Exploring the Japanese Alps Tour (10 Days Tour)

Tokyo – A City of Many Layers

This morning, your hotel offers a buffet breakfast. After eating, your guide for the day meets you in the hotel lobby. A day of adventure awaits you. Your first stop is Hama-Rikyu Garden. Once owned by a feudal lord, this garden is located on the edge of Tokyo Bay. With its saltwater moats and freshwater ponds, the garden is a tranquil oasis in the middle of Tokyo’s bustling metropolis. At the authentic teahouse in the garden’s center, you enjoy a fresh cup of matcha green tea while looking out over the ponds.

Afterward, you take a leisurely cruise down the Sumida River. From your seat, view Tokyo’s amazing architecture, including the Tokyo Skytree, one of the tallest structures in the world.

You step off your cruise in Asakusa, one of Tokyo’s many preserved districts. In its center is Senso-ji, the largest Buddhist temple in the city. Originally a stone monument erected by two fishermen over 1,200 years ago, the Senso-ji of the 21st century is a sprawling complex. You arrive at the Thunder Gate, the largest paper lantern in the city. As you enter the complex, you pass nearly 100 small shops. Each store represents the long tradition of merchants selling goods to pilgrims and visitors. You find everything from religious tokens to children’s toys.

The temple itself is a hive of activity as pilgrims line up to offer prayers and offerings. If you wish, your guide can teach you how to ‘wake the gods’ before tossing a five-yen coin into the offering box. After lunch near Senso-ji, you take Tokyo’s efficient metro system to Omotesando. Omotesando is a world away from Asakusa. Ultra-modern, it is likened to the Aux Champs Elysees in Paris. The tree-line boulevard and high-end stores reflect European refinement. It is a perfect place to stop for coffee at a sidewalk café and people watch.

Your final destination illustrates Japan’s past and religious traditions. Meiji Park is the largest park in the city. Unlike Hama-Rikyu, it is primordial rather than refined. Standing on the dirt path, you gaze into untamed forests. You find that it is quite easy to imagine a time before people settled here, when only wild animals lived in what would become Tokyo.

At the center of the park is Meiji Shrine. This large Shinto shrine is dedicated to the spirit of Emperor Meiji, Japan’s first modern emperor. Leading up to the shrine are large offerings of sake within dozens of colorful casks. Also included are French wine casks, as Emperor Meiji promoted westernization during his reign. The shrine itself is magnificent. This place is regarded as a holy site, where visitors speak only in hushed tones, if at all.

In the early evening, your tour ends back at your hotel. Before leaving, your guide is happy to make dinner recommendations.

What’s Included: breakfast, tour, transfer, accommodation.

Matsumoto to Yamanouchi to Matsumoto – Meet the Wildlife

This morning, you travel by JR train and bus to Yamanouchi, home to Jigokudani. Also known as ‘Hell Valley,’ this area has many naturally occurring hot springs. Throughout Japan’s recorded history, red-faced macaque monkeys have enjoyed the warm waters, taking shelter there in the cold winter months. Yet even in the summer, their presence attracts visitors from all over the world.

When you arrive in the park, guideposts instruct you on how to respect the monkeys. Yet photography is fine. They are tame creatures if left to themselves. It is an experience not to be missed.

In the late afternoon, you return to Matsumoto.

What’s Included: breakfast, transfer, accommodation.

Takayama – A Gem of a City

This morning you board a local train to Takayama. A city isolated in the Japanese Alps, little has changed here since the Edo Period. The city’s shitamatchi, or old town, has withstood the test of time. Within these centuries-old buildings, artisans continue to make sake, furniture, and textiles using traditional methods passed down through the generations.

Besides spending time exploring the old town, Takayama offers a variety of other delights. Though you may not see one of the city’s famed matsuri festivals, the Takayama Festival Floats Museum is open all year. Within, see the magnificent floats, many of them dating back to the Edo Period.

In the late afternoon, check into your ryokan. Before dinner, take advantage of the many indoor and outdoor onsen baths. Feeling refreshed, you sit down to a kaiseki dinner that includes Hida beef, a local delicacy that is regarded as one of the finest cuts of beef in the world.

What’s Included: breakfast, transfer, dinner, accommodation.

Kyoto – The City at Your Fingertips

It is time to say sayonara to the Japanese Alps. This morning, you board a ‘wide view’ train heading to Nagoya. Your time there is brief, as you transfer onto the shinkansen. For over 50 years, the Shinkansen has maintained a perfect safety record as it has transported billions of passengers throughout Japan at nearly 200 miles per hour.

After only 45 minutes, you arrive at Kyoto Station. At first glance, Kyoto seems like many other large Japanese cities. Yet Kyoto is the birthplace of much of Japan’s culture. Untouched by war, the city is home to over 2,000 original Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, along with a variety of stunning gardens.

To enhance your time in Kyoto, it is possible to supplement your tour with a number of exciting possibilities. For example, you can learn the secrets of Japanese cuisine by taking a cooking class in a Kyoto home. Not only do you learn many tips and tricks you can apply in your home kitchen, but you also get to eat your creation! Another activity is visiting a sake brewery. Though much of the sake produced in Japan uses the latest in 21st-century technology, you can meet a group of dedicated men who use Edo Period techniques to make this fragrant and complex beverage.

If you wish to explore on your own in the afternoon, there is no better place to gain a first impression of Kyoto than at the Gion District. The Gion is a historically protected neighborhood, where geisha, known locally as geiko, entertain guests with a complex set of rituals and ceremonies. During your time in Gion, it is possible to view a geiko performance that includes participating in a tea ceremony.

For your two nights in Kyoto, your hotel is western-style.

What’s Included: breakfast, transfer, accommodation.

Kyoto – Take a Walk Through the PastKyoto – The Story Is Not Over

After breakfast at the hotel, you board an express train to Kansai International Airport, where your flight home awaits. Over the last 10 days, Japan has revealed itself to you in many ways. Yet this is not the whole story. There is still so much more to see and do. As your plane takes off, you realize that returning to Japan is not a question of if, but when.

What’s Included: breakfast, airport transfer.