JOIN JAPAN ACADEMY
Plan your Japan trip with a couple who actually live here. We save you from expensive tourist traps so you can see the real Japan
Most people who visit Japan spend the whole trip in the wrong places — the packed tourist streets, the overpriced hotels, the restaurants with picture menus out front. They fly home with the same photographs as everyone else, never knowing what they walked past.
We’re Joshua and Momoka. I grew up in Sydney; Momoka is Japanese. We’re married, we live in rural Nagoya, and for three years we’ve been travelling this country together — the mountain onsen towns, the island ferries, the back-street izakaya with no English menu and no need for one.
Japan Academy is where we hand you all of it: the routes, the bookings, the etiquette, the language, and the places that never make it into a guidebook — plus our eyes on your actual itinerary before you book a single thing.
WHAT YOU WILL GET
DONE-WITH-YOU ITINERARY COACHING
- ✔1:1 personalised trip planning — we build your 7, 14 or 30-day route together
- ✔We review your itinerary line by line and tell you honestly what to cut
- ✔Region-by-region breakdowns so you stop guessing where to spend your days
- ✔Live community calls to pressure-test your plan before you book anything
STEP-BY-STEP JAPAN VIDEO GUIDES
- ✔Transport decoded — IC cards, JR Pass maths, shinkansen, night buses
- ✔Accommodation: where to book, what to avoid, and how to find ryokan worth the money
- ✔A full Japanese language course built for travellers, not textbooks
- ✔50+ tourist traps to avoid, with what we’d do instead
THE TRIP BUILDER APP + COMMUNITY
- ✔Interactive map and packing checklist that build your trip as you go
- ✔A money-saving system members use to cut over $1,000 off a two-week trip
- ✔Ask questions and get answers from people currently on the ground in Japan
- ✔Trip reports, photo drops and route swaps from members who just got back
BONUSES
- Full Japanese Language Course
- 50+ Tourist Traps to Avoid Guide
- Community Forum Access
THE 14-DAY ITINERARY GUARANTEE
Have a fully personalised Japan trip itinerary within 14 days of joining, or you get a refund. We’d rather give your money back than watch you fly out with a plan you don’t believe in.
THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE
We keep each intake small on purpose. Please don’t apply if you are:
- 🚫A “someday” traveller with no dates anywhere near locked in
- 🚫Someone who’d rather save $67 than save $1,000+
- 🚫A freebie hunter — if you won’t invest in the trip, you won’t invest in the planning
- 🚫Looking to be handed a plan you’ll never open
- 🚫Happy doing the exact same route everyone else posts
If you’re serious about getting Japan right the first time, you’re in exactly the right place.
JAPAN ACADEMY MEMBERS
Our trip was so fantastic thanks to Joshua's help and we really appreciated the tips throughout the trip and planning phase! We highly recommend his services as he has made me and my boyfriend's first time Japan trip incredible!
I actually just came back from Japan! It was so much fun! I took your tips into consideration and had an incredible first Japan trip. Thanks so much Joshua and Momoka!!!
AUGUST INTAKE
JAPAN ACADEMY APPLICATION
Every application is read personally by us. If it’s a fit, you’ll hear back within 24 hours with your invite and next steps.
Limited spots each intake so we can give every member real attention.
FAQs
If you have a Japan trip in your near future and you want it to be genuinely yours rather than a copy of the standard route — yes. You get the planning system, the video guides, the language course, the app, and our eyes on your actual itinerary before you book anything.
No, but you should be serious about going. Members who join with a rough window in mind get far more out of it than people browsing for “someday”. If you’re still deciding whether to go at all, the free community is a better starting point.
Completely self-paced. Every guide is pre-recorded so you can move at your own speed. We also run live community calls for itinerary reviews and questions, and every call is recorded if you can’t make it live.
Google gives you the same twenty blog posts everyone else read — which is exactly why the same places are packed. We live here. You get current, on-the-ground answers, a structured planning system instead of forty open tabs, and someone who will tell you honestly when your itinerary is a mistake.
That’s the whole point. The system exists so you spend hours planning instead of weeks. Most members build a full working itinerary in their first fortnight inside.
It’s built for first-timers. We start from the beginning — flights, transport, where to base yourself — and go all the way through to the local spots most repeat visitors never find.
We read your application personally and reply within 48 hours. If it’s a fit, we send your invite link and onboarding steps. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you straight and point you somewhere more useful.
The community runs on Skool, which makes cancelling free and instant. Open the Settings tab while logged in to view payment history and manage your membership — no emails, no hoops.