JAPAN EXPLORER ITINERARY:
Day 1: Depart USA
Day 2: Arrive Tokyo
Arrive late this morning in Tokyo, where your Big Five
representative greets you and escorts you by private car to your
centrally located hotel.
Choice of Hotels (B)
Day 3: Tokyo
Depart this morning at 8:25 AM on a day of sightseeing in
Tokyo. Visit Tokyo Tower observatory, modeled after the Eiffel
Tower. Glimpse the Imperial Palace, home to the royal family.
Explore Asakusa Kannon Temple, Tokyo’s oldest temple. En route,
cruise Sumida River for different views of this energetic
capital city. Choice of Hotels (B)
Day 4: Tokyo
Today you are free to explore Tokyo on your own. Museums,
gardens, shopping, baseball, palaces, Tokyo has something for
everyone. Choice of Hotels (B)
Day 5: Tokyo / Hakone
This morning you are picked up from your hotel at 8:25 AM
for a full day tour of Mt Fuji and Hakone by luxury coach (Bud
Tour), visit Mt. Fuji and its welcoming mountain surroundings.
Here, you find some of the most beautiful scenery in Japan.
Ascend half way up the mountainside for fabulous views (weather
permitting) from 7,500 feet. Travel to picturesque Hakone, a
tourist resort with hot springs and natural beauty as well as
rich history. Cruise across serene Lake Ashi and take in the
rugged mountain scenery from the Mt. Komagatake aerial cableway.
After the tour ends you will be dropped off at hotel Kowakien
from where you take a taxi to your hotel.
Choice of Hotels (B,L,D)
Day 6: Hakone / Nara / Kyoto
Today you are transferred from your hotel to the Odawara
train station by private car and assistance driver where you
depart by Hikari train to Kyoto. On arrival in Kyoto you are met
and transferred by private car and an escort to your hotel. You
have to walk over to the Kyoto Hotel Okura from where you are
picked up for your coach tour of Nara. This afternoon you are
taken on a coach tour of nearby Nara, to see Todaji Temple’s
colossal bronze Buddha. Stop by Deer Park, a 1,250-acre park
where more than 1,000 tame deer roam freely. Enjoy colorful
Kasuga Shrine with its vermilion-lacquered galleries, a myriad
of rusty hanging lanterns from the eaves and the elegant shrine
structure with cypress-bark roofs. The tour ends at Kyoto Hotel
Okura from where you walk back to your hotel.
Choice of Hotels (B)
Day 7: Kyoto
Today you have to walk over to the Kyoto Hotel Okura from
where you are picked up for your coach tour of Kyoto, Kyoto
served as Japan's capital for 1100 years. Study the powerful
Nijo Castle built around 1600, with immense walls and moat.
Experience Ninomaru Palace, which is famed for its nightingale
floors, constructed to squeak whenever anyone walks across them,
so as to warn residents when invaders were present. Discover the
elegant Imperial Palace and the radiant Golden Pavilion, an
exquisite example of Japanese gardens. The tour ends at Kyoto
Hotel Okura from where you walk back to your hotel. Choice of
Hotels(B,L)
Day 8: Kyoto / Hiroshima / Kyoto
Today, you will be picked up from the Kyoto hotel Okura and
taken for your full day coach tour of Hiroshima, the first city
in the history of the world to suffer atomic devastation. Pause
to reflect at the Peace Memorial Park, which now has a museum
displaying relics and photos of the effects of the A-bomb. This
is a moving and emotional experience for many visitors. Also,
visit Itsukushima Shrine, a 1400-year-old Shinto holy place
constructed over water in a small inlet on Miyajima Island. This
evening, return to Kyoto by train where you are dropped off at
the Kyoto hotel Okura, from here you walk back to your hotel.
Choice of Hotels (B)
Day 9: Kyoto / Tokyo
Today you are transferred from your hotel to the Kyoto train
station by private car with an escort. You board the Nazomi
train back to Tokyo. On arrival, you are met and transferred to
your hotel by private car and escort. Remainder of the day is at
leisure.
Choice of Hotels (B)
Day 10: Tokyo / Depart
This morning, you are met at your hotel and escorted by
private car and assistance guide to the Narita International
Airport for your onward flight home. (B)
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