Good, well-run experiences with English guides and a fair entry price, let down by harsh cancellation terms and confusing addresses. Book the museum or tea ceremony through a platform with 24-hour free cancellation.
Good fortune
- English-speaking staff at both Asakusa venues
- Museum basic ticket is fair value at ¥3,300
- Chairs available at the tea ceremony, no kneeling required
- Registered, JATA-member travel agency behind the bookings
Tie it to the rack
- Zero refund inside 24 hours; email-only cancellations
- Museum tour is English only, no interpreting allowed
- Rickshaw pricing is unclear and 7-day cancellation applies
- Wrong museum address in its own footer
At Senso-ji you tie a bad fortune to the rack and leave it behind. We use the same scale for our verdicts.
MAIKOYA is a Kyoto company best known for kimono tea ceremonies. In Asakusa it runs two venues: Kimono Tea Ceremony MAIKOYA Asakusa at 1-12-2 Asakusa and the Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo at 1-8-13 Nishi-Asakusa, about a five-minute walk apart. Both are run by GLOBA Inc., a registered travel agency in Kyoto Prefecture and a member of the Japan Association of Travel Agents. You may also see the company described as having three Asakusa branches; it has two, plus a separate Shinjuku site that houses its own tea room and a Samurai Museum.
Our short answer: the experiences are good and the staff speak English, but read the cancellation policy before you book direct. It is one of the strictest we've come across in Asakusa.
Prices are the lowest option the platform shows, in US dollars, and move with dates and exchange rates. The booking page is final. Prices checked: September 28, 2026.
Who is behind MAIKOYA
GLOBA K.K. is based in Kyoto, where it runs tea ceremony venues in Nishiki, Gion Kiyomizu and Karasuma Shijo and a Samurai Ninja Museum Kyoto. It's registered as a travel agency (Kyoto Prefecture No. 2-818), and "KIMONO TEA CEREMONY" is its registered trademark. That registration matters more than it sounds: it means a licensed travel business is holding your booking, not a pop-up.
The company lists its own awards on its site: a Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice for the Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo, and "Best Luxury Tea Ceremony Experience in Japan" for MAIKOYA, though that second award doesn't name who gave it. Treat both as marketing.
Reservations go to cs@maikoya.com (9:00–18:00 Japan time) or +81-75-746-7627, a Kyoto number. Each Asakusa venue also has its own email address.
The Samurai Ninja Museum
This is MAIKOYA's most-booked product in Asakusa. The basic ticket, ¥3,300 for adults including tax (10% less when booked online with MAIKOYA), buys about an hour: an English-guided tour of armor, swords and ninja tools, a talk on shuriken and blowguns, a samurai armor try-on with a replica sword for photos, and a shuriken-throwing contest. Under-3s go free and 12 and under pay a child rate. Two-hour lessons (premium sword, family sword, ninja, and a full armor trial) cost more.
It's good at what it does, rated 4.6 on GetYourGuide from around 1,900 reviews when we checked. The complaints are consistent: the hour feels rushed or basic to some, and the tour is English only, with group members not allowed to interpret. Display items are described as authenticated, but everything you handle is a replica. Full details, formats and a map are in our Samurai Ninja Museum guide.
Two address traps. MAIKOYA's own site footer prints the museum as "1-8-13 Asakusa", but it's in Nishi-Asakusa (111-0035), two minutes from Tawaramachi station. And lookalike sites such as samuraininjamuseum.com aren't the operator; that one describes itself as a Viator affiliate.
The kimono tea ceremony
The tea house at 1-12-2 Asakusa offers three main plans:
| Plan | Length | Direct price (tax incl.) |
|---|---|---|
| Tea ceremony with kimono | about 90 min | ¥7,700 |
| Tea ceremony in your own clothes | about 1 hour (45-min ceremony) | ¥4,400 |
| Wagashi sweets-making plus kimono tea ceremony | about 120 min | ¥13,200 |
Staff explain in English, and bamboo chairs are available on request, so nobody has to kneel through the ceremony, a kind touch for older guests and stiff knees. Children under 7 cannot enter; a separate family plan covers families with children under 12. The tea house's own page gives two different sets of hours (10:00–18:00 in one place, hourly ceremonies from 9:00 in another), so book a slot rather than turning up.
There's also a combo ticket: the museum's basic hour plus the kimono tea ceremony for ¥9,900, about 2.5–3 hours including the walk between venues. No under-7s, and sword or ninja lessons aren't included. For other tea options in the neighborhood, see our tea ceremony and crafts guide.
The rickshaw add-ons
MAIKOYA sells two private rickshaw rides guided in English, both starting at Kaminarimon: 30 minutes and 45 minutes. The pricing takes some decoding. The price tag on each page (¥6,666 and ¥9,666) is before tax, and the booking calendar shows ¥14,666 for 30 minutes and ¥21,266 for 45 minutes, tax included, labeled "per person". The FAQ adds that "1 person = charged for 2; 3 people = charged for 4". MAIKOYA doesn't say which rickshaw company pulls the carts.
The calendar figure works out to twice the page price plus tax, so it may be the cost of a two-seat rickshaw despite the label, or it may really be per person. Either way, two riders pay at least ¥14,666 for 30 minutes, against ¥10,000 per rickshaw at Ebisuya, Jidaiya and Tokyo Rikisha. Ask MAIKOYA for the total before you pay. The terms are also different from the rest of MAIKOYA:
- Free changes or cancellation up to 7 days before.
- Late fee of ¥3,000 per rickshaw for every 10 minutes' wait.
- Automatic cancellation if you're 20 minutes late without notice.
- Maximum 2 adults per rickshaw; kimono and admissions not included.
Unless you want everything on one invoice, we'd book a rickshaw directly at Kaminarimon. Our rickshaw guide and Ebisuya review explain prices and how to deal with touts.
Cancellation: the part to read twice
For bookings made directly with MAIKOYA:
- Regular experiences: full refund if you cancel 24 hours or more before. Inside 24 hours, nothing is refunded.
- Private, kaiseki, geisha-related and katana-making experiences: cancel 14 or more full days ahead and 5% is retained; after that, no refund at all.
- Rickshaw rides: free up to 7 days before.
- How to cancel: by email only, to cs@maikoya.com, including five items: booking number, name, email, date and time, and headcount. A phone call, a social media message or a note in the booking does not count.
Bookings made through a platform follow the platform's rules. The GetYourGuide museum ticket had free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, with cancellation done in the app. That is why we'd book MAIKOYA's museum through GetYourGuide or Klook rather than direct, unless the direct 10% online discount matters more to you than flexibility. See our GetYourGuide review for how its refunds work.
Verdict
MAIKOYA delivers what it promises: English-speaking hosts, tidy venues, a museum hour that kids love and a tea ceremony that doesn't force anyone onto their knees. The rough edges are in the admin. The zero-refund window, email-only cancellations, a wrong address in its own footer and rickshaw prices you have to decode all make booking direct riskier than it needs to be. Our advice: book the museum or the tea ceremony through a platform, skip the rickshaw add-on, and give yourself a few minutes to find the right door.
For other companies we've reviewed, see the full operator reviews. For families planning a whole day, our Asakusa with kids page shows how the museum fits in.
Book the Samurai Ninja Museum with free cancellation from US$19.46 · GetYourGuide