Sakura Tours Gourmet Tour "About Japan with Taste!"

They say to get the most out of information, you need to engage all your senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste. So if you want to get to know Japan on 100%, get to know the local cuisine!

We invite you to take a gourmet tour where you will not only see the local sights but also taste Japanese cuisine. Each prefecture has its own culinary traditions. That's why traveling around the country will be even more interesting!

Detailed program

Day 1. Tokyo.

11:55 Arrival at Tokyo airport.

12:30 Meeting with Russian-speaking guide, transfer to Tokyo by private transportation

13:30-15:00 Tour of Shibuya and Roppongi neighborhood:

Observation deck on the 52nd floor of the tower Mori Tower - Roppongi Hills, a fashionable residential and shopping complex that offers fantastically beautiful scenery in the central part of evening Tokyo. It also regularly hosts contemporary art exhibitions.
You can visit the busiest intersection in the world. It's located in the neighborhood Shibuya Station. Urban legend has it that about 3,000 people can cross the road at one time during rush hours. A more realistic figure is 1,500 people. Nevertheless, even this number of people makes Shibuya the most significant intersection in Japan. According to the second legend, the number of pedestrians there reaches sometimes 1 million per day. By the way, the intersection has repeatedly become a place for filming movies and clips, for example, the movie "Translation Difficulties".
You'll be able to see Hachiko monument - one of Tokyo's most famous landmarks. Thanks to the movie adaptation of the story about the dog named Hachiko, there is probably not a single person left in the world who would not know about the existence of this monument. The movie is based on a true story. For 9 years the Akita-inu dog came to Shibuya station, sat down and waited for his master - Hidesaburo Ueno. The professor traveled to one of Tokyo's neighborhoods to give lectures, but one day he died during class. The story of the faithful dog made it into the capital's Mainichi newspaper. The dog instantly became famous. People started bringing food to him. This continued until Hatikov's death in 1935. The dog became a symbol of loyalty and devotion, and today there is a monument in his honor at the station, near which the Japanese often schedule meetings.

15:00 Lunch at a nearby restaurant of your choice. Advance booking is required.

Transfer to the hotel. Check-in.

Option! If you wish, you can visit the nearby restaurant in the afternoon if you prefer Ebisu Beer Museumwhich will introduce you to the history of brewing in Japan and around the world. Here you can taste a beer with the same name Ebisu

Day 2. Tokyo.

Breakfast at the hotel.

Option! Sushi master class or breakfast at the fish market

Instead of the standard breakfast at the hotel, we suggest you go to the Tsukiji fish marketTo taste the freshest tuna and seafood sushi. On request, a sushi master class can be organized.

10:00 Meet your guide in the hotel lobby.

Garden Happoen with a tea ceremony, which must be booked in advance. The name of the garden translates as "beautiful from all sides" and, indeed, it is characterized by elegance and full of garden architecture and landscape diversity: a lake with carp, stone lanterns, a tea house, etc. You can also see real Japanese "bonsai" - dwarf trees with 300 and even 500-year history of cultivation. Here you can also see real Japanese "bonsai" - dwarf trees with 300 and even 500 years of cultivation history.
A trip to to the Double Bridge and the square in front of the Imperial Palace.It is located in the center of the capital. During the Edo period (early 17th to late 19th centuries), it was the palace of the Shogun, the supreme military ruler of Japan. It became the Emperor's residence in 1868 after Emperor Meiji moved here from Kyoto.
Relocation Tokyo Sake Tasting Centerwhere you can listen to a lecture about sake culture in Japan, what kinds of sake there are, how sake is made, etc. During the lecture there will be a tasting of 3 varieties of sake with an explanation of how to drink it, in order to learn to feel the combination of aroma and taste of the drink.
A visit to Tokyo's most popular Buddhist temple Sensoji. A stroll down souvenir street Nakamise-doriwith over 100 years of history.

Return to the hotel.

ДDay 3. Tokyo-Kanazawa.

Breakfast at the hotel. Check-out from the hotel.

6:40 Meet your guide in the hotel lobby.

Transfer by individual transportation to the station where the shinkansen departs from.

7:20-9:51 Independent transfer to Kanazawa station by shinkansen train.

9:51 Meet your guide at the train carriage. Excursion around Kanazawa city.

Attendance Kenroquan GardensThe garden is the favorite garden of many generations of the Maeda Princes, the rulers of Kanazawa. Each ruler of the princely family has contributed to the splendor of this garden, which possesses all six qualities of landscape gardens: spaciousness, privacy, refinement, the presence of antiquities and artifacts, water bodies and waterfalls, and a magnificent panorama of the city and surrounding hills. Walking into the depths of Kenrokuen Garden,
You'll visit a luxurious Seison-kaku villaThe villa was lovingly built in the mid-19th century by a Maeda prince for his elderly mother, who had become a monk. With an interior meticulously crafted by the finest craftsmen of the time, the villa is a fine example of the sukiya-shonin architectural style. You will see the household items of a member of the princely family not in a museum, but in a building of the time - a rare opportunity in Japan, where many wooden buildings have simply not survived to this day.
A visit to a nearby garden of the Hakuza gold leaf museum, a master class on making chopsticks.

14:00-16:00 Transfer to Wajima by private transportation.

16:00 Attendance HEIDEE WINERY, tour and tasting.

17:15 Transfer to the ryokan.

17:30 Check-in at the ryokan in the hot springs room. Kaiseki dinner in the room.

"Kaiseki" are Japanese-style dishes made with local seasonal products. Therefore, "kaiseki" is never like another restaurant's dishes.

Day 4. Kanazawa-Osaka.

Breakfast at the hotel. Check-out from the hotel.

Transfer to Kanazawa Station.

9:54-12:32 Independent transfer by train to Shin-Osaka Station.

12:32 Meet your guide at the train carriage at Shin-Osaka station.

Transfer by private transportation to the restaurant.

13:00 Lunch and visit Suntory whiskey distilleryduring which you'll be given a tour, and also whiskey tasting.

Transfer to the hotel in Kyoto. Check-in at the hotel.

Free time.

Option! Dinner with a maiko apprentice geisha.accompanied by a jikata musician in an ancient Kyoto ryokan. During a traditional dinner at a Japanese ryokan, guests can enjoy a maiko performance and interact with her through a guide interpreter.

Day 5. Nara.

Breakfast at the hotel.

9:00 Meet your guide in the hotel lobby.

9:00-9:45 Transfer to Nara for the tour by private transportation.

Nara tour.

Before visiting the temple complexes for which Nara is known, you will take a stroll through the luxurious parkawhich is inhabited by about 1200 reindeer. It is believed that the first mythical emperor of Japan, Jimmu, descended from heaven and arrived in what is now Nara on a deer. The spotted beauties living in the park are considered descendants of that deer and are called sacred. Tourists can feed them from their hands while strolling through the park and admiring the local beauty.
The most famous temple complex is the following Todaiji (Great Eastern Monastery), which was built in the middle of the 8th century around a grand bronze statue of the Great Buddha, erected by order of Emperor Shomu. The statue is 15 m high and weighs up to 500 tons. It is believed that the casting of the Buddha statue and the construction of the monastery involved no less than 101,000 people of the whole country, and the imperial treasury as a result of this project was quite poor. Both the Great Buddha statue and the temple itself were repeatedly repaired, but each time the restorers managed to preserve their original majestic appearance.
Visit to a Shinto shrine Kasuga-Taisya, The shrine was built in the 8th century for the Fujiwara clan and occupies a special place in Nara architecture. Along with Todaiji Temple, the shrine is a UNESCO World Cultural Treasure.

13:00 Lunch and transfer to the sake brewery district in Kyoto.

Excursion to the Gakkeikan Sakehouse. and sake tasting
Temple visit Fushimi Inari-Taisya, which is located on the picturesque slopes of Mount Inari in Kyoto and is one of the main shrines and attractions of Japan. Inari-taisya is a very ancient structure and is considered the main among 40 thousand temples dedicated to the goddess of rice and fertility. Goddess Inari is one of the most revered goddesses in Japanese lands. Among her incarnations there is an avatar of a fox, because without foxes there will be a lot of rodents in the fields, and therefore there will be no harvest. In myths and legends, kitsune foxes are considered to be very cunning and wise creatures who can take the form of a human.

The temple was built much earlier than Kyoto itself, in 711, in the village of Fushimi. However, the shrine itself was moved here later, in 816, at the request of Master Kukai. At the end of the 15th century, the main structure was erected here.

Important! It takes about 2.5 hours to climb all the way to the top and descend.

17:30-18:00 Moving to the restaurant.

18:00 Dinner and return to the hotel.

Day 6. Arashiyama, Kyoto

Breakfast at the hotel.

10:00 Meet your guide in the hotel lobby.

Excursion by private transportation to Arashiyama.

Neighborhood Arashiyamawhose main attraction is not only bamboo forestbut also the Temple of the Heavenly Dragon. TenryujiThe temple was built in 1339. This temple was built in 1339. It was burned down and reborn from the ashes many times, and only the landscaped garden on its territory has survived to this day in its original form. The pearl of the garden is the "stone waterfall" - a composition of stones symbolizing a waterfall. You can get to the temple by walking along a 300-meter path leading through a bamboo grove.
This is also where the moon crossing bridge is located TogetsukyoIt offers stunning views of the slopes of Mount Arashiyama and the Hozu River.
Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) is a graceful structure that looks like it is admiring its reflection in the waters of a beautiful pond. From the late 14th century, the pavilion served as a vacation villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who retired and spent the last years of his life here as a recluse. Kinkakuji is a kind of Kyoto's calling card.
Shrine Ryoanji, located near the Golden Pavilion. Built in 1450 by followers of Zen Buddhism, it is literally imbued with Buddhist philosophy. Its quintessential Garden of Stones is a true wonder of the world. It is arranged on a small rectangular area covered with gravel and consists of 15 stones of different sizes, which can be visually combined into 5 groups. It is noteworthy that those who admire the beauty of this unique garden from the veranda of the temple can never see all the stones at once, no matter where the observer is. One can only wonder what the creator of the garden, the monk Soami, a recognized master of Zen meditation, wanted to express with this constructive feature of the garden.

17:30 Dinner and return to the hotel.