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Tours - KYOTO PACKAGE
Tour includes:
  • Accommodation at selected hotels with meals as mentioned in your final itinerary.
  • Check-in time is 3.00PM and check-out time is 11.00AM. Early or late service is subject to availability with surcharge.
  • Meals if mentioned in the final itinerary
  • Transfers if mentioned in your final itinerary:
    • Airport transfer (arrival and departure) in a shared van
    • Public/Private transport on tour day
  • Guidance:
    • Client Service Officer: provide self-guided clients with tour information
    • Guide for half day or full day tour (English & other languages: German, Spanish, etc.)
  • Sightseeing fees and permits during guided time
  • Service charge and current government VAT tax    
  • JR Pass and/or Train ticket(s)  
Tour excludes:
  • VISA
  • Optional tour
  • Please make sure you have 6 months passport validity.  
  • Early/late check in/out service at hotels (surcharge if request) 
  • Tips and gratuities
  • Services and meals if not mentioned in itinerary
  • All drinks, including water, soft drink and alcohol on all included or optional excursion
  • Laundry, telephone calls and expenditure of a personal nature
  • Travel Insurance (Compulsory)

DAY 1: MARKET VISIT, SAKE BREWERY VISIT & COOKING LESSON

Please make your own way to the meeting point to meet a local guide, you will walk the mile-long Nishiki covered food markets, where there are many interesting food stores to explore as you help your guide buy the ingredients for your Japanese cooking class. This is a great opportunity to learn about local Japanese produce. After visiting the markets, you'll travel through the back streets and lanes of Kyoto, and visit a former sake brewery for a tour and sake tasting.
Finish the walk at a traditional wooden townhouse for your Japanese cooking class. Learn how to make rolled sushi, miso soup and cooked salad with seasonal fruit for dessert, and enjoy the results for dinner.
We begin with a dive into the culinary culture of Kyoto, with a meet up at the Nishiki Market. There you will find a covered food festival famed all around the country for its unique, high-quality ingredients and colorful flavors. Snack as you stock up on the ingredients you will need for the afternoon course, and learn about the produce unique to the area.
We then walk the back streets of Kyoto to a sake brewery for a tour and tasting experience.
After shopping, we head to a traditional townhouse where we take a Japanese cooking class. Learn about miso soup, rolled sushi, and cooked salad native to the people of Kyoto. Seasonal fruits are a traditional dessert in the area - try flavors that you have never experienced before, and enjoy your cooking results for dinner.

DAY 2: KYOTO BACK STREET BIKING AND GEISHA EXPERIENCE

Please make your own way to the meeting point this morning for biking experience in Kyoto. With your local guide, cycle through the Miyagawacho and Gion geisha districts, hoping to see a geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha) as they dash between appointments.  Continue along the Shirakawa canal lined with weeping willow trees, past traditional Kyoto style tea houses. Next stop is the Imperial Palace Park with its beautiful gardens.
Cycle back to Kyoto station along the Kamogawa river, whose riverbanks are popular with locals for strolling. Cherry blossoms bloom along the banks of the river in spring, and in summer restaurants open balconies looking out to the river.
If you wish to continue sightseeing in Kyoto on your bike after the tour has finished, we can arrange for you to keep the bike until 19:00 at no charge.
  This afternoon, for those who love Japan knowing that Fujiyama and Geisha are two icons that symbolize JAPAN. Unlike Samurai, Geisha are still alive with their white-painted faces, traditional Japanese hairstyles and fabulous kimonos. There are many factors that make them more beautiful and one of those is their dressing - Kimono. Kimono is one of Japan&;s most famous traditions. With this special opportunity, you will have a chance to try wearing kimono and special make-up. You will also have time to take photos for memories and enjoy a chance to shroud yourself in culture and history while you are here in the Land of the Rising Sun.
This morning, we meet up for yet another fun experience biking through the streets of this ancient city. We pass through the lovey Miyagawa-cho and Gion, which are famous for teahouses and high-class geisha. You may catch a glimpse of these pretty artisans as they walk through the romantic streets. The canal is lined with willow trees, and we bike by the river to the Imperial Palace Park to see the gardens.
Next we pass by the Kamogawa, which is lined with sakura cherry trees in the spring and lit with outdoor balcony restaurants in the summer. Townsfolk and tourists have relaxed on the banks of the river and enjoyed the views for centuries - scenes of this area pop up in woodblock prints from the Edo Period.
The bike can be lent to you until 7 in the evening at no extra charge, so take your time to bike around the city further if you like.
In the afternoon, you can put on a kimono and white geisha makeup and walk the streets for a real Kyoto feeling. We arrange photographs for you in kimono at picturesque locations so that you can impress friends and family back home.

DAY 3: ARASHIYAMA BAMBOO FOREST MORNING & TEA CEREMONY AT GION & GINKAKUJI TEMPLE WALKING TOUR

This morning, please take your own way to meeting point for tour to Arashiyama bamboo forest. Okochi Mountain Villa is the former villa of the popular samurai film star Okochi Denjiro (1896-1962), and consists of several beautiful gardens and buildings, including living quarters, tea houses and a zen meditation hall. Here you will enjoy some matcha green tea with a snack. Next, take a walk through Arashiyama&;s famous bamboo groves, which are particularly attractive when there is a light wind and the tall bamboo stalks sway gently back and forth. The bamboo has been used to manufacture various products, such as baskets, cups, boxes and mats at local workshops for centuries. Nonomiya shrine is a Shinto shrine where in ancient times, unmarried imperial princesses stayed for a year or more to purify themselves.  Ranked among Kyoto's five great Zen temples, Tenryuji is the largest and most impressive temple in Arashiyama. Founded in 1339 at the beginning of the Muromachi Period (1338-1573), the temple is one of Kyoto's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In addition to its temple buildings, there are attractive gardens with walking paths.
In the afternoon, please be at the meeting point by your own way. Tour will take you to Ginkakuji first for visiting. After visiting the world heritage Ginkakuji Temple, enjoy strolling Philosopher's path. Experiencing tea ceremony and get a taste of Japanese culture.
A suburb of Kyoto, Arashiyama is famous for its hotsprings and bamboo forests. We take you to the Okochi Mountain Villa, once home to a samurai film star and now open to the public. There are many beautiful buildings and gardens preserved here, including tea houses and a zen meditation hall. Enjoy green tea by the gardens and take a stroll through the bamboo forest.
Nearby in the market, you will find bamboo-based crafts not just for tourists, but made for practical use even today. Japanese people come from all over to country to purchase locally-made fans, toothpicks, incense, wooden bowls, fabric and accessories from this area.
We also visit the Nonomiya, a shinto shrine visited by imperial princesses since the 12th century for the purpose of purification, and Tenryuji, an ancient structure that was not only a temple, but a residence for many emperors of eras gone by.
In the afternoon, visit Ginkakuji - the silver temple - and walk the Philosopher's Path, known for the inspiration it has given artisans, writers and scholars for centuries. Then, experience a tea ceremony and relax with Japanese sweets and wabi-sabi.

DAY 4: TOUR ENDS

Please make your own way to the station for train to Hiroshima. Tour ends upon arrival in Hiroshima.
On the final day, we bring you to the train station so that you may head out for Hiroshima. Feel free to ask anything that may have been lingering in your mind until this time - our guides are specially versed to answer your questions about Japanese life in Kyoto!
ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCES
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