Japan small group vacation, Japan unmasked

Planet

Traveling in Japan is a joy thanks to the fantastic public transport system. During this whistle stop two week tour, you’ll travel by Shinkansen bullet train, local trains, highway buses, subway and even ferry if you make an optional day trip to Miyajima Island.

We highly recommend hiring a bike when in Kurashiki to ride across the Kibi Plains with the tour leader. Here’s you’ll pass villages and rice paddies, tiny little Shinto shrines and Buddhist cemeteries. Getting out into the countryside like this broadens the visitor’s understanding of Japan’s natural resources and why they must be protected.

It’s not difficult to be green in Japan and the tour leader will make lots of suggestions to help you, such as pointing out recycling bins, suggesting your turn down the hotel room air conditioning and asking accommodation staff not to replace towels and bed linens, and providing reusable chopsticks for the duration of the tour.

People

The Japan Unmasked tour includes two highlight stays in traditional Japanese accommodation. In Nagano we’ll stay in a shukubo, simple lodgings that were built for pilgrim’s visiting Zenko-ji Temple. As part of our stay we will be taken on a tour around Zenko-ji with an English speaking local guide who will explain the temple’s history stretching back to the 7th Century. The shukubo is just a stone’s throw from the temple which makes it easy for us to join the hall for the monks’ morning prayer service featuring chanting and meditation. Breakfast is shojin ryori – austere Buddhist fare that is strictly vegetarian.

In Takayama we stay in a minshuku, another traditional inn where we will again sleep on futon bedding on tatami mat floors. The rooms are not en-suite, instead we’ll bathe Japanese style in the communal hot spring baths (men and women separately). Dinner is included on the first night: a seasonal, locally grown, homecooked feast!

These inns offer a real insight into Japanese life helping us to better understand the communities we are traveling through.