Golden Route

Day 1: Arrive in Tokyo

Upon arrival at Tokyo Narita Airport you will be met at the exit to customs by our representative who will escort you to a waiting seat-sharing taxi to make the forty mile transfer into the city and on to your hotel. Accommodation will be in the Asakusa district of the city. With Senso-ji, the oldest temple in the city at its heart, Asakusa off ers a glimpse of how Tokyo used to be before the neon and concrete took over. The lively back streets and market stalls sit side-by-side with street food venders where you can pick up a bowl of noodles or grilled ‘yakitori’ chicken skewers for just a few hundred yen. And at the end of the day you can enjoy an ice cold beer or some of the local hooch, ‘denki-bran’, in Kamiya, Tokyo’s oldest Western-style bar.
Stay 3 nights: Asakusa Sunroute

Day 2: Full day guiding in Tokyo

This morning you will be met at your hotel by a guide who will be taking you on an eight hour tour of discovery round the city. With such a wealth of experiences to be had, choosing what to see in Tokyo can be a little tricky so your guide will show you some of the highlights as well as giving you the chance to check out anywhere else that has particularly caught your eye. Travelling as Tokyoites do on the subways and local railways, you’ll get a genuine feel for Tokyo life as well as having a real expert on hand to explain the myriad of sights and sounds around you.

Day 3: Full day in Tokyo

Tokyo really does offer something for everyone, from the early morning hive of activity at Tsukiji fish market where some of Japan’s finest sushi can be sampled at some of the lowest prices, to an afternoon spent inside the beautiful Kabukiza theatre. There are endless possibilities and armed with your complimentary Info-Pack, city map and a good guide book, today will be a chance to start discovering for yourself just what makes this incredible city the vibrant metropolis it is.

Day 4: Travel to Hakone

After taking a subway across the city, you will transfer at Tokyo central station to the world famous Shinkansen ‘Bullet Train’ to make the short journey west to Odawara, the gateway city for the Hakone National Park. Located just to the south of Mt. Fuji, the mountains of the Hakone National Park are an area of great natural beauty offering, on clear days, stunning views of Fuji-san rising gracefully skywards,towering high over the surrounding landscape. As well as great views, Hakone also has a number of excellent museums, diverse walking trails and historic sites to explore. You will be provided with a Hakone ‘Free Pass’ which covers much of the public transport in the area, including buses, mountain trains, cable cars and even a pirate ship cruising across Lake Ashi!
Stay 2 nights: Fuji Hakone Guesthouse

Day 5: Full day Hakone

You will have a whole day to explore Hakone so today may be the day to pull on your walking boots and head for one of the many hiking trails that criss-cross the mountains. If a less energetic day’s sightseeing is more to your liking, then your ‘Free-Pass’ will transport you back and forth across the region. The open-air sculpture park is a wonderful art museum with works by the likes of Henry Moore and Anthony Gormley set against the stunning natural backdrop of tree-covered mountains - a perfect place to spend a leisurely afternoon. Or if longevity is what you seek then the ‘black eggs‘ boiled in the sulphurous waters of Owakudani are believed to give you an extra seven years of life for each one consumed! And of course, a trip to Hakone would not be complete without a long, relaxing soak in the onsen waters that have rejuvenated the Japanese for hundreds of years.

Day 6: Travel to Kyoto

The Shinkansen will whisk you the 267 miles down the east coast to Kyoto in just two hours ten minutes. The incredible and ultra-modern station building announces your arrival into this most famous of Japanese cities and is in itself an essential part of any Kyoto sightseeing trip. The afternoon will be free to start exploring part of the city. Considered one of Japan’s best loved temples, Kiyomizu-dera is a stunning wooden structure set high on a hill side overlooking the city. The surrounding streets are a warren of old buildings housing shops, tea houses and restaurants to mingle in and out of before heading back to your ryokan for a sumptuous dinner of traditional Kyoto Kaiseki cuisine.
Stay 3 nights: Izuyasu

Day 7: Full day Kyoto

Kyoto is one of the ancient capitals of Japan, and having been spared the blanket bombing of the war, retains in places much of its original character and charm. Just wandering among the old temples and shrines brings you closer to the heart of the city and to understanding something of the ancient culture and rituals that defined Japan before the modern era.