Super Sugamo Local Foodie Adventure

Absolutely loved my tours with Arigato! They do an incredible job with making the food tours not only delicious but also fun and information. I can't recommend highly enough!

Great half day food tour in Sugamo with Joshua. Sampled many different types of dishes and learned a lot as well.

I can't tell you what a terrific time I had. Our tour guide Claire made the difference as it was organized, informed and infused with diverse food selections and cultural history of the region that added to the experience. This is not a tourist area... it is populated by locals that gave you a real flavor (no pun intended) of day to day living in this city. Claire took us to locations we never would have found on our own and just made the overall experience quite enjoyable. Her demeanor and inclusiveness was a huge factor as she engaged with everyone and make us all feel welcome...and full!

We had an excellent food tour with Claire. She is extremely knowledgeable about the food scene in Sugamo and provided great choices to experience the local flavors. If you choose to have this tour with Claire through Arigato Travel, we are sure you will not regret it and definitely won’t be hungry when you are finished the tour.

Kaz did a fantastic job giving us a tour of the local restaurants, history of the city, and the historic sites. Tasting the different, unique foods was amazing. It was also amazing to know that the restaurants and stores we visited have been there for decades and, in some cases, more than a century. Kaz was super friendly and very informative and so easy to talk to. We really enjoyed the entire tour with him.

Melody was wonderful. The dorayaki was the best!

Our guide Akiko spoke very good English, was very interesting about the whole area, described the history, took us to a knife shop, a panchenko experience, as well as very tasty food. As we are vegetarian/ pescatarian she had to work hard at finding us interesting food - but it was great. Thank you Akiko

Clara was an excellent host and made sure we had plenty of snacking opportunities in the lovely quiet town of Sugamo. The three hours flew by and we all really enjoyed the tour

Our three-hour daytime food tour of Sugamo was much more than a simple tasting experience. We sampled a wonderful variety of dishes from local shops, beginning with dorayaki—two light pancakes filled with red bean paste and a slice of butter—served warm alongside brown tea. The addition of local butter is Sugamo’s own twist on this classic Japanese sweet. Throughout the tour, we tried rice crackers, traditional sweets, and yet another style of dorayaki. Our lunch stop featured soba noodles in a rich duck broth. Trevor, our guide was knowledgeable and engaging, seamlessly blending history, food culture, and local stories. We visited two shrines and chatted with several residents, who greeted us with smiles and genuine curiosity. These small interactions added a warm, personal touch to our time in this charming corner of Tokyo.

We had a fabulous time with the fun and very knowledgeable Ully. Great food, interesting stops in a lovely part of the city that is off the beaten path. Highly enjoyable experience, and greatly recommended.

My wife and I enjoyed a wonderful day with our tour guide Ully. It was a joy to spend the day with her talking about not only Japan and its food and culture, but also about family and life in general. She is quite young chronologically but an “old soul” in terms of spirit and insight. Her knowledge of the local food and culture of the region was impressive and gave us a much better understanding and appreciation for the food of the region and how history helped to shape it. Thank you, Ully, for making us feel like we were old friends and family that you were taking on a private food tour!

Arigato food tour -Such an interesting, enjoyable and delicious tour, we really enjoyed it -gochispsama 🙏 we thoroughly recommend this tour!

We really enjoyed this food tour in a neighborhood of Tokyo that we likely would not have visited on our own. Serena was an excellent guide, offering up plenty of history, culture, and food knowledge. Lunch was excellent and the other food stops were a lot of fun. Direction on where to meet where clear and location easy to find with the help of Google Maps. Would definitely book again.

A really nice experience in Sugamo, out of the centre but a food and health pilgrimage place. Our guide, Clara, is from Guatemala but naturalised in Japan and clearly has studied the culture and the food. She was very knowledgeable and arranged a great tour. Highlights were the drop scones with bean paste and butter, and the tempura eel for lunch. Also the Buddha washing- you have to have done this to understand.

Michie and Motoko were our guides and I cannot recommend them enough - it was very cool to learn the differences in Japanese cuisine in the Kansas and Kanto regions from them as we walked through Sugamo. They were so friendly and genuinely excited to share their love of Japanese home cooking. The places we went to were delicious, my favorite being the tea shop. The guides were very friendly with all of the owners and you could tell they worked hard to build a good rapport with the community. This is the second Arigato Food Tour I've taken and my favorite - it was great to visit a street not all tourists will see + a temple famous for its healing properties.

Wesley, our guide was personable and informative. Went with three friends and food at every location was delicious and we would not have found if we didn't go on this tour. Highly recommend and many thanks to Wesley

Wesley took us to see some fabulous sites and tastes around Sugamo. We were really impressed with Wesley's local knowledge of food, culture and the local area. He also made us feel right at home straightaway with both himself and others on the tour. An excellent tour!

We scheduled our Sugamo tour for our first day (ever!) in Japan, which was a great way to ease into our trip. Our guide, Wesley, was super friendly, and gave us a great walk around this lovely neighborhood. He gave us useful info and tips for getting around, not just for the tour, but for our stay in Japan in general. Taking this tour with Wesley was a bit like meeting up with a friend from "back home", and we took knowledge away that made our visit to a new country a bit less intimidating. Thanks!

We had a great time in Sugamo with Yappy and Wes. Yappy was really fun and very knowledgeable. He told us lots about the food and also told us loads of other interesting things about Japanese culture. We really enjoyed our time with him. Everything a guide should be: welcoming, knowledgeable and fun!

This food tour was perfect for us. It was in a part of Tokyo we would never have been to if not for the tour. It was very flexible, and the guide (Mishie) was great and adjusted to what we wanted. She encouraged us to try new things but wasn't too pushy. We met shopkeepers who showered us with tastes and we had so much fun. This was perfect for a family! The staff was also really helpful.

I had two food tours with Arigato Japan Food Tours - Tokyo Underground and the Super Sugamo foodie adventure. They were both great. Both tour leaders were professional, knowledgeable, friendly and caring. I was impressed that Josh, the tour leader of Tokyo Underground, went out of his way to find me when I couldn’t find the right meeting point. Discovering the hidden gems of cafes, bars, restaurants and arts underneath the surface and understanding the intricate network of the underground passageways was a great experience! In Sugamo, I have had the best and the most refreshing kakigori ever; not to forget the delicious freshly made butter and red bean paste doriyaki. Sugamo is a quiet suburb of Tokyo that feels like miles away with very few tourists. I like exploring local neighbourhoods that are not touristy. I highly recommend Arigato Japan Food Tours for those who want to experience some real aspects of Japan’s food scene.

Our Sugamo Food tour with Norma and Tomy totally EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS! Our tour guides were extremely knowledgeable and respectful of the culture, and introduced us to so much of the beautiful culture that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. We toured food, snacks, drinks, an art gallery, old town Sugamo, Shrine & Temple practices, and they answered all of our many questions. They both even continued to accompany/assist us in figuring out our navigation needs after the tour, with a smile! We felt so blessed to have shared this magical experience with such genuine and knowledgeable tour guides, and this experience will be in our hearts forever! Definitely recommending to friends, family, and anyone interested. Thank you Norma and Romi!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️