Next tour: 28 May to 7 June 2018
Day 1: Monday: Tokyo
Arrival to Tokyo airport (NRT) till 12:00PM. Trasnfer to hotel by own arrangement. We’ll meet the tour guide at the hotel.
2:00PM – We will start our city tour of Tokyo, capital of Japan since 1868. We’ll begin at the Meiji Shrine, dedicated to Emperor Meiji, who put an end to feudal rule in Japan. We’ll continue to Shibuya Crossing, the lively youthful entertainment focus of Tokyo, which is elegantly built in the spirit of the 21st century with video screens and sparkling lights.
Day 2: Tuesday: Nikko
After breakfast we will go to Nikko National Park, located in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture in Kanto, Japan. We will see the impressive Lake Tsuzenji, created in the crater formed after the explosion of the Mount Nantai, followed by a visit to Kegon Falls, the tallest waterfall in Japan. We will visit the Nikko Temples which were declared by UNESCO in 1999 as a world heritage site worthy of preservation. We will be impressed by the unique Japanese construction style, the wood carvings in the walls of the temples as well as the Japanese wooden roofs. The site is built as a large complex containing several spectacular temples.
Day 3: Wednesday: Tokyo City
Our agenda today includes as many of the following as time and traffic will allow.
Very early in the morning we will visit Tsukiji Market which is best known as the world’s largest fish market, handling over 2,000 tons of marine products per day.
We will continue to Edo Tokyo Museum, Asakusa Kannon Temple with Nakamise shopping arcade, Ueno Market, Akihabara Electronics District and the glitzy Ginza avenue stores.

At the Fish Market

Other visitors at the Asakusa Temple
Day 4: Thursday: Tokyo , Hakone
After breakfast, we’ll head out to Hakone, the hot-spring resort town at the foot of Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain and its undisputed symbol. The mountain was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. On the way we will stop for a visit to a Sake Brewery (visit conditional on the approval of the brewery), to learn about and taste Japan’s national rice wine. We’ll continue to will visit the Hakone Open Museum with its spacious gardens displaying modern sculptures by renowned sculptors from all over the world. We will travel along the shore of Lake Ashi, past the Hakone temple, whose large orange entrance gate stands in the waters of the lake.

At the Hakone Open Air Musuem
Day 5: Friday: Tokyo, Kamakura
Today we will travel to Kawasaki, located in Kanagawa prefecture. Here we will visit Nihon Minka, a spectacular open museum with an impressive collection of ancient Japanese houses. We will continue to Kamakura, where the culture of warriors developed in the 12th century in parallel to the civilian control of Tokyo. The city is also known for its huge Buddha statue, the second largest in Japan. At the end of the tour we return to our hotel to prepare for Shabbat and Shabbat dinner.
Day 6: Shabbat: Tokyo
We’ll spend a wonderful, peaceful and relaxing Shabbat with Chabad of Tokyo. After Shacharit and Kiddush/Lunch, we’ll take a stroll through the neighborhood near our hotel.
Day 7: Sunday: Tokyo – Yaotsu – Kyoto
After breakfast, we will travel to Yaotsu to visit the heritage house of the Righteous Among the Nations, the Japanese consul Sempo Sugihara, who contributed to the rescue of many Jews during World War II. At the end of the visit we will travel to Kyoto, the cultural center of Japan, and the city that was the capital of the Japanese Empire for more than 1100 years. Referred to as the “Jerusalem of Japan,†Kyoto is home to a large selection of temples and sites such as the Emperor’s Palace where the emperors of Japan were crowned. In the evening we will go to a moving meeting at Beit Shalom, home of the Protestant Japanese Friends of Israel whose faith is based upon the spiritual revival of Israel, the peace of Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah. This belief was crystallized by the experience of a divine revelation which the groups’ founder, Father Takeji Otsuki experienced in 1938.

Visa issued by Sugihara
Day 8: Monday: Kyoto
Today we will tour Kyoto. We will visit the Riyoanji Temple, known for its Zen garden. The garden belongs to the Kare Sansui, a dry Japanese garden style built of white gravel and strategically placed moss-covered rocks. We will continue to visit the ancient Golden Pavilion of Kinkakuji, followed by the Kiyomizu complex, which is on the list of UNESCO World heritage sites. From there we will continue along the ancient alleyways of Kyoto – Ninenzaka and Sanenzaka, after which we will reach the Philosophers’ Path for a traditional tea ceremony. We’ll continue our tour of Kyoto with a visit to the city’s the colorful Nichiki market of Nishiki and end our busy day in the Gion Quarter where we’ll watch as the Geisha go out to work.
Day 9: Tuesday: Kyoto, Miyajima, Hiroshima
After breakfast we will head west to Miyajima, southwest of Hiroshima. We’ll board a ferry and sail to the island of Miyajima (the Temple Island), or its full name, Itukushima. This is a historical site which is considered one of the three most beautiful sites in Japan. At the end of the visit, we will continue to Hiroshima, which was famous in World War II when it was struck by an American atom bomb. Since then it has become a city with a single goal: promoting peace, the city itself is full of memorial sites and memorials. We’ll visit the A-Bomb Dome, the Peace Park and Museum. Depending on permission, we’ll visit the Mazda Car Factory and discover the secrets of Japan’s amazing auto industry. The visit depends on the approval of the car factory). At the end of the day we’ll make our way back to Kyoto.

Temple on Miyajima

A wedding party at the temple
Day 10: Wednesday: Kyoto – Nara – Osaka
After breakfast, visit the famous Nijo Castle, a real Shogun castle built by Tokugawa Iyasu, founder of the Shogun dynasty. Later we will visit Nara which was the first capital of Japan. We will tour the park in which “sacred†deer walk freely. We will arrive at the Todaiji Temple, the largest wooden building in the world, with a giant bronze statue of Buddha, 16 meters high, and a compound and temple that belonged to the Fujiwara family, with an enormous garden filled with thousands of stone and bronze lamps.
Day 11: Thursday: Osaka – Home gateway
Our trip to Japan has come to an end. Full of experiences and impressions we will travel to the airport in Osaka, the second most important metropolis in Japan, from which we will fly back home.
Details are available on the Kesher web site
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