Working as a travel monitor

*Editor's note:  This post was submitted prior to the escalation of the outbreak of the new coronavirus in Japan.

I recently had the chance to take part in a monitor tour and would like to share my experience. As a foreigner in Japan, you sometimes have the chance to take part in monitor tours as part of the testing process that travel companies do when creating new tours for foreign tourists.

I had found the offer on the app “Shuumatsu model” that mainly is an app for modeling jobs but somehow this offer had ended up there. As had no plans yet for the time the trip was planned, I applied and was accepted quickly.

When going on a monitor tour your job is to experience the tour and point out what you liked, what you did not like, how they could improve the experience from the point of view of a foreign tourist. In my case participants were asked to take notes during the tour and at the end of the trip, we were all asked for our opinions over a lunch meeting. Other jobs might request to submit your opinion in a written form later.

Additionally, there might be a photographer that takes pictures of the participants during the tour that later might be used for promotional materials. In the tour, I took part all foreign participants spoke very good Japanese, but I don’t think that this is a general requirement. Some companies might be looking for participants with limited Japanese knowledge for their monitor test.

When becoming a monitor usually the company that requested the monitoring will pay for your travel expenses, your food, accommodation and any entry fees etc. You basically get to go on a trip for free.

I have seen offerings that also offered payment for taking part in the tour but the one I recently participated in was not paid.

The trip took me to the town Mihara in Fukushima prefecture. I had never heard of that town before and probably would not have visited it if it hadn’t been for the tour. We did several cultural experiences, visited a few temples and spent the night at a temple. For dinner, we had food that was prepared like food in the Sengoku Period without using soy sauce or sugar.

The tour had the overall theme “samurai” and participants could experience the daily life of a samurai.

Overall it was a really interesting experience and I was glad I had the chance to take part. I hope my comments and opinions will be helpful to improve the tour.