Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom

Tour Program

Day 1. Hello, Tokyo!

Arrival in Tokyo and transfer to your hotel. We recommend choosing a flight that lands no earlier than 13:00, as Japanese hotels check guests in from 15:00. A very late flight won’t work either, though – otherwise you’ll miss the first walk.

At around 19:00 the group gathers in the hotel lobby: you’ll meet your guide and fellow travellers, and the guide will talk you through the programme. Then comes your first evening stroll through Shibuya – skyscrapers, neon signs and the famous crossing where more than a thousand people cross on a single green light. Here, too, stands the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog who came to the station for almost ten years to wait for his late master. His first statue was put up in 1934, while Hachiko was still alive.

Day 2. Tokyo: Temples, Anime and Neon

You’ll spend the morning in Ueno Park, one of Japan’s first public parks, opened in 1873. Some 800 cherry trees line its main avenue, and in spring the whole of Tokyo comes here. In the park you’ll visit two temples and get to know Japan’s religions: the Shinto shrine Ueno Toshogu, built in 1627 in honour of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and adorned with gold leaf, and the Buddhist temple Benten-do on an island in the middle of Shinobazu Pond. The monk Tenkai conceived this pond as a likeness of the great Lake Biwa.

From there you’ll head to Asakusa and Senso-ji, Tokyo’s oldest temple. Legend has it that its story began in 628 with a statuette of Kannon that fishermen found in the river. After a wander through the lanes of souvenir stalls, you’ll go for lunch in Akihabara, “Electric Town”. After the war a market for radio parts sprang up here; today it is the capital of anime, manga and video games.

In the afternoon you’ll see Kabukicho, Shinjuku’s nightlife district. A Godzilla head some 12 metres tall towers above it, and by the station the famous 3D cat gazes down at passers-by from a giant curved screen. The day ends in Golden Gai, where more than two hundred tiny bars, each seating just five or six, are packed into six narrow alleys that preserve the look of 1950s Tokyo.

Day 3. Kamakura, City of the Samurai

In the morning you’ll travel to Kamakura, where at the end of the 12th century Minamoto no Yoritomo established Japan’s first samurai military government. The symbol of the city is the Great Buddha of Kotoku in, a bronze statue of Amida Buddha some 11 metres tall and weighing about 121 tonnes. Work on it began in 1252, and since the late 15th century, when the elements destroyed its hall, the Buddha has sat in the open air.

Hase-dera, said to have been founded in 736, is famous for its beautiful gardens, sea views and nine-metre statue of the eleven-headed Kannon – one of the largest wooden statues in Japan. A tunnel of red torii gates leads to Sasuke Inari Shrine, surrounded by countless fox figurines. At Zeniarai Benten an old custom has people washing their money in a spring, which is believed to make it multiply. If you wish, you can also call in at the city’s principal shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu.

After lunch and some free time you’ll return to Tokyo and ride up to the Tokyo City View observation deck on the 52nd floor of Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills to see the city at night from above. At the foot of the tower stands “Maman”, a bronze spider almost ten metres tall – Louise Bourgeois dedicated the sculpture to her mother.

Day 4. Nikko: Temples in the Mountains

In the morning you’ll travel to Nikko, whose shrines and temples – 103 buildings in all – have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. The main temple complex is Toshogu, where the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, is deified and buried. The Yomeimon Gate is adorned with hundreds of carved figures, the famous three monkeys – “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” – are carved on the sacred stable, and above one of the doorways dozes the carved “Sleeping Cat”, a National Treasure of Japan.

Then you’ll walk through Nikko National Park, taking in the scenery and the small shrines. If you wish, you can stop at Edo Wonderland, a theme park that recreates an Edo-period town, with shows featuring samurai, ninja and oiran courtesans.

On the way back you’ll have dinner in Utsunomiya, the acknowledged “gyoza capital”. The city has around 300 eateries serving these dumplings, and by the station there is even a statue of the “Gyoza Venus”, wrapped in dough. In the evening you’ll return to Tokyo.

Day 5. Nara and Osaka by Night

In the morning you’ll travel to Nara, Japan’s capital in 710–784, and stroll among its sacred deer. Legend has it that the god Takemikazuchi arrived here riding a white deer, and ever since the deer have been revered as messengers of the gods. At Todai-ji you’ll see the Great Buddha, almost 15 metres tall and unveiled in 752; its hall is one of the largest wooden buildings in the world.

Kasuga Taisha was founded in 768 as the clan shrine of the powerful Fujiwara family. Some three thousand stone and bronze lanterns donated by worshippers line its paths, and by tradition its buildings are renewed every twenty years.

After lunch you’ll move on to Osaka, check in to your hotel and spend the evening exploring Namba, one of the city’s liveliest districts.

Day 6. Kyoto: Temples and a Thousand Gates

The morning begins at Sanjusangen-do, the “hall of 33 bays”, some 120 metres long, which houses a thousand statues of the thousand-armed Kannon and one large seated figure; the hall and all its statues are designated National Treasures. Next you’ll head to Kiyomizu-dera, founded in 778 beside the Otowa spring. Its wooden stage, about 13 metres high, rests on pillars joined without a single nail. If you like, you can put on a kimono and stroll through the ancient Higashiyama district.

After lunch and some free time you’ll walk through the geisha district of Gion, with its wooden machiya townhouses, and then head to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the head shrine of some 30,000 shrines to Inari. Around 10,000 orange torii gates mark the trail up the sacred mountain, and foxes – Inari’s messengers – stand everywhere around the shrine.

Day 7. Kyoto Again, Then Kanazawa

In the morning you head back to Kyoto. Which of the two programmes you follow will be decided by the weather and the group’s wishes.

Arashiyama and the Golden Pavilion. Kinkaku-ji was once the estate of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu: three storeys in three different styles, with a phoenix on the roof. In Arashiyama you’ll see Tenryu-ji, founded in 1339 and the first of Kyoto’s five great Zen temples, and the Sagano bamboo grove, whose rustling is listed among the “100 Soundscapes of Japan”.

Hanami at Fushimi Momoyama Castle. A true picnic with sake and traditional sweets beneath the blossoming cherry trees by the castle walls. This was the site of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s castle; the present keep is a 1964 replica, and you can’t go inside, but the park around it is open. In the evening you’ll travel on to Kanazawa.

Day 8. Samurai Kanazawa

The morning is devoted to samurai history. The Nagamachi quarter, enclosed by earthen walls, was home to the samurai of the powerful Maeda clan. You’ll visit the preserved residence of the Nomura family, whose garden was ranked third in the country by an American journal of Japanese gardening.

Then you’ll stroll through Kenroku-en, one of Japan’s three great gardens. Successive generations of Maeda lords created it from 1676 onwards, and its name means “garden combining six attributes”: spaciousness and seclusion, artifice and antiquity, water and broad views. The garden’s symbol is the Kotoji-toro stone lantern, which stands on two legs of different lengths, and its fountain is powered purely by natural water pressure. In spring the cherry trees are in bloom here.

After lunch you’ll travel on to Matsumoto.

Day 9. Crow Castle and a Night by Fuji

In the morning you’ll explore Matsumoto Castle, one of the five Japanese castles designated National Treasures. Its main keep was built in 1593–1594: outside it has five tiers, inside six floors, one of them hidden from view. Its black walls earned it the nickname “Crow Castle”. Afterwards you’ll wander the old streets with their souvenir shops and have lunch.

In the afternoon you’ll travel to Kawaguchiko, in the Fuji Five Lakes area at the foot of Mount Fuji. The mountain stands 3,776 metres high, and in 2013 it was inscribed on the UNESCO list as a “sacred place and source of artistic inspiration”.

You’ll spend the night in a ryokan, a traditional inn where guests sleep on futons. A kaiseki dinner of many successive courses awaits, along with an evening walk around the lake and the hot springs.

Day 10. A Museum Village and an Ice Cave

In the morning you’ll visit the museum village of Saiko Iyashi-no-Sato. A village of thatched-roof houses with views of Mount Fuji once stood here on the shore of Lake Sai, but in 1966 it was destroyed by a landslide. In 2006 it was rebuilt as an open-air museum: some twenty houses where workshops practise traditional crafts and sell handmade ceramics, glass, copperware and silk. You’ll have lunch right in the village.

Then you’ll see the Aokigahara forest, which grew on the lava from Mount Fuji’s eruption of 864, and an ice cave – a lava tube left by the same eruption. Inside, the temperature stays at around 0…+3 °C all year round, and the ice doesn’t melt even in summer; in the Edo period caves like this served as natural refrigerators. In the evening you’ll return to Tokyo.

Because of cloud, Mount Fuji is not visible every day.

Day 11. A Free Day in Tokyo

Your last full day in Japan is free for shopping, favourite neighbourhoods and anything you haven’t yet had time for. You could, for instance, visit teamLab Planets in Toyosu – a digital art museum whose rooms you explore barefoot, in places wading right through water. It entered Guinness World Records as the most visited museum dedicated to a single art collective. Another option is the Harry Potter studio tour.

Day 12. Sayonara, Japan!

Departure from Tokyo. We hope Japan has given you a wealth of vivid memories. Until we meet again on another journey with Dallure!