ONE DAY TOUR WITH LUXURY TOURS JAPAN & MIYAZAKI PREFECTURE: TROPICAL TREASURE
ONE DAY TOUR WITH LUXURY TOURS JAPAN
Recommended one day tour with us - Kyoto Tradition
Kyoto is nationally renowned for its rich Japan culture & history. To help you explore that heritage we've gathered some of the best places to experience Japan culture, offer engaging on-site programming that highlight stories from Japanese artisans and their delicate skills interpret some historic sites that emphasize the Japan culture experience. With this tour, you will visit a private bamboo forest to learn about Bamboo & Lacquer ware artisans and some important steps of making fine woven bamboo, a small private sake brewery owned by a traditional family in the area of Fushimi. For dinner, you will experience a tea ceremony and enjoy the time with Geisha in the private Japanese villa. You can get a broad picture of Kyoto history & culture or dive deep into a specific subject. There's so much to explore!
Bamboo & Lacquer ware artisans visit
Normally, when creating a piece of art or craft, Japanese artisans will work as a team, each contributing to a different stage of the process where they are masters of that particular skill. There’s a clear division of labor and expertise, and they tend to work separately in their own studio. This makes it difficult for the visitor to witness a work being made in its complete form. However, a visit to this workshop in Kyoto allows you to experience the process in full – you will be able to see artisans working on the individual steps of making fine woven bamboo ware and crafting luminous urushi lacquerware, all in the one place.
You will first visit a private bamboo grove. You don't have to go to the bamboo grove in Arashiyama, which is full of tourists. There are some nice bamboo groves with fewer people, and we will show you around.
Then we will transfer to the studio. In the studio, specialized craftsmen are making a variety of works, from small wood and bamboo works to tea utensils and art works using antique wood. You can also observe the process of decorating the finished woodwork and bamboo work with urushi lacquer and maki-e. Maki-e is a traditional technique of decorating designs using urushi lacquer and gold powder.
Since urushi lacquer is a very delicate process, it is impossible to remove dust if it sticks to the artwork. Therefore, you may have to watch through a window to avoid any dust.
Afterwards, you will be invited to a tea break with a view of a bamboo grove. It will be a leisurely break during your journey.
Sake Brewery Visit
In this experience, you will be taken on a guided tour through the historic buildings of a sakebrewery founded over 350 years ago in Kyoto’s Fushimi area, one of Japan’s oldest areas of sake production. Their production applies an ages-old manual approach and during the visit you’ll appreciate how much time and effort is needed to brew sake using traditional techniques. Not a single grain or drop of sake is wasted during the process. This brewery produces several kinds of sake varieties, which you will be able to sample on the spot.
Tea Ceremony
Steeped in tradition, the Japanese tea ceremony known as cha-no-yu (literally ‘water for tea’) is more like performance art where every subtle movement has been designed to create a complete aesthetic experience. Although tea arrived from China in the 9th century, the foundations for the tea ceremony as we know it today was laid in the 16th century by the famous tea master Sen no Rikyu. We offer a private experience with a master practioner in a chashitsu tea house where you can enjoy the formal ritual of a cha-no-yu, the restrained omotenashi of the host and matcha tea in an authentic setting far away from the crowds. This time, you will join a tea ceremony in a traditional Japanese villa and be able to enjoy the tea.
Geisha Dinner
Enjoy a private dinner with a geiko (as geisha are known in Kyoto) and maiko (apprentice geiko) in a traditional Japanese villa set in a private garden, once the home of a prosperous local family. You’ll enjoy traditional kaiseki cuisine (a multi-course series of dishes which emphasize seasonality and elegant simplicity), and be entertained by the geiko with dance, music and traditional games. In earlier times, the opportunity to meet geisha was very much the preserve of the elite but now geisha attend private functions and appear in public performances, though even today most Japanese will not have met a geisha in person. During the summer months, the unusual seasonal dish of nagashi somen , noodles which are served in chilled water along bamboo pipes, is also available.
Please ask HANKYU TRAVEL DMC JAPAN for our unique experiences.
MIYAZAKI PREFECTURE: TROPICAL TREASURE
Greetings from Tokyo. My name is Kaori from Hankyu Travel DMC Japan. It seems that spring is just arriving in Japan, so it is time to prepare next trip, where I can visit. Are you ready??
Last Autumn, I visited Miyazaki prefecture in Kyusyu island, around 1,000 km away from Tokyo. Do not worry, approx., 1.5 hour flight from Tokyo. It is actually located in the south east of Kyusyu island, the area of the prefecture is 7,735 ㎢ and the population is around 1 million people.
After landing at the airport, it is totally different atmosphere, here is tropical country?! Palm trees are welcoming to us with lots of tropic flowers. According to Miyazaki Prefecture, local specialties are Chicken, Beef, Mango… it is definitely tropic area. Also, it was major honeymoon destination for domestic people. Nowadays, many baseball teams are doing winter training because of mild climate. Of course, Onsen (hot spring) exist in the several area of Miyazaki.
I visited Aoshima Shrine (https://www.miyazaki-city.tourism.or.jp/en/see-and-do/10002) . The shrine is facing to the see, beautiful location ! In addition to beautiful and tropic scenery, I found several stories of ancient Japan. As you know, we have major 3 big shrines such as Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, Ise Shrine, Mie and Izumo Shrine, Shimane. These shrines are always mention to ancient histories of Japan, Amaterasu Oomikami god, Iazanagino Mikoto god and so on. According to my sister (travel professional), nobody knows where is the “first place” for this ancient history, always discussing, never ending story ! Anyway, you can feel tropic atmosphere with mild weather, enjoy local specialties (Miyazaki beef is well known as high quality beef, same as Kobe beef. Also local chicken is totally different from others), relax with Onsen (hot spring), and let’s discuss where the starting point of Japan is.
Miyazaki has also famous view spot, Takachiho gorge, good access to Aso, Kumamoto prefecture where is introduced by our previous webinar.
Would you like to add Miyazaki to the next trip list?
Sakura (cherry blossom) time is also coming soon in Japan. It is very sad we can not share with you this year still, but let’s hope to the next time and enjoy your spring. See you soon.