Japan Enchantment Gion Summer Festival Tour 13 days 12 nights US$4498.00 Tour Start Dates: 2013 – 7/10 TOUR COST INCLUDES: 10 nights Western style and 2 nights Japanese style accommodation Meet and greet upon arrival at Osaka Kansai Airport Airport transfers on arrival and departure Private luxury coach transfers between destinations in Japan Comprehensive escorted with AJT professional English speaking tour guide Gratuities Meals Breakfast everyday 9 lunches and 5 dinners Admission fees and activities Entry fees to sites, gardens, and museums listed in the itinerary Oboke Gorge Boat Ride Okonomiyaki Making Horikawa Moat Boat Ride Kyoto Gion Festival Green Tea Ceremony Nishijin Kimono Show Bullet Train Ride Hakone Ropeway Sumida River Cruise All prices are per person, based on double or triple occupancy. International flights are not included on our tours -this allows you the flexibility to choose your own departure and get the best value for your money! We can arrange international flights for US customers if needed, please ask for details. All Japan Tours 646 W. California St., Ontario, CA 91762, USA Toll Free (US/CANADA): 1-855-325-2726 <1-855-32JAPAN> TEL: 1-909-988-8885 FAX: 1-909-349-1736 E-mail: [email protected] www.alljapantours.com 2 ITINERARY Day 01: Osaka Kansai Airport Welcome to Osaka! Our tour guide will greet you and escort you to the hotel. Overnight: Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport or similar class Overnight: Sheraton Miyako Hotel Osaka or similar class (NOTE 1) NOTE 1: If you wish to stay in the center of Osaka for the first night, we can arrange for you to stay at Sheraton Miyako Hotel Osaka instead of Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport for an additional $50 per person. In this case, airport transfer is not included but we will provide you directions to get to your hotel in advance. NOTE 2: If you wish to stay extra nights before the tour starts, please contact us to book hotel accommodations. Day 02: Takamatsu (Ritsurin Park), Kotohira (Kotohira-gu Shrine), Oboke Gorge (Oboke Gorge Boat Ride) Today after breakfast, our private luxury coach will leave Honshu island, driving across Awaji Island via spectacular bridges spanning the Japan Inland Sea, to Shikoku Island. We will arrive at Takamatsu and visit Ritsurin Park, admired as the masterpiece of Japanese landscape gardening that took over 100 years to create beginning in 1625. The spacious park features many ponds, beautiful pavilions, various bridges, footpaths and small hills, with Mt Shiun at the western border acting as a wonderful background. Next, we will head to the Kotohira, where we will climb the 1,368 stone steps to the Kotohira-gu Shrine, a Shinto Shrine with architecture that displays both Shinto and Buddhist elements. We then continue our journey to Oboke Gorge, one of three hidden mountain regions of Japan. Oboke is a gorge located upstream of the Yoshino-gawa River. "Boke" means "dangerous to walk along," and Oboke (big boke) was named for its jagged V- shaped rocks and narrow path which, no matter how carefully or slowly you walk, makes walking dangerous. Enjoy a relaxing boat ride and take in the panoramic view of the valley. Overnight: Imabari Kanko Hotel or similar class Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Day 03: Shimanami Kaido , Hiroshima (Miyajima Island / Okonomiyaki Making) Today our luxury coach will drive past the Shimanamikaido to proceed to Hiroshima. The Shimanamikaido, or Nishiseto Express, is a 60 kilometer long expressway with scenic sea view and contains ten bridges, including the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge, the world's longest series of suspension bridges, and the Tatara Bridge, the world's second longest cable-stayed bridgeway. It connects Japan's main island of Shikoku, at Imabari City, to the island of Honshu, at Onomichi City, passing over six small islands: Oshima, Hakatajima, Omishima, Ikuchijima, Innoshima, and Mukaishima. The route was opened in 1999 and the bridges are modern and attractive. Along the way, we can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea and the islands' small towns. Upon arrival in Hiroshima, we will take a short ferry ride to the island of Miyajima, considered sacred by many. At high tide, the famed vermilion torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine looks like it is floating in the middle of the sea. In the evening we will learn to make a popular Japanese dish called Okonomiyaki. In the dish you add your favorite ingredients to a mixture of batter and cabbage. The mixture is then cooked on a hot plate, and flipped using a metal spatula. The dish can be made easily at home, and you can show off your new skill to your family. All Japan Tours 646 W. California St., Ontario, CA 91762, USA Toll Free (US/CANADA): 1-855-325-2726 <1-855-32JAPAN> TEL: 1-909-988-8885 FAX: 1-909-349-1736 E-mail: [email protected] www.alljapantours.com 3 Overnight: Hiroshima Grand Prince Hotel or similar class Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Day 04: Hiroshima (Peace Park / A-Bomb Museum), Izumo (Izumo Grand Shrine) Today we will continue our tour of Hiroshima, visit the Peace Memorial Park and A-Bomb Museum. Hiroshima's Peace Park is now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. There, you'll also see the A-Bomb Dome, also known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, what remains of the former Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall when the atomic bomb exploded in 1945. It was one of the few buildings to remain standing, and remains so today. Next, we proceed past rural villages and farms and follow a fast flowing river gorge to the Japan coastal city of Izumo. Izumo Shrine, or Izumo Taisha, is Japan's oldest shrine, constructed in a purely Japanese architecture style, called Taisha-tsukuri, and has the largest shrine gate in Japan, 13-meters long and weighing 3 tons. This shrine is considered Japan's second most important shrine, after Ise Jingu. It is dedicated to Okuninushi no Mikoto, the kami (deity) of marriage. Then, continue on to Matsue, where we will stay in a traditional ryokan that includes the thermal spa pool and a very impressive private garden. A Japanese style banquet of local specialty cuisine is included tonight. Overnight: Hotel Ichibata or similar class Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Day 05: Matsue (Matsue Castle / Horikawa Moat Boat Cruise / Samurai District / Adachi Museum of Art) After a Japanese style breakfast, we will visit Matsue Castle, one of the few remaining medieval castles in Japan, and a nearby Samurai District . Matsue is also called the "Water City", or "Shimane's Venice," because of its location on Lake Shinji and the city's ample system of moats built for defense and transport. We will take the best way to view the city by boarding one of the low, narrow pleasure boats that cruise the largest moat as it winds around the castle. Our next stop is the Adachi Museum of Art, founded in 1980 as a way to combine Adachi Zenko's love of Japanese art and garden design. It is best known for its award winning garden and has been named best garden in Japan anually since 2003 by the Journal of Japanese Gardening. The museum houses a collection of contemporary Japanese paintings that is rotated seasonally, comprising approximately 1,300 of the country's most highly regarded twentieth century paintings as well as a permanent exhibit of the works of Yokoyama Taikan. Overnight: Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel or similar class Meals: Breakfast & Lunch Day 06: Kurashiki (Canal Area / Morita Sake Brewery), Setouchi City (Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum), Kobe (Haborland) This morning we explore the canal town of Kurashiki. This scenic town, in merchant days, thrived as a port for rice shipments. In fact, the name "Kurashiki" can be roughly translated as "town of warehouses," which refers to the warehouses in which the rice was kept. Several old rice granaries and some historic architecture, as well as the stone lined canal still remain. Taste sake as you stroll along the streets of this picturesque town. We then proceed to Setouchi All Japan Tours 646 W. California St., Ontario, CA 91762, USA Toll Free (US/CANADA): 1-855-325-2726 <1-855-32JAPAN> TEL: 1-909-988-8885 FAX: 1-909-349-1736 E-mail: [email protected] www.alljapantours.com 4 City, visit Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum. Setouchi City was founded on November 1, 2004 by the merger of the former towns of Oku, Osafune, and Ushimado. Osafune was famous for the production of katana (Japanese sword). Our last visit today is Kobe. Located along the waterfront, Harborland is a shopping and entertainment district that boasts a variety of restaurants, cafes, shopping malls, a Ferris wheel, and other forms of entertainment. Overnight: Sheraton Miyako Hotel Osaka or similar class Meals: Breakfast & Lunch Day 07: Osaka (Osaka Castle), Nara (Todai-ji Temple / Nara Deer Park), Kyoto (Fushimi Inari Shrine / Kiyomizu Temple) In the morning we will travel to Osaka by private coach. We will visit Osaka Castle, whose construction began in 1583 on the ruins of the Ishiyama Honganji Temple. The castle was the largest of its time and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. From Osaka, our coach departs to Nara, the oldest capital city of Japan. We will visit Todaiji Temple, the largest wooden building in Japan. The temple also houses the largest bronze statue of Buddha at 16.3 meters high, and the surrounding park is filled with over 1,000 Sika deer. In the afternoon we will travel to Kyoto, a historical city that was spared from air raids and saved from the atomic bomb during World War II for its cultural and historical value.