Advanced Tour to Japan, Spring 2010
This tour in Spring 2010 will be booked through our travel agent Emerald Travel. To show interest or request more information please contact Kristina. Guest numbers are limited so please apply early.
Itinerary
The tour is designed for those travellers who will have already experienced Japanese gardens and have some knowledge about their history and philosophy.
Japan in the spring evokes cherry blossom and azaleas bushes pruned into clouds. This tour will embrace this vision while also looking at new Japanese gardens particularly those of Shigimori Morei in Kyoto and around Osaka.
He is Japan’s most important 20th century designer who both restored old gardens and created completely new respecting the ancient traditions of Japanese garden making. We will also visit his home now a museum.
Taking the bullet train west from Kyoto to Hiroshima we will visit both the Peace garden and the site of the bomb which ended the 2nd World War as well as a fine restored 17th century stroll garden SHUKKEIEN in the centre of the town.
A day trip will take us to Miyajima Island and the Itsukushima shrine with its startling red O-tori gate sited just off shore appearing to float on the water.
A cable car ride over virgin forest to the top of the island will allow us to look out over the inland sea. We travel to the north to a new yet traditional garden complex, voted the finest in Japan at the Adachi Museum.
We will stay 2 nights in Matsue to give us the opportunity to visit an ancient wind temple and experience rural Japan.
Returning to Osaka we will stop at Himeji castle, undergoing restoration yet still the best preserved castle in Japan.
Within the curtilage are a number of new gardens built along traditional lines. Finally staying in Osaka we make a day trip to the ancient capital of Japan, Nara, to look at a number of gardens. The first is an archaeological restoration of a beach garden from 740AD within the old palace grounds.
Also we will visit the temple of Nara and the Isuien garden which sits just next to it and uses the roof of the gateway and far hills for the shakkei (borrowed landscape).
Breakfast will be provided everyday, and lunches on most other days while we are garden visiting. There is the opportunity to spend extra nights in Japan. If you would like further details and itinerary of this tour please contact Kristina