Touch and Learn Local Wisdom through Unique Tours

Interview with Chisato Maeda, Founder of Village to Table Tours

Village to Table Tours is organized by a group of food specialists, food coordinators, chefs, and food producers. Their curated “Food Guide” will introduce you to local communities and stories, sharing in the daily lives of villagers who are living close to nature, the ocean and forests, passed down from generation to generation in Japan. A graduate of an agricultural university in the Netherlands, the founder, Chisato Maeda, specializes in natural farming and food preservation. Today, while working for a traditional herbal medicine processor in Nara, she organizes various events, focusing on tea, fermentation, and plants.

KVG: Where did the concept of Village to Table Tours come from?

Chisato: I’m originally from Kyoto and worked as a government employee in Kyoto after graduating from university. Through my job at that time, I was able to be involved in and learn how to develop local community by utilizing its own resources, including agriculture. My interest grew and this experience even made me decide to study
agriculture professionally at the university in the Netherlands.

Including my time in the Netherlands, I have always loved to meet my elders, such as those in their 80s and 90s, whenever and wherever it was, and to learn traditional agricultural methods and handicraft works from them. They are like treasure boxes of wisdom that people in the olden days practiced commonly in their daily life but few still know about and follow in today’s modern lifestyle, for example, how to use ashes made from different plants, how to grow koji (fermented rice or grain which can promote fermentation), or vegetables which are too small or oddly shaped to be sold in the major markets but have always been enjoyed by local people.

I was afraid that this wisdom is being forgotten and might become extinct in the future. Then, I started to write journals about my experience both in Japanese and English on my blog. Meanwhile, I started to receive requests from people both inside and outside Japan who wanted me to guide them to the villages I wrote about. I brought people to small villages that are never written in guidebooks but those who visited there returned filled with new discoveries
and intellectual satisfaction. The more opportunities I had like this, the more my wish became stronger to adopt it as my vocation. It didn’t take too long for me to become determined to quit my job at that time and to become a tour guide.

KVG: What is special about Village to Table Tours?

Chisato: Our mission is to learn about the wisdom and techniques that people in the past cherished and to pass them on to the future generations. Our programs are very intimate and focus on specific themes such as a cooking class during which a tea farmer teaches about dishes using tea leaves, a lecture about hakko food (traditional fermented food) by a farmer who preserves indigenous hakko ingredients, classes about traditional colors of Japan by an artist who became a fabric dyer as she wanted to protect trees and plants. In other words, our programs are all community-based and cherish learning among people.

One of the tours we organized was the Special Hakko Tour which was a custom order from a cooking school in Malaysia. I made the 3-day itinerary in which we visited many specialists of traditional Japanese fermented food such as miso, shoyu, tofu, natto, sake and more. Participants took part in the preparation process with the experienced workers at each place and learnt with all of their five senses. Their interest grew during the tour and they even wanted to learn how to grow koji (which is very rare even in Japan) and they purchased all kinds of necessary tools and items to try reproducing what they learnt at home. Their suitcases were full of “treasures” that they obtained during the tour.

Village to Table Tours listens to the customers wishes and needs carefully and tries our best to meet their expectations even if the order is very specific and professional. We are not providing simple gourmet tours but introducing the holistic food culture of Japan, because food is a big part of our life. We hope to share stories with participants through
letting them experience the process of how food is produced.

Village to Table's Recommended Tour Plans

All about Tea Tour to Uji in Kyoto - Explore stories behind the tea ceremony

Matcha and the tea ceremony are becoming popular in Kyoto, but this tour is for the people more interested in the ingredients, where and how it grows. You can visit some historical tea stores of Uji and a tea farm in Wazuka town, and enjoy a home meal together with the tea farmer, listening to the stories behind matcha bowls and tea whisks.

A wide variety of food-centered programs can
be arranged. Check out Village to Table Tours’
website for more tour plans and details.