Great Trail of Japan

Upon arrival at Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND) or Narita International Airport (NRT), our representative will welcome you to Japan and assist you to transfer by the airport bus to your hotel in central Tokyo.

This morning our guide will meet you and together you will spend the day exploring Tokyo like a local would. You will ride local trains and subways to efficiently get around the city visiting the neighbourhoods of Shibuya, Asakusa and Ginza.

Learn how to purify yourself at the entrance of Meiji-jingu shrine. Stroll down colorful Takeshita street in Harajuku with its youthful fashionable atmosphere and Kawaii culture. You may even run into some cosplayers all decked out as their favourite anime character. Next is the elegant tree lined Omotesando with its high style buildings and one of a kind architecture housing designer luxury boutiques.

The Asakusa traditional district in the northwest section of the city boasts the magnificent Senso-ji temple and its five story pagoda. Here, incense burning worshippers are oblivious to the selfie taking tourists. Let our guide help translate the good fortunes printed on your Omikuji and save as a souvenir of Tokyo. Some shopping time for souvenirs or Japanese rice crackers is in order along Nakamise shopping street which leads to the outer gate of the temple. Not to be missed on a visit of Tokyo is the entertainment, dining and upmarket shopping district of Ginza. Here you will find the flagship stores of major Japanese and International brands.

Free day at leisure to explore on your own the city.

You will then take the train to Matsumoto.

Matsumoto Castle is one of the most complete and beautiful among Japan’s original castles. It is a “hirajiro” – a castle built on plains rather than on a hill or mountain. Matsumoto Castle is unique for having both a secondary donjon and a turret adjoined to its main keep. The castle structures, in combination with their characteristic black wainscoting, give off an air of grandeur and poise. A short walk from the castle, Nakamachi-dori is a small section of Matsumoto’s town center with streets lined by nicely preserved, old buildings. The buildings include a number of warehouse-type buildings (kura) with large white-painted walls. The area is where the city’s merchants used to live during the Edo Period, and today, the types of buildings here reflect this history. Some of the buildings house small shops, restaurants and ryokans.

In the morning, take the train to Nagiso, and then to bus to the charming post town of Tsumago.

You will walk a section of the historic Nakasendo, the original highway of the Edo period connecting Tokyo with Kyoto. Your hike between the 2 old post towns of Tsumago and Magome, should take around 3 hours to cover the relatively flat 8 kilometers at a leisurely pace.

Walk the second part of the Nakasendo, from Magome to Nakatsugawa. From there, you will take the train to Nagoya.

In the morning, take the train from Nagoya to Takayama.

After dropping off your luggage at your hotel, you have free time this afternoon to explore Takayama on your own. Grab your camera and head to the historic narrow streets of Sanmachi Suji district. Here the wooden merchant houses from the Edo era, have been converted into modern day businesses. You will be able to do some shopping, sample sake at a sake micro-brewery or sit down for some green tea and sweets.

Take a local bus to Shirakawago, registered as the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shirakawa-go is a Japanese mountain settlement in what was once considered a wild and unexplored region. Because of the area’s natural environment, with high mountains and heavy snowfall, interaction with neighboring regions was limited. However, this also created the conditions for the development of unique cultural practices and lifestyles. After exploring Shirakawago, you will take a local bus to Kanazawa.

This morning our guide will meet you for a full day walking tour of Kanazawa. With many areas of the city unscathed from the second world war, Kanazawa boasts many historical sights as well as one of the three great gardens of Japan. You will explore this mid-size Japanese city on foot and by bus.

Soak in the historic atmosphere of the Nagamachi Samurai District as you walk the narrow lanes flanked by the traditional residences where the Samurais and their families lived during the Edo period. Visit the restored Nomura Samurai house and its exquisite tiny garden best viewed from the second floor tea room.
Kenrokuen Garden is a strolling park-like Japanese landscape garden. The garden invokes all six design elements of spaciousness, seclusion, serenity, subtleness, panoramas and water courses.

After a short bus ride, you will get off at the well preserved historic Higashi Chaya Geisha district. The beautiful wooden chayas (tea houses) were the venues where Geishas once entertained nobility and rich merchants. The number of Geishas have dwindled over the years but there remains a few active tea houses here where Geishas still entertain their well off clients on a nightly basis. Our guide will point them out to you.

Take the train to Kyoto.

Upon meeting our guide at Kyoto station, you will head to the south of Kyoto to Fushimi Inari Taisha. This shrine dedicated to the Shinto God of rice is famous for its thousands of vermillion colored torii gates leading through the wooded forest to Mount Inari.

Next, you will visit Kiyomizudera (pure water) temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994. Make your way up to the wooden stage of the main hall with beautiful views of city of Kyoto and the surrounding mountains.

You will also enjoy a traditional tea ceremony.

The tour ends in Gion, the most famous Geisha neighborhood of Kyoto. Here you will see the many well preserved traditional wooden houses (machiya) of old Japan, many of which are tea houses where Geishas entertain their well to do clientele. After the tour our guide will take you back to your hotel or you can remain in the area and further explore the area around Gion. 

You will spend the day in the foothills of Northern and Western Kyoto. You will visit Kinkaku-ji, a Zen temple also known as the Golden Pavilion. The top two floors of the building completely covered in gold leaf. Our guide will lead you through the beautiful gardens to the tea house where you will exit the temple.

A short walk down the street is Ryoan-ji. The attraction of this temple is its famous rock garden with its deceptively simple and clever arrangement of 15 stones. After some contemplative moments at the rock garden, you will leave the area and travel to the western side of Kyoto.

In Arashiyama, you will tour Tenryu-ji Zen temple with one of the finest gardens in Kyoto. You will exit the temple by the north gate which brings you right onto the famous verdant bamboo groves of Arashiyama.

Take a train from Kyoto to Osaka.

Enjoy the remainder of the day at your leisure. Explore Dotonbori area which is a popular shopping and entertainment district and also known as a food destination. At night it is lit by hundreds of neon lights and mechanized signs.

With our detailed instructions and included transportation tickets in hand, you will leave Osaka from Namba station and travel along the Nankai train line for about 90 minutes to the end of the line at Gokurakubashi. From there board a steep climbing cable car for the 5 minute ride to the top of Mount Koya and then a short bus ride down to the center of town. The sacred site of Mt. Koya also known as Koyasan is the cradle of Shingon Buddhism. There are over a hundred temples and pagodas to explore, as well as the mysterious Okunoin cemetery with its more than 200,000 tombstones where spirits are said to roam. After spending the day in Koyasan, make your way back to Osaka.

Take the airport shuttle bus to Kansai International Airport (KIX) or Osaka International (Itami) Airport (ITM) for your departure.