Outdoor Activities at Ise-Shima National Park

We can arrange internships at various companies offering outdoor tourism and ecotourism activities in Ise-Shima National Park. These companies have tourism professionals who can supervise interns. All internships in Ise-Shima are possible with a minimum duration of one week.

Ise-Shima National Park in Mie Prefecture is known for its densely forested, hilly coastal landscape with many bays and small islands. The theme of the National Park is harmony between humans and nature, which has been practiced here for thousands of years. A famous attraction of the park is the Ama women, traditional divers who gather abalone, turban shells, and other seafood from the ocean floor without any diving equipment. Their environmentally friendly techniques and knowledge are recognized as UNESCO cultural heritage.

Provider of Ama Tours and Nature Tours in Toba

The six women of this tour operator are pioneers of ecotourism in Japan. In 2009, they won the National Ecotourism Award for their innovative tours.

The tours include visits to the Ama women, who explain their techniques. Afterwards, visitors can enjoy freshly caught seafood, reputed to be the best in Japan. Up to the Heian period (794-1185), only seafood from Ise-Shima was served at the imperial palace.

Additionally, there are boat tours with lunch at a fishing village and, during the summer months (June-September), tours to watch sea fireflies (Vargula hilgendorfii). These nocturnal small water animals, known for their blue bioluminescence, have existed for 400 million years.

The customers of this tour operator come from Japan and abroad. During the summer months, they also receive Japanese student groups almost every day.

As an intern, you will accompany the tours and support the guides. In the office in central Toba City, you'll help with social media marketing, writing texts for websites and flyers, translating, and communicating with clients in English and other languages you know.

The internship can be conducted in English. It is available year-round, though during the winter months, there are often no customers, and the focus is on preparing for the new season and office tasks such as marketing.

Fisherman's Guesthouse and Experience in Ise-Shima

A small fishing company with several employees offers tourist experiences related to fishing in the village of Asoura, along with operating a hostel and a fish restaurant.

During your internship, you will participate in fishing activities. Northern snapper (Red Snapper) are farmed in floating cages in the bay. Every morning at 6 AM, you go out to the cages by boat to feed the fish. The company regularly receives fish orders, and in these cases, fish are taken from the cages, packaged, and either driven directly to customers or to the fish markets in Nagoya or Fukui by truck. You will assist with all these tasks. If interested, you can also ride along in the truck, getting to know other areas of Japan.

Additionally, you will be involved in tourism activities. Japanese and international tourists can ride along on the fishing boat and learn to catch fish from the cages and the sea with nets. The fresh fish are then prepared in cooking classes in the Japanese style. There are also courses on filleting fish correctly for sushi/sashimi and smoking fish. You can accompany tours and independently guide them in English and/or possibly other languages. You will also create content for social media, respond to inquiries in English and/or other languages, and assist with or independently conduct cooking classes and help operate the hostel.

The fish restaurant operates only seasonally during the summer months. This is also where the cooking classes are held. When groups come, you might help out in the restaurant.

The internship can be conducted in English and is possible year-round. However, during the winter months, there are hardly any tourist activities, and the work is limited to fishing. You will participate five days a week for about eight hours each day. As an intern, you should like and eat fish.

Outdoor Tours at Tomoyama Park

Tomoyama Park, part of Ise-Shima National Park, is located around the quiet Ago Bay, home to pearl cultivation. The provider offering this internship runs kayak tours, bicycle tours, and guided hikes in Tomoyama Park. In cooperation with other providers, further activities such as water zorbing and diving are offered to tourists.

With either three tours of 1.5 hours or two tours of 3 hours per day during the summer season, and up to 60 kayaks joining each tour, this company is one of the largest and most professional outdoor tour operators in the region. Customers include foreign travel groups who spend two days of their 10-day Japan itinerary inside Ise-Shima National Park, engaging in various outdoor activities.

As an intern, you will accompany the various tours, support marketing and PR activities in English and other languages you might know, produce content for TV programs and YouTube, Instagram, and assist in product development for your home markets.

For this internship, you need at least basic Japanese communication skills. Tourist activities take place year-round. You will work five days a week.

Kayak Tours in Ise-Shima National Park

A small operator of half-day and full-day kayak tours in Ise-Shima National Park is run by a passionate kayaker who conducts the tours himself. The tours start and end in the village of Okasho, where the owner also runs a kayaking supply store.

In the summer months, a tour takes place daily from 9:30 AM to 12 PM, and another from 1:30 PM to 4 PM, with a maximum of six kayaks (single or double) participating. The winter months are usually sunny, and the bay typically has very calm water, so tours are possible year-round.

You will accompany tours five days a week, support the guide, maintain equipment, prepare it for tours, conduct social media marketing in the office, and answer inquiries in English.

Internships are possible in English year-round, except in the peak month of August when the operator has no time to supervise interns.

Countryside Tourism: Satoyama-Experience - Bicycle Tours in Takayama

We can arrange an ecotourism internship with a tour operator in the Takayama/Hida region, about four hours by train west of Tokyo. This operator offers full-day and half-day guided bicycle tours in English and Japanese, showcasing "Rural Japan."

On the tours, visitors learn about the lives of the rural population, gaining insights beyond typical guidebook information. You will learn first-hand about rice cultivation and visit a farmer's market, where the stories of the farmers are as good as their produce.

Additionally, the tour operator offers guided walking tours in Takayama with a culinary focus, showcasing the production of sake, soy sauce, and miso. In winter, guided cross-country skiing tours are offered, as the region typically has deep snow.

Interns join the bicycle tours as assistant guides, provide information at the company's reception desk in Takayama, assist with marketing by writing texts for the company's website, and join community activities.

The internship can be conducted in English. The minimum duration of this internship is 4 weeks. Applicants need to pass a remote interview before they can be accepted into this internship.

Diving School, Sailing Tours, and Traditional Guesthouse in Shizuoka

During the summer months (June-October), we can organize tourism internships in Numazu-shi/Shizuoka.

In Shizuoka, there is a guesthouse with a small water sports center offering scuba diving, sailing tours, and canoe trips. During the summer months, a small number of mostly Japanese guests (about 2-11) stay at the guest house daily, but groups of up to 80 college students regularly come for diving and sailing tours. The guesthouse has only three rooms: two four-bed rooms and one three-bed room, accommodating a total of 11 guests.

You will help conduct water sports activities and work in the traditional guesthouse (ryokan), such as cooking, serving food, handling bookings, and preparing rooms. If you have no diving experience, you can initially participate in a diving course at no additional cost and then assist in this area, such as distributing diving equipment to participants and ensuring it is correctly put on.

The owner often conducts multi-week sailing tours with guests, during which the guesthouse and water sports center are closed. These include sailing tours along the coasts of Japan or to distant islands belonging to Japan or other countries. If you send an inquiry, we can check if such a sailing tour is scheduled during your desired period. It is often possible to join from other ports. You will assist with tasks on the sailboat and organize shore excursions. If you join a sailing tour, a contribution of 3000 JPY per night is required.

The internship can be done in English. The minimum duration is 3 weeks.