Living808 with Non-Stop Travel: Sake no Jin Tour, Shibata Rice Harvest Tour, and More!
[Music] Welcome back to Living 808. It is time now to check in with the guy who can help you check off a few things from your bucket list, especially when it comes to travel. Jean from Non-stop Travel joins us now with all the fun details. Aloha. Hi, Kelly. Thanks for having me back. Welcome back. Of course. Happy to have you back. You’re usually off and about traveling and exploring incredible countries. You just came back from Japan, right? Yes, I did. How was it? It was a fabulous trip. This was our very first affordable luxury small groupoup tour. We drank sake every day because as you should as the main event Kelly was called sake no jin translation sake festival in nigata. So 85 sake brewers over 400 sake to sample in 3 hours. It was a race against the clock. So they open the doors at 10:00. They have food booths. They had all these places that were serving almost full ooco, you know those little saki things cup. And so our affordable luxury, it’s here’s the criteria. Normally our groups go up to 36 people. This particular series that we just started, maximum 24 people. That’s nice. So you’re pampered. Same size big bus. If you don’t want to sit next to your wife or husband or boyfriend or girlfriend, you can have your own little separate seat. We’re staying minimum two nights in very nice hotels, some of them with your little onsen, your hotring little tub right on your balcony, and the best of the best meals, French food, kiaki dinners. Um, and talk about all the hands-on activities. Not just strawberries picking, but we did also kite making. We did sbe rice cracker making. Oh, so making. Uh, you name it, we did it all. We did about eight different hands-on activities. So, it’s really a fun time. Yeah. Okay. I’m sure a lot of people are jealous like me right now. Do you have any more of those tours? Yes, we do. We got a few seats left for the uh, you know, we’ve been talking about Shibata rice uh, harvesting. Yeah. So, we have a few seats left for the plant planting uh, in May. And again, we just rolled out uh two kinds of uh rice harvesting in September. 24 tour members affordable luxury just came out. We already sold about a dozen seats, so only a dozen left. And we also have the regular version with 36 uh tour members. So, we got two different Shibata rice harvesting. So, that again is a really good time. We have a nice banquet. It’s it’s we take care of everything um from meals to sightseeing to strawberry picking and we even bring the rice back uh ship it back um after we harvest it in September. They dry it, cure it, put it in nice big bags. It goes to the rice factory. We mill it a week before Christmas and everybody has 10 pounds, four two and a half pounds bags of rice to share with family. Oh my goodness. Okay. When it comes to timing again with the festival, with the rice harvesting, now is the perfect time for cherry blossoms. Everybody just came back and we are so grateful. Um Korea, we hit it right at the peak. Oh, good. Um almost uh 250 people went to Korea with us this season. Very, very grateful. And also Japan, uh over 500 people uh enjoyed the peak season cherry blossoms. We’re a little worried. About a month ago, a late late cold spell uh hit Tokyo uh and all of Japan really. And um you know, I don’t know if you’re familiar with cherry blossoms, but the buds start to get a little bit bigger, fatter and right in the middle of it, the snow and the this cold spell came and we were worried that oh, they might just fall off, right? Just like you know, mango. Yeah. You know, sometimes you get really strong winds, but thankfully they hung on. They held on. Yes. And and everybody, all the tours that were scheduled for cherry blossoms, they all saw, took many pictures, good memories. And so, yeah, very grateful. I mean, that’s that’s the reason why we have that asterk on the flyer saying cherry blossoms are not guaranteed subject to weather conditions, but this year we lucked out both in Korea and in Japan. So, very very grateful. And what’s also wonderful, I mean, cherry blossoms are trending, but so many great travel spots are. So, what’s kind of the hot new thing right now? You know, it’s a it’s a 24-hour journey to Europe, but it’s a bucket list destination, and we’ve got something for everybody here on Living 808. We have our 40th anniversary cruise in October. We’re going to do this with KSSK. We’re already halfway there. Um, drum roll, Norwegian spirit, the Mediterranean. So, if you know, um, you know, the Roman Catholic Church is having their Jubilee year this year. So, Rome normally has 7 million tourists. This year, they’re expecting 30 million tourists. And we’ve secured some really awesome airfare from here to Rome. So, the cruise goes roundrip Rome. So, it’s here to Rome. We’ve got hotel rooms. We got sightseeing. We even have a pasta making known as pasta making class for all everybody going and then you go on a 11 night cruise to the Greek islands, Mikono, Santorini, uh, Malta, uh, France. Uh, so it’s like a 11 night cruise pre and post. Yes. The way to do it is to go with a group from Hawaii. There’s the comfort knowing that you have a tour manager and you’ve got, you know, other Kama, right? So, so if people do want to join in, where can we go for more info on this one? Okay, this one is www.nonsstop.travel. All right, perfect. And we’ll have that link on our website, but that sounds like true heaven. So, what’s the what are the dates for that one again? This one is uh end of October and the first week of November. So, it’s about a 18 night um complete vacation. Wow. Perfect. And we’ll have a link to your website on our website at k2t.com, but I’m sure a lot of people are going to want to do that one. Thank you for being here and of course for always putting together such awesome trips. You’re very welcome. We’re very grateful to be celebrating 40th anniversary and um you know all the listeners of Living 808 have supported us and yeah we’re just looking forward to putting together more and more and more tours. Awesome. And we’re excited to hear more about those. Thanks so much Jean. So much more when Living 808 returns. Stay with us. [Music]
Join Living 808 TV host Kelly Simek and Non-Stop Travel’s Managing Director, Gene Miyake, as they cover the hottest travel trends in this April segment.
Discussion Topics:
– Niigata Sake no Jin Tour
– Shibata Rice Harvest Tour: https://nonstophawaii.com/land-tours/japan/affordable-luxury/
– Cherry Blossom Tours: https://nonstophawaii.com/land-tours/japan-cherry-blossom-tours/
– 40th Anniversary Mediterranean Cruise: https://nonstophawaii.com/kssks-perry-the-posse-cruises/
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