TOKYO – Mutsumi Hanawa recently got a crash course on the perfect coffee, and the mental attitude needed to start a cafe. Katsunori Kasahara, owner of the ”poro coffee” cafe in Hodogaya Ward, Yokohama, watched over Hanawa, and gave the novice tips and insights, such as how much a manager could expect to earn.

But Hanawa was not a new employee at Kasahara’s cafe. This was a one-day hands-on tour – and she was thrilled with the experience.

”I was very pleased because I could learn about the reality of working conditions through actual experience and professional tutoring, rather than just as a customer,” said Hanawa, 27.

Hanawa’s tour to experience life as a cafe owner costs 18,000 yen (about $189) and is offered by Shigoto-Ryokou tourist agency. Studying to become a Shinto priest and work on a remote island are among tours introduced on its website (www.shigoto-ryokou.com/).

Tsubasa Tanaka, a Shigoto-Ryokou employee, said, ”We’d like to provide opportunities to experience unique scenery and sample new worlds that participants would not be able to find in normal travel plans.”

Similar hands-on tours that offer a unique or interesting experience are popping up in many places. The objectives of participants vary. Some simply accept these plans as sightseeing opportunities, while others use them to get serious career experience.

Hands-on tours with clear objectives, such as gaining experience in farming, fishing and life in mountain villages, or chances to inspect local industries, are being dubbed ”new tourism.” The Japan Tourism Agency supports such projects.

The agency estimated the new tourism market in fiscal 2011 was about 33.1 billion yen (about $345,656,680) and had about 2.6 million participants.

In 2008, T-Gate Inc. opened the Internet search site ”Tabi no Hakken” (http://tabihatsu.jp/) for hands-on day trips. Among them is a tour of Tokyo’s waterfront from which a portion of the fees are used for environmental conservation activities.

”Recently, more people are applying for experience-based tours that use local resources, such as traditional foods or industries,” a T-Gate spokesperson said.

The Pokekaru-Club tourist agency (www.poke.co.jp/) focuses on career experience and factory tours. Most popular is a tour to learn how to make sushi from a professional chef in Tsukiji, Tokyo. Participants receive a simplified version of a course provided by sushi chain operator Kiyomura to nurture the development of sushi chefs.

Mariko Miwa, 61, a housewife from Koto Ward, Tokyo, who joined the tour in March, said: ”I’ve participated in several hands-on tour plans. I enjoy them because I can easily learn professional techniques and see new worlds.”

”Onpaku” events organized by local hot spring industries to lure tourists are also finding favor.

Onpaku is a Japanese word meaning to stay at a hot spring overnight and engage in sightseeing tours in the area. Residents and companies in the hot spring area provide tourists with community-based programs designed to highlight local specialities and services.

Onpaku originated from Hatto Onpaku, an event hosted by hot springs in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, in 2001. Onpaku has spread nationwide as a way to revitalize local communities and economies, such as Nagaragawa Onpaku in Gifu Prefecture.

Shinichi Shimizu, a specially assigned professor of tourism at Rikkyo University, said the increase in hands-on tour participants shows travelers want to try something a little bit different.

”More people are choosing day-trips rather than overnight ones. The main domestic tourists are people who have many options and repeat customers,” he said.

For that reason, many customers show little interest in conventional tourist plans, Shimizu said.

”Travel agencies should aim to provide tour plans in which participants can have unique cultural experiences and interact with local people,” he said.

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As a travel afficionado, I could not resist the temptation of a mysterious and unique plan that had me depart for Arima Onsen in Hyogo Prefecture, one of Japan’s most famous hot spa resorts.

The plan, which entailed learning how to clean the hot spring’s water pipes, ended with the curious statement that ”once you receive the lesson, you’ll understand the essence of Arima Onsen.”

The tour was organized by Tosen Goshobo, a long-established inn at the resort. Upon reaching the inn, its president, Hironobu Kanai, greeted me by asking: ”It’s strange to pay money just to clean pipes, isn’t it? But this tour will definitely make you see hot springs in a different way.”

The lesson started with a basic introduction to Arima Onsen. With Kanai as a guide, I toured the town and its many hills.

”Although there are no volcanos here, hot spring water still gushes forth,” Kanai said. ”Compounds in the water cling to the pipes, which is why they’re white.”

The next stage was to clear the main pipe. I wore overalls and boots. Kanai led me to a hot spring water tank that looked like a huge well. The tank distributes water to Tosen Goshobo and three other inns.

Yoshinori Takeyasu, a head staff member of Tosen Goshobo, was my teacher for the cleanup work. To prevent unwanted substances such as calcium carbonate accumulating inside the distribution pipes, my task was to wash the deposits off in the main pipe with a high-pressure machine.

When I climbed onto the tank, I could hear the roar of hot spring water flowing into it. Opening its lid, I saw the mouth of the main pipe inside. I donned a pair of rubber gloves and readied a hose connected to the washing machine.

”Be careful not to get your hands in the way of the water jet – the water pressure is extremely high and it could sever your fingers,” Takeyasu warned.

”Don’t scare me like that!” I thought to myself.

I inserted the hose into the pipe. ”Ready, go!”

But I got cold feet when I felt the sheer force of the pressurized water in the hose. Wrestling with it, I slowly pushed it deeper into the pool as though conducting an endoscope examination.

Brownish water suddenly spewed from the pipe’s opposite end just a meter away.

Passersby watched my labor with interest. As I inserted the hose through the length of the pipe, the water gradually became transparent.

”That’s proof the inside of the pipe is clean. It’s finished,” Takeyasu said.

I was able to experience the pleasure of behind-the-scenes work people normally don’t get to do. I realized anew that hot springs so adored by tourists come from under the ground through the labor of local people. The tour engraved a memory that will last much longer than if I had merely read about it in a book.

The tour fee is 5,000 yen (about $52) for middle school students and older people, which includes bathing fees and lunch as well as the pipe cleaning course.

Seeing the inner workings of the popular tourist spot, I gained a deep affection and understanding for nature and the people involved.