Nakasendo Way: The Kiso Valley from Kyoto

Shimanami Kaido is one of the most famous cycling routes in Japan, starting at Onomichi city in Hiroshima Prefecture and ending at the Imabari city in Ehime prefecture. The route takes you cycling through six islands, offering unparalleled views of the Seto inland sea. You have the opportunity to take a detour on one of the six islands, explore a little and stay overnight in a quaint and friendly local family-run accommodation. Traverse islands on roads and bridges built just for cycling. Relax at a historical seaside Onsen. Watch the sun descend behind the mountains in the distance. Experience the Shimanami Kaido, a bright blue path of bike lanes and bridges built across the islands of The Setouchi Sea. Explore the mountains of Ehime and the famous shrine in the water at Miyajima. Enjoy exquisite meals prepared just for you. We cannot wait for you to soak in the beauty of this often unexplored region.

On this tour, guests travel from Kushiro to Hokkaido’s eastern pacific coast to the Shiretoko Peninsula, stretching out into the Sea of Okhotsk. Throughout the tour, you will see untouched nature, visit UNESCO wetland nature reserves, experience the spectacular landscapes formed by volcanoes, and enjoy the flora and fauna, especially to Hokkaido. This tour features relaxing Onsen hot springs after each day’s walk and wonderful regional cuisine is known to be some of the freshest in Japan, along with the opportunity to learn the history of Hokkaido’s indigenous peoples, the Ainu. You are sure to be surprised by how much nature has to offer, each location taking you one step deeper into the true nature of eastern Hokkaido.

If you’ve already explored the bustling streets of Tokyo, wolfed down bowls of ramen in Osaka, and are still craving a wholly different experience of Japan, traverse to its northern island of Hokkaido. Here, you’ll be greeted with a taste of the country unlike you’ve known. The island boasts six breathtaking national parks filled with primeval forests, mountains and volcanoes, Onsens, a fascinating Ainu indigenous culture, swathes of wildlife and possibly the world’s clearest and most beautiful lakes. For those who love the cold, snowy Hokkaido boasts of an insatiable array of winter activities you can try, including skiing on the world’s best ski slopes in Furano and celebrating its famous winter festivals. But if summer travels are your thing, the island forms into a postcard-perfect landscape of the beautiful flower fields, with temperatures mild and pleasant enough for you to do plenty of sightseeing in.

Self-guided exploration of Eastern Hokkaido’s winter landscapes and wildlife Discover the pristine natural landscape of Hokkaido in this 7-day winter itinerary. Japan’s second-largest main island is a paradise for nature lovers and bird watchers, with snow-capped mountain ranges, serene forests and deep crater lakes. Starting in Kushiro on the east coast, you’ll travel north, heading into the winter wilderness of the Akan-Mashu National Park. Visit UNESCO World Heritage nature reserves, experience spectacular snow-covered landscapes and spot rare wildlife unique to Hokkaido before ending your adventure on the unique Shiretoko Peninsula.

Enjoy a day off in the ultimate tranquility of the countryside as you take a leisurely cycle along the shores of Lake Biwa, the largest in Japan. Using electric bikes that provide an effortless, refreshing ride, this course follows beautiful lakeside roads up to stunning scenes of step rice terraces. This is a slow-paced, off-the-beaten-path tour in the countryside, showing a different side of Japan. Visit local shrines and wander along village streets free of the tourist crowds. Have a delightful lunch in the traditional home of a local farming couple. Instructed by the lady of the house, indulge yourself in preparing a delicious lunch (a vegetarian menu is also available) using the freshest local ingredients. We hope you will join us on this tour and its feast of discoveries!

The winter Nakasendo trail tour is a fully-guided tour suitable for anyone who can walk at a gentle pace for three to four hours in comfort. In general, the route is greatly undulating but it also includes some short, steeper climbs. The lower temperatures of winter include the probability of snow at some points along the route. Time to include both the Western and the Chinese New Year holiday periods, this tour provides modern-day walkers with a comforting taste of Edo Period Japan in winter. We cross several high passes, where encountering snow is likely, but the emphasis is on comfort and each day we find warm welcomes and surroundings in Japanese inns. Here, we can relax on one occasion around an open hearth fire and enjoy the excellent meals of locally sourced produce. Thermal hot spring baths are another feature of the Nakasendo trail. Always a joy and a great way to wind down at the end of any day, these are particularly enticing during the winter months.

A short small-group guided walking tour with three hikes of 3-6 hours of village-to-village – on the Nakasendo Trail. The Kiso Road is one of the most beautiful sections of the Nakasendo Way, our original tour that has become the classic walking tour in Japan. This short-stay, fully- guided walking tour follows the ancient Nakasendo Way through the Kiso Valley of central Japan and also reaches the high alpine Kaida plateau. Our route takes us into a world far removed from the modern bustle of Japan’s Megacities. We travel through some of the most picturesque and historic villages in the nation, stay in rural family-run Japanese inns and relax in Onsen thermal hot spring baths. Meals are a treat of Japanese cuisine, and because we are deep in the rural mountains of Japan, the ingredients include many locally grown vegetables, morsels foraged in the surrounding mountains and freshwater fish caught in the nearby streams and rivers.

You are introducing Japan’s southernmost Island; Kyushu. This part of the country offers a diverse landscape and unrivaled natural beauty in the form of hot springs, volcanoes, forests, mountains, and beaches. On this tour, you will start with sightseeing in Kyoto and experience several authentic Ryokan and Hot springs, the beautiful scenery of Takachiho Gorge, Hells of Unzen, and Mt. Aso, the bustling cities of Fukuoka and Nagaski and cultural activities such as Kimono fitting, tea brewing, and a rickshaw ride.

A Japan small group tour spending twelve days discovering the cities, cultural and coastal highlights of this unique country. Any Japan cultural tour has to include metropolitan and historical greats such as Kyoto, but this holiday also steps off the tourist trail to visit the country’s lesser-known coastal treats such as Kojima and Yunotsu as well, reminding you that Japan is actually a collection of Islands with eclectic, exquisite landscapes, seascapes, and Eco Escapes. Using Japan’s famous railway system, including bullet trains, to travel from one place to the next, staying in traditional Ryokan and Minshuku inns and having plenty of opportunities to literally immerse yourselves in Japan’s cultural highlights, the Onsen or thermal spring baths, the itinerary reveals many layers of Japan’s history too.

On this tour, guests travel from Kushiro to Hokkaido’s eastern pacific coast to the Shiretoko Peninsula, stretching out into the Sea of Okhotsk. Throughout the tour, you will see untouched nature, visit UNESCO wetland nature reserves, experience the spectacular landscapes formed by volcanoes, and enjoy the flora and fauna, especially to Hokkaido. This tour features relaxing Onsen hot springs after each day’s walk and wonderful regional cuisine is known to be some of the freshest in Japan, along with the opportunity to learn the history of Hokkaido’s indigenous peoples, the Ainu. You are sure to be surprised by how much nature has to offer, each location taking you one step deeper into the true nature of eastern Hokkaido.

If you’ve already explored the bustling streets of Tokyo, wolfed down bowls of ramen in Osaka, and are still craving a wholly different experience of Japan, traverse to its northern island of Hokkaido. Here, you’ll be greeted with a taste of the country unlike you’ve known. The island boasts six breathtaking national parks filled with primeval forests, mountains and volcanoes, Onsens, a fascinating Ainu indigenous culture, swathes of wildlife and possibly the world’s clearest and most beautiful lakes. For those who love the cold, snowy Hokkaido boasts of an insatiable array of winter activities you can try, including skiing on the world’s best ski slopes in Furano and celebrating its famous winter festivals. But if summer travels are your thing, the island forms into a postcard-perfect landscape of the beautiful flower fields, with temperatures mild and pleasant enough for you to do plenty of sightseeing in.

Self-guided exploration of Eastern Hokkaido’s winter landscapes and wildlife Discover the pristine natural landscape of Hokkaido in this 7-day winter itinerary. Japan’s second-largest main island is a paradise for nature lovers and bird watchers, with snow-capped mountain ranges, serene forests and deep crater lakes. Starting in Kushiro on the east coast, you’ll travel north, heading into the winter wilderness of the Akan-Mashu National Park. Visit UNESCO World Heritage nature reserves, experience spectacular snow-covered landscapes and spot rare wildlife unique to Hokkaido before ending your adventure on the unique Shiretoko Peninsula.

Enjoy a day off in the ultimate tranquility of the countryside as you take a leisurely cycle along the shores of Lake Biwa, the largest in Japan. Using electric bikes that provide an effortless, refreshing ride, this course follows beautiful lakeside roads up to stunning scenes of step rice terraces. This is a slow-paced, off-the-beaten-path tour in the countryside, showing a different side of Japan. Visit local shrines and wander along village streets free of the tourist crowds. Have a delightful lunch in the traditional home of a local farming couple. Instructed by the lady of the house, indulge yourself in preparing a delicious lunch (a vegetarian menu is also available) using the freshest local ingredients. We hope you will join us on this tour and its feast of discoveries!

The winter Nakasendo trail tour is a fully-guided tour suitable for anyone who can walk at a gentle pace for three to four hours in comfort. In general, the route is greatly undulating but it also includes some short, steeper climbs. The lower temperatures of winter include the probability of snow at some points along the route. Time to include both the Western and the Chinese New Year holiday periods, this tour provides modern-day walkers with a comforting taste of Edo Period Japan in winter. We cross several high passes, where encountering snow is likely, but the emphasis is on comfort and each day we find warm welcomes and surroundings in Japanese inns. Here, we can relax on one occasion around an open hearth fire and enjoy the excellent meals of locally sourced produce. Thermal hot spring baths are another feature of the Nakasendo trail. Always a joy and a great way to wind down at the end of any day, these are particularly enticing during the winter months.

A short small-group guided walking tour with three hikes of 3-6 hours of village-to-village – on the Nakasendo Trail. The Kiso Road is one of the most beautiful sections of the Nakasendo Way, our original tour that has become the classic walking tour in Japan. This short-stay, fully- guided walking tour follows the ancient Nakasendo Way through the Kiso Valley of central Japan and also reaches the high alpine Kaida plateau. Our route takes us into a world far removed from the modern bustle of Japan’s Megacities. We travel through some of the most picturesque and historic villages in the nation, stay in rural family-run Japanese inns and relax in Onsen thermal hot spring baths. Meals are a treat of Japanese cuisine, and because we are deep in the rural mountains of Japan, the ingredients include many locally grown vegetables, morsels foraged in the surrounding mountains and freshwater fish caught in the nearby streams and rivers.

You are introducing Japan’s southernmost Island; Kyushu. This part of the country offers a diverse landscape and unrivaled natural beauty in the form of hot springs, volcanoes, forests, mountains, and beaches. On this tour, you will start with sightseeing in Kyoto and experience several authentic Ryokan and Hot springs, the beautiful scenery of Takachiho Gorge, Hells of Unzen, and Mt. Aso, the bustling cities of Fukuoka and Nagaski and cultural activities such as Kimono fitting, tea brewing, and a rickshaw ride.

A Japan small group tour spending twelve days discovering the cities, cultural and coastal highlights of this unique country. Any Japan cultural tour has to include metropolitan and historical greats such as Kyoto, but this holiday also steps off the tourist trail to visit the country’s lesser-known coastal treats such as Kojima and Yunotsu as well, reminding you that Japan is actually a collection of Islands with eclectic, exquisite landscapes, seascapes, and Eco Escapes. Using Japan’s famous railway system, including bullet trains, to travel from one place to the next, staying in traditional Ryokan and Minshuku inns and having plenty of opportunities to literally immerse yourselves in Japan’s cultural highlights, the Onsen or thermal spring baths, the itinerary reveals many layers of Japan’s history too.