Troy, born of a Japanese-American family, has lived nearly half of his life outside of the States. Given this, his study of cultural anthropology focusing on contemporary Japanese culture, and 14 years involved in education while living in Japan may be a natural result of this upbringing. He feels fortunate that life in Japan has allowed him to continue his passion for travel and people and afforded him ample opportunity to help others discover new vistas, ways of thinking and experiences in places ranging from Japan to Thailand to Papua New Guinea. Troy firmly believes that everyday scenes and events can provide some of the greatest insights into a new place and the key to an appreciation of the richness of a culture can often be found by simply learning to recognize the "mundane" patterns as they are reproduced in different contexts and varied over time.

Jiro has always been enthusiastic, challengeable, and eager to do the guiding for over the past 13 years up to now. Jiro graduated from a university in Japan with an MBA and has since lived and worked in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, New York, and London. He started his career in finance working for a bank for 25 years and English and American financial IT companies for years. This afforded him multiple opportunities to make many friends from around the world, whilst understanding various cultures much better. As a result, he decided to retire in 2009 and has become a government-licensed English interpreter & guide in Japan, with his main goal wishing to create a cross-cultural bridge between Japan and other countries. His expertise is the Edo-Tokyo Museum which specializes mainly in 17th Century Japan to the present. He enjoys exploring this interesting and diverse history of Japan with visitors but also going further afield to Tokyo, Yokohama, Hakone, Kamakura, Mt. Fuji, and Nikko and others in the Kanto district. Jiro can provide a unique insight into Japan given his upbringing and his knowledge of peculiar Japanese topics, ranging from pensions to modern, social, and cultural issues.

John is a postharvest and food scientist who currently teaches at the University of Tokyo. He first came to Japan to pursue his Ph.D. degree as a scholar of MEXT (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology) specializing in food safety with his research focusing on the functional properties of food to promote human health and well-being. For him, Tsukiji (where the world’s biggest seafood market is located) is a must-see to further appreciate the Japanese food culture. And, a food night-out in the vibrant town of Shibuya is just a delightful treat. His scholarship and exposure make him an interesting docent – satisfying the hunger for that authentic Japanese taste and the inquisitive mind with cultural and science-based information.