Chugoku: Japan's secret

Arrival at Tokyo airport (Narita or Haneda).
Welcome to Japan! Yokoso 日本へようこそ！

Our airport assistant will welcome you at the exit of the customs and will give you all your travel documents and your Pocket WiFi.
Unaccompanied transfer from the airport to Tokyo (see details).

Check-in at Hotel OMO3 Tokyo Akasaka by Hoshino Resorts or same category hotel 3* (rooms available from 15:00).

What is there to do in Tokyo on the first day?

We advise you to slowly start visiting Tokyo from its western districts:
- Harajuku: the avant-garde district
- Meiji Jingû, the imperial shrine
- Takeshita-Dori: the most famous street in Japan
- Omotesando: Tokyo's Champs-Élysées
- Shibuya and its unmistakable "crossroads"

One of our many experienced English-speaking guides can also accompany you to visit the classic sights of Tokyo (optional, from 9:00 to 17:00).

For this second day of visiting Tokyo, we recommend the following "loop".

Start from Tokyo Central Station, with its original architecture, then go to visit:
- Ginza, Tokyo's chic district
- Tsukiji, the small outdoor food market
- Hamarikyu, the Japanese garden between Tokyo's buildings
- Asakusa, a traditional district and place of pilgrimage, accessible by a cruise on the Sumida River
- Sensô-ji Buddhist temple, one of the oldest in the city
- Tokyo Sky Tree reaching a height of 643m, and its panoramic view of Tokyo at sunset 

Enjoy a cruise on the Sumida River between Hamarikyu and Asakusa.

In the morning, we advise that you have your luggage sent to the hotel in Kyoto (details in your travel diary, check with the hotel reception) and that you travel light for your night in Hakone.
Go to Shinjuku station to activate your Hakone Free Pass and board a train to Hakone Yumoto (1.5 hour journey, details in your travel guide, all inclusive). The train will gradually leave the Japanese megalopolis behind and head deeper into the valleys of the Mount Fuji region. You will arrive in Hakone in the late morning. Reach your Ichinoyu Shinkan ryokan or same category ryokan to drop off your small bag and explore the area.

Be charmed by the beautiful scenery of this spa, Lake Ashi and its view of Mount Fuji (on a clear day!). Not forgetting the volcanic site of Owakudani, accessible by cable car. All transportation (train, bus, cable car, funicular) is included in your package.
If you wish to be accompanied during this day, one of our English-speaking guides can show you all the secrets of the Mount Fuji region (optional).

Come back to the ryokan in the late afternoon as your traditional Japanese dinner awaits you around 18:30, before enjoying a Japanese-style night!
Details below on the night in the ryokan.

Traditional Japanese breakfast at the ryokan.

Head to Hakone-Yumoto then Odawara Station to board one of the fastest trains in the world: the Shinkansen! 

In 2 hours 30, reach Kyoto.

From noon onwards, you can settle into your traditional Japan Experience house! A Travel Angel will welcome you, show you some unique details and help you to have an unforgettable stay in Kyoto. You will be able to "live the Japanese way" for a few days, with a space much bigger than a hotel room and a kitchen to prepare good Japanese food!

You have 3 days to visit Kyoto.
Start in the afternoon in the historic Gion district near your accommodation :
- Kiyomizu-Dera, the great water temple
- The historical streets of Sannen-zaka & Ninnen-zaka
- Kodai-ji, the maple and bamboo temple of Kyoto

Finish off seeing the sunset in Gion. Meet your guide at 19:00 to start your late stroll around Gion, Kyoto's historic district.

More details on the exact time and location in your travel diary. At the end of this 1 hour 30 walk, your guide will be able to advise you on the best places to eat out! Please note that it is strictly forbidden to take photographs in the historic district of Gion.

We recommend the following itinerary for this second day's visit to Kyoto:
- Ryoan-ji Zen Garden
- The Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)
- Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion)
- The bewitching path of philosophy
- The Nanzen-ji temple

One of our many experienced English-speaking guides can accompany you on a tour of these symbolic sites (optional, from 9:00 to 17:00).

For your last day in Kyoto and its surroundings, we recommend taking the 50 minute journey to Nara, which is included in your package.

Visit to Nara, the first permanent capital of Japan in the 8th century.
Discover:
- The Shinto shrine Kasuga Taisha and its thousands of lanterns
- The Todaiji, its great bronze Buddha and the imposing Nan-Daimon gate
- Kofukuji temple and its beautiful pagoda

Return to Kyoto and stop for sunset at Fushimi Inari, the huge 10,000 torii sanctuary in Kyoto. If you wish to be accompanied on this day, one of our English-speaking guides will unveil all the secrets of Japan's first capital (optional, return trip from Kyoto).

After checking out in your Japan Experience house, leave for Amanohashidate.

A 2 hour 10 train ride will take you to this small town on the Sea of Japan, home to one of the three most beautiful landscapes in Japan: a narrow sandbar almost 4 kilometres long covered with pine trees. It can be crossed on foot or by bicycle. However, we advise you to make the crossing the next morning. After dropping off your belongings in your 3* ryokan, we advise you to take a bus ride (1 hour, not included in your package, details in your travel guide) to the fishing village of Ine, one of the best preserved in Japan.
Return to your ryokan in Amanohashidate at the end of the afternoon for a tasty traditional Japanese dinner (included in your package).

Breakfast at your accommodation.

In the morning, discover the sandbar that makes this city so famous throughout Japan.

Leave at noon for Kinosaki Onsen (2 hours by train, 1 change, included in your JR Pass). Arrive in this picturesque village, one of the best places in Japan to discover the thermal baths - onsens. In addition to the baths in your ryokan, you can visit one or more of the 7 public onsens in the village, which are free to enter. Wear yukata - traditional Japanese clothing - provided by your ryokan and stroll along the willow-lined canals and traditional shops towards the onsens. All of them offer various baths, some of which are unexpected: a hot bath on the roof of a building, a "penguin" sauna covered in ice, an outdoor bath lined with Japanese maple trees, or another in a cave!
A great way to discover and relax, for all types of travelers: solo, couples, families or friends!

In the evening, at dinner at the ryokan included in your package, discover the city's rich cuisine, in particular the famous Japanese sea crab.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

After relaxing once more in one or two onsens in the morning, you will board the train to Tottori (1 hour 50 direct train, included in your JR Pass). The train goes along the steep San-in coast, lined with cliffs and pine trees. Once you get to this small prefecture on the Sea of Japan, take the local bus for a few kilometres to reach the Tottori sakyu dunes, known throughout Japan. The dunes are almost 10 km long and 2 km wide, and the scenery is desert-like. You can even take a camel ride! The sand museum, next to the dunes, contains huge sand sculptures made by artists from all over the world. Around here, you can taste the local specialities of nashi, the Japanese pears, which have a unique taste!
Finally, in the city, we also recommend the Jinpukaku, a vast mansion and park from the beginning of the 20th century. A beautiful symbol of the fusion of Western and Japanese styles characteristic of the Meiji period.

Your 3* hotel near the train station will welcome you for a night in this calm city.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

Depart for Matsue by train (1.5 hour direct journey, JR, included in your package), on the shores of Lake Shinji. The train follows this coastline, lined on one side with beaches (one of which is called Hawaii...!) and on the other with the slopes of the Daisen volcano, a symbolic site of Japanese spirituality.

Matsue, the capital of Shimane prefecture, is certainly off the beaten path, but there are plenty of reasons to visit:
- The Plover Castle, one of the last 12 feudal castles in Japan to have not been rebuilt. From the top of this picturesque building, the view of the entire region is spectacular.
- Lafcadio Hearn Museum, which traces the life of this naturalised Irishman in the late 19th century, at the very beginning of Japan's move to open up to the outside world. A fascinating visit that takes us back to this amazing era. The museum has undergone recent renovations (including of the digital kind) which make the visit interactive and very pleasant.
- The samurai district with its preserved houses and gardens.
- The Japanese art museum, with its precious treasures, including prints by Hokusai.

In the evening, you can enjoy a beautiful sunset over Lake Shinji (the city is very well oriented for this).
Afterwards, don't hesitate to explore the bars of this lively student city, before going to your 3* hotel in the heart of the city.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

The Matsue area is home to two exceptional gardens: the Yushien Peony Garden and the Adachi Garden Museum, the "Japan's Most Beautiful Garden".
The Yushien Garden, on an island in the middle of Lake Nakaumi, is accessible by bus (25 minutes) from Matsue Station.
The Adachi Garden Museum can be reached after a 20-minute train ride and a 10-minute shuttle bus ride. This museum, created by a businessman and benefactor, brings together numerous works by great Japanese artists of the 20th century, exhibited in a museum that opens onto an exceptional garden. This garden is regularly acclaimed as "Japan's most beautiful garden" by the national and international press.

If these gardens don't tempt you, you can always visit the great Izumo Taisha shrine, considered the second most important in the Shinto religion after that of Ise. A beautiful beach lies next to the huge shrine (1 hour train ride from Matsue, not included in your package, details in your travel diary).

2nd night in your hotel in Matsue.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

We advise that you leave at dawn for this day full of travel and discovery. We recommend that you contact the reception desk to have your luggage sent the day before to Tsuwano, your next stop. This way you will travel light for this day. Details of luggage shipment in your travel diary.

In 2 hours (direct train included in your offer up to Odashi + 30 minutes bus, 6€, to be paid to the driver. Details in your travel diary). Iwami Ginzan is an old silver mine classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At its peak in the 17th century, it accounted for up to a third of world production of this metal, at the heart of an industrial area of 250,000 people. The small, unspoilt mining town of Omori welcomes you along a 2 kilometre route. This route allows you to visit the major sites of this era of prosperity: mine shafts, the remnants of a silver refinery, a mine museum and a merchant's residence are all along the way.

In the early afternoon, you will return to the coast with the same bus, before taking the train to Tsuwano (2 hours, included in your package), a picturesque mountain town. Your Noren-Yado Meigetsu 3* ryokan or same category ryokan will be waiting for you for dinner.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

Discover this small town and its inhabitants with Adrien, your local English-speaking guide. The old samurai quarter, castle ruins, a sanctuary overlooking the region, or the church that sheltered the secret Christians of Nagasaki: Adrien will share with you his passion for his town. He will also be able to show you the region, combining wooded hills and small agricultural estates.

In the evening, your ryokan will serve you a traditional dinner.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

A short 3-hour trip (2 changes, all-inclusive) awaits you to reach the coast of the Sea of Japan. Although more touristy, this coastline is nonetheless exceptional, as witnessed by the fabulous island of Miyajima. This sacred place of Shintoism, twinned with the Mont St Michel, is accessible from "the mainland" in 15 minutes by boat (included in your offer).

Reach your ryokan near the island's ferry terminal.

Explore the island: its Itsukushima-jinja shrine and its large gate (ootorii) standing in the sea. (Please note: The ootorii is under construction until an unspecified date). Take the cable car up to Mount Misen and then descend on foot. A breathtaking view of Hiroshima Bay is waiting for you!

At night at the ryokan, you will be treated to a tasty traditional Japanese dinner before retiring to your tatami room.

Breakfast at your accommodation.

Boat and train ride to Hiroshima (30 min, all inclusive).

Visit the park and the peace memorial, the castle and its park full of cherry trees before tasting one of Hiroshima's specialities: okonomiyaki.

In the early afternoon, head to the feudal city of Okayama, located on a plain on the Sea of Japan, halfway between Hiroshima and Osaka (40min Shinkansen included). Drop off your belongings at your 3* hotel and explore the beautiful Korakuen Garden, one of the 3 most famous gardens in Japan during the Edo period. Okayama Castle is also accessible from the garden.

Breakfast at the hotel.

We advise you to spend the day visiting Naoshima Island, 1 hour from Okayama: 45 minutes by train (1 change - free with Japan Rail Pass) and 15 minutes by boat (Buy on-site, about €4.50/pers A/R). Details in your travel diary.

Naoshima Island is world-famous for its modern art museums, the architecture of some of its buildings, and the scattered outdoor sculptures throughout its territory. These numerous museums and buildings were designed by the architect Ando Tadao. You will be impressed, among other things, by Monet's water lilies, displayed in a simple room where you enter without shoes!

N.B.: access to one of the museums of Naoshima, the Chichu Art Museum, is subject to reservation.

Return to Okayama at the end of the day by the same route as in the morning, in the middle of the Japanese countryside.

If you consider yourself less of an artist and more of a romantic, the city of Kurashiki, less than 20 minutes by JR train from Okayama, will seduce you!

Breakfast at the hotel.

On this final day, you will head to Osaka (50 minutes, included in your package). Halfway there, don't hesitate to stop in Himeji, to visit its feudal fortress. This famous castle, certainly the most famous in Japan, is white in colour, earning it the nickname "White Heron Castle". Afterwards, check into the Intergate Osaka Umeda or an same category 3* hotel in the heart of Osaka for your last night in Japan.

Enjoy an unforgettable evening in the gastronomic capital of Japan, especially in the bustling Dotonbori district.

Direct transfer to Kansai International Airport (included but not accompanied).

Return flight to Europe, North America, Australia.

Do not hesitate to extend your trip by one or more days to Kansai or elsewhere... We will be able to advise you!