio Art at university in Colorado that she could finally have a stint living in Japan though.

It was this small village in Nagahama (which she likens to the picturesque countryside of Hayao Miyazaki films) where she discovered traditional Japanese performing arts, and began learning to play the shamisen - a traditional instrument often played in geisha performances.

When she wasn't busy practising, performing or seeing shows, she was eating her bodyweight in kabocha, earning her the nickname "kabocha musume" (pumpkin daughter).

Since moving back to the US, Arielle continues to practice as an apprentice in the Bando style of Nihon Buyo in the CU Boulder Japanese Ensemble. She is also still firmly invested in the anime scene that enamoured her so much as a child, always keeping up with new releases.

In fact, pre-InsideJapan, she had a job designing edible cake toppers; by her own admission, they were heavily influenced by the "chibi" style!

What would you say to persuade someone to visit Japan?

My favorite quote from Trevor Noah:

"If there's one thing you won't waste your money on, it's traveling... Travel the world. See another place. Discover a different point of view. Traveling is the antidote to ignorance, that's so true. It changes your mind, your perspective, how you believe, what you believe."

What is your favourite place in Japan

There's a great little shopping row called Teramachi Shopping Arcade right in front of Kyoto Station. It's a fantastic way to jump right in to the street culture of Kyoto in a mix of traditional and modern shops. There's a whole shop devoted entirely to Tabi socks and many food stalls along the way. You can easily spend an entire afternoon there!"