About MeetAnInsider
Not tours. Real people. Real passions.
MeetAnInsider introduces travellers in Japan to expats who genuinely love what they do — judo, sake, ceramics, manga, late-night ramen — and want to share it one person at a time.
50+
Passionate locals
2
Cities (and counting)
4.8
Average rating
100%
Met by our team
What MeetAnInsider is — and isn't
GetYourInsider sells "Tokyo Sake Tour". MeetAnInsider introduces you to Ryan, who has spent fifteen years crawling the sake bars of Shinjuku because he genuinely loves sake — and now invites one person at a time to come with him. The mechanics look the same. The experience is entirely different.
Our hosts are not professional insiders. They are people with a deep personal obsession who want to share it. They have day jobs. They do this one to three times a month because they love it, not because it's their livelihood. A host who runs two exceptional sessions a month is worth more to us than someone who burns out doing eight.
MeetAnInsider is an introduction service. We charge the traveller a small booking fee at reservation. The host's fee is paid directly on the day — cash, PayPay, or bank transfer. We never touch the host's income. We never pressure hosts to take more bookings. We just make the introduction possible.
What we believe
People first, always
Every person who hosts an experience on MeetAnInsider has been met in person by a member of our team. Not interviewed remotely — met. That conversation is why the platform exists.
Passion over profession
Our hosts are not professional tour insiders. They're a French ceramicist who moved to Kyoto for the clay, a Brooklyn-born sake obsessive who hasn't stopped since 2009. The passion comes first.
Japan first — by design
We started in Tokyo because the combination of a deep expat community, extraordinary craftsmanship culture, and underserved explorer niche is uniquely right here. We're not rushing to 50 cities.
A platform that disappears
No upsells. No push notifications. No "users who booked this also liked…". Two strangers are about to spend three hours together — our job is to make that meeting possible, then get out of the way.
Every host has been met in person
The badge you see on every profile means exactly what it says. A MeetAnInsider team member sat down with that person, heard their story, understood their passion, and made a judgement call. Most applicants are not approved. The scarcity is real — and it's the point.
The vetting is not about background checks. It's about whether this person genuinely loves what they do, whether they can share it one-to-one, and whether being in a room with them for a few hours would be memorable. You can't automate that.
Ready to explore?
Browse experiences in Tokyo and Kyoto, or find out what hosting looks like.