|
|
John Osaki's Blog
|
|
||||||||
|
THIS TRIP IS NOT CURRENTLY SCHEDULED. Over the years, Walking Softly Adventures has developed and operated trips to a variety of destinations including this one, but not all trips are offered every year. If you are interested in joining a scheduled departure of this trip in the future, please send us an email and let us know. Click to send us an email or use the form at the bottom of this page. |
|||||||||
|
We can organize and operate this trip as a private group departure with
a minimum group size of 8 persons. Start organizing your private Japan adventure here. |
|||||||||
 Best time to travel: April for cherry blossoms; early November for fall color! Best gateway city: Osaka, Japan Japan Heritage Slide Show  Japan Heritage Photo Gallery  Behind contemporary Japan’s facade of modernity lies an alluring, centuries-old culture that’s yours to discover! Begin in Kyoto for a selection of the most impressive temples and gardens. Take a day trip to Himeji, the best preserved samurai castle in Japan. Retreat to the mountains for a night in traditional Japanese lodgings at Koyasan, then stay in Nara (Japan’s ancient capital). Catch the spectacular fall foliage in the Kii mountains or in the Japan Alps. Experience the calm of a village with a home-stay in a thatched-roof farmhouse in Shirakawago. From the bustle of modern Nagoya where you’ll visit the impressive Tokugawa Museum, take a day trip back in time to walk two to five miles along the ancient samurai path from Edo (now Tokyo) to Kyoto. |
|||||||||
| Day 1: Begin your Japan adventure in Kyoto, Japan's capital and residence of the emperor from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the nineteenth. Because of this prominence, Kyoto contains a overwhelming treasury of cultural sites. Today, visit the visually stunning Kinkakuji ("Golden Pavilion") originally constructed in the fourteenth century as the residence of a shogun and later converted to a Zen temple. The temple of Ryoan-ji, another Zen temple, is famous for its rock garden. Later in the day, you'll have a chance to visit Ginkaku-ji (the "Silver Pavilion"). In the afternoon, pay a visit to the Kyoto Handicraft Center. Settle into your centrally-located Kyoto hotel where you'll spend the next three evenings. | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
Day 2: Continue your exploration of Kyoto's sights with a visit to the massive structure of Kiyomizudera ("Pure Water Temple"), one of the most celebrated temples in Japan. The temple is set on the flanks of a wooded hillside and its large wooden terrace offers wide-ranging views over the city of Kyoto. The springs for which the temple is named are said to possess healing properties. (Kiyomizudera along with several other shrines and temples in Kyoto are part of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto" World Heritage Site.) Enjoy a stroll through Gion, a district that dates from the middle ages, is a possibility. Here are narrow streets (like Shinmanzen-dori) lined with fine examples of Kyoto's wooden vernacular architecture. You may perhaps spot a maiko ("geisha apprentice") walking past the long established restaurants and tea houses along the street of Hanami-Koji. Later in the day visit the Fushimi-Inari shrine, the best known of several shrines dedicated to the Shinto god of rice. Countless vermilion torii ("gates") cover the walkways that wind over the slopes of Inari-san, the wooded hill behind the shrine. | ||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Day 3: Travel by "bullet
train" (or shinkansen, which actually means "new trunk
line") to the city of Himeji, forty-five minutes away. The
centerpiece of the city is the Himeji castle (Himeji-jo),
widely considered to be the finest remaining example of a feudal
castle in Japan. Unlike many other Japanese castles,
Himeji-jo has not been reconstructed and survives in its
original form. Construction of the Himeji castle began in the
fourteenth century and reached its finished form at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. Himeji-jo has been
designated a national treasure by the Japanese government and is
also a World Heritage Site. Return by train to Kyoto and
overnight. Day 4: Travel from Kyoto to the Kii Mountains southeast of the city. A cable car provides access to the car-free temple complex at Koyasan, perhaps Japan's holiest place (and a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site). Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism who has been called the "father of Japanese culture" is buried in a mausoleum here. Leave modern Japan behind and immerse yourself in this place that writer Pico Iyer describes as "consecrated to everything old and changeless and hushed." There are 117 temples in the Koyasan complex and you'll have the opportunity to spend two nights in simple, but comfortable temple lodgings, or shukubo, in Japanese. Upon your arrival at Koyasan, visit the atmospheric graveyard of Oku-no-in ("innermost sanctum") featuring distinctive five-tiered monuments and set in deep, solemn woods of cedar and cypress.
Day 5:
Arise early to witness morning chants and the goma fire
ceremonies where monks burn pieces of wood and sesame seeds to
purge illusions and invite enlightenment. This morning, visit
the 16th-century Kongobuji
(mother temple of Shingon Buddhism noted for its painted doors),
the stunning orange-colored Konpondaito pagoda, and the
Reihokan Museum which houses a collection of the important
cultural properties of Koyasan. Later in the day, travel by
train to Nara which in the 8th century served as Japan's first
permanent capital. |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Day 7: This morning depart
Nara bound for the mountain town of Takayama in the Hida region
of Gifu prefecture. The town is well-known for its Spring
Festival, but with luck, we'll be able to enjoy a flush of
autumn color on the forested hillsides surrounding the town!
Spend the afternoon walking the streets of Takayama enjoying its
Edo Period (17th to 19th centuries) wooden merchant houses
particularly on the street called Sannomachi. Coffee
houses line the street and old sake breweries (indicated
by a ball of cedar branches over the entrance) can be found at
the southern end of the street. We'll also try to take a peek at
the Takayama Yatai Kaikan, a hall next to the
Sakurayama Hachiman Shrine, where four of the elaborately
decorated floats (yatai) used in the town's festivals are
on display. The floats are hundreds of years old and are carried
through the town's streets by teams of men during the festivals.
Takayama is also known for its cuisine which features sansai,
or wild mountain vegetables. Overnight in Takayama. Day 8: Spend a couple of hours at leisure this morning in Takayama before traveling to Shirakawago, a remote, mountainous region in northern Gifu Prefecture. Shirakawago is famous for its old farmhouses built in a style called gassho-zukuri in reference to the shape of the steeply pitched roofs resembling two hands folded in prayer. An open fireplace, or irori, is a characteristic feature of these houses. You'll stay overnight in one of the farmhouses for a rustic, but unforgettable experience. |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Day 9: Spend the early
morning wandering through the picturesque rice fields of
Shirakawago. Later, travel to Nagoya where you'll visit the
Tokugawa Museum and its 17th century garden known as
Tokugawa-en. The museum contains heirlooms from the family of
the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, as well as a collection of Nō
costumes and masks, lacquer furniture, calligraphy, and Chinese
and Japanese ceramics and paintings. Overnight
in Nagoya. Day 10: This morning, travel east of Nagoya to the Kiso Valley, traversed by the well-known Nakasendo Way. The Nakasendo was one of the two main "highways" between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) during the Edo Period. "Post stations" along the route offered food and accommodation to travelers and a few of these stations survive to this day. Two of the best preserved are Tsumago and Magome. If you desire, you'll have the opportunity to walk a segment of the old Nakasendo Way between these villages. Return to Nagoya for the evening. Depart Japan from Nagoya's brand new Central Japan Airport the following day. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Japan Heritage Slide Show |
|||||||||
|
Other Resources |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
All images on this page by John or Amy Osaki. |
|||||||||
|
© Walking
Softly Adventures, Inc. |
|||||||||
Kinkakuji ("Golden Pavilion") in Kyoto.
Read Pico Iyer's account of his visit to Koyasan in "The
Magic Mountain" in the April 2007
issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine.