What we're agreeing to.

Who we are, and what you're buying

Tokyo Vibes is a private day-tour operator in Shibuya, trading as a sole proprietor. These terms cover every day we run and every day we build, and they apply from the moment we confirm one with you.

What you're buying is a guide's day. We plan it with you and we spend it with you. We are not a travel agency and we hold no Japanese travel agency registration (旅行業登録): we don't book your flights, your hotels, your trains or a car on your behalf, and we don't sell any of that as a package. Where it would help, we'll tell you exactly what we would book — and you book it.

You can reach us any time at hello@tokyovibes.com or +81 90 7537 2446, or write to us at:

Confirming a day

Our set days are booked on this site. You choose the date, the length and how many of you are coming, you see one price for everyone, and you pay by card. The day is confirmed the moment you book — that is also the moment you are charged.

If we ever have to move a confirmed day — it has happened, rarely — you choose: another date, another guide, or every yen back the same day.

A custom itinerary, or any day you would rather talk through first, starts as an enquiry. There, nothing is booked and nothing is owed until we have both agreed the day in writing and you have confirmed it — up to that point an enquiry is a conversation and not a commitment, on either side.

We run one booking at a time, so a confirmed date is yours and nobody else's.

Prices, and paying

Prices are in Japanese yen, and each quote is one number for everyone coming — shaped by how many of you there are and the length of the day, never a per-person rate. The price we quote you is the price.

A single-day booking is paid in full when you book — by card, through Stripe, our payment processor. Multi-day and custom itineraries are confirmed with a deposit, and the balance is settled before the first day. Nothing is payable to us on the day itself.

What a day's page lists as included is in the price of that day — temple and shrine entry on the walking days and day trips, the stated food, drinks and covers on the night tour. Everything beyond that list — food and drink, other entry tickets, travel during the day — is yours, paid at the counter and at the door, at what it costs. Nothing goes through us and nothing is marked up.

If what you want changes the shape of the day — longer, further, more of you — we tell you what that costs before anything is held.

Changing a day

Tell us as early as you can and we will move what we can. Most things are movable with a day or two's notice; some are not, because someone is holding a counter open for you.

We can't make changes within 24 hours of the start unless we agreed them beforehand. By then your guide's day is committed to you.

Occasionally we have to change part of a day ourselves — somewhere is closed, a line is down, the weather makes something unwise. We'll tell you, and we'll put something we rate just as highly in its place.

If you cancel

In writing please — email or WhatsApp — so there is never a question about when. The clock runs to the agreed start time of your day.

• More than 72 hours before the start: everything you have paid is refunded.
• Between 24 and 72 hours before the start: half of what you have paid is refunded.
• Less than 24 hours before the start: no refund. Your guide has held the day for you and turned other work down.

If something has genuinely gone wrong — illness, a family emergency, a flight that never left — tell us anyway. These are the terms; we would far rather hear from you than apply them blindly.

If we cancel

You get everything back, whatever the notice.

That covers force majeure — a natural disaster, or public or private transport being disrupted — and it covers us: if your guide falls ill and we can't put someone equally good in their place, that is our problem rather than yours.

Weather

Rain is not a cancellation. Tokyo has a great deal to do indoors and your guide knows all of it, so the day flexes around the weather instead of being called off.

Weather severe enough to stop the trains is a different thing, and that is force majeure — see above.

Meeting your guide

Your guide will wait up to 30 minutes at the meeting point you set.

After that we have to treat it as a no-show and no refund is due. If you are simply running late, message us — we will wait for as long as the rest of the day allows.

What we're responsible for

Running the day we agreed, properly, with a guide who knows what they are doing.

Where something goes wrong and it is our fault, what we owe you is limited to what you paid us for that day. We are not liable for knock-on losses — a missed flight, a booking somewhere else.

Nothing here limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. It couldn't, and we wouldn't want it to.

We are not an insurer. Travel insurance is worth having and we would recommend it — for your belongings, for medical cover, and for the trip itself.

What you're responsible for

Very little, and all of it obvious:

• Telling us before the day about anything that shapes it — mobility, health, allergies, how much walking is comfortable. We would rather know early than improvise badly.
• Following your guide's advice on safety, and on the places we are guests in. Some of the doors we walk through are open to us because of how we behave once we are inside.
• Your own belongings, and your own travel documents.
• Whoever books is responsible for everyone they bring and needs to be 18 or over. Children are very welcome with them — a good many of our days are family days.

Your privacy

We collect what you type into the enquiry and booking forms and use it to answer you and to run your day. Enquiries are deleted after two years; booking records are kept as long as Japanese tax law requires. Your card details go to Stripe, never to us. The full version is on our privacy page, and it is short.

Which law applies

Japanese law, and the Japanese courts.

If you are a consumer somewhere else, that does not take away the rights your own country gives you which cannot be signed away.

Changes to these terms

The terms that apply to your day are the ones on this page when we confirmed it. If we change them afterwards, your booking is unaffected, and the date at the top moves so you can tell.