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Option A - Tour Dates for tour commencing November 9th 2007
Study Component Schedule
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Study Length
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Arrival*
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Commence
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Holidays**
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End Studies
|
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10 weeks
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AUG/28-29
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AUG/30
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SEP/21, OCT/05, OCT/19, NOV/03
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NOV/08
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8 weeks
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SEP/11-12
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SEP/13
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SEP/21, OCT/05, OCT/19, NOV/03
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NOV/08
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6 weeks
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SEP/25-26
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SEP/27
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OCT/05, OCT/19, NOV/03
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NOV/08
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4 weeks
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OCT/09-10
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OCT/11
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OCT/19, NOV/03
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NOV/08
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2 weeks
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OCT/23-24
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OCT/25
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NOV/03
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NOV/08
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*Arrival - there is a Nagoya airport pickup on the days indicated.
**Public/Institute holidays affecting classes are listed here in full.
Proposed Schedule (this may change, please refer to notes below)
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Day
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Date
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Destination(s) - Click for info
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Depart+
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Return+
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Lunch+
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1
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NOV/09
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Today we head into Nagoya experiencing the morning rush hour.
The plan today is experience trains, including the shinkansen, a crowded commuter train, and
the chikatetsu. You will have the opportunity to learn how to use the machines to buy tickets
(with the exception of the shinkansen), including fare adjustment, read timetables, and get some
close up photos of a Nozomi or two.
Our first stop is the JR Towers (unless it is raining) before we head to
the superb
Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology.
This wonderful museum showcases the textile industry inventions of Japan's rapid industrial
revolution, particularly those made by the "king of inventors" Toyoda Sakichi and his nephew Toyoda Kiichiro - the founder
of Toyota Motor Corporation. From here we head to
another factory, the always enjoyable Asahi Beer,
with free beer tasting. Our last stop is historic Toganji
Temple. This 16th century temple is a quiet and peaceful place and is home to the largest sitting Buddha in Nagoya.
It has a beautiful garden, unusual (for the 16th century) Indian architecture, and a very bizarre but photogenic pet
cemetery.
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0800
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1830
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Yes
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2
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NOV/10
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Kobe: We begin an overnight trip to the Kansai region.
Our first stop today is in
Shiga Prefecture where our destination is
Taga Taisha. This important Taisha enshrines the
parent gods of Amaterasu. Apart from gods, its also a nice walk, breaking the journey before we head through
Kyoto to our next destination of
Kobe.
In Kobe, we visit the old foreign settlement of
Kitano with
it's winding streets & historic buildings such as the old
Chinese consulate and the US Consul's
Moeginoyakata. We will have dinner and
enjoy a night out in
Nankin-machi, before heading to our final destination,
Himeji. At this time of year the magnificent Himeji castle
is floodlit. We will have a look around, and then those who are still genki will find a nice cosy bar.
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0700
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N/A
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No
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3
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NOV/11
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Himeji/Nara In the morning we will visit the massive and world heritage listed
Himeji Castle. This is the
most extensively preserved castle in Japan, never damaged by war (including WWII) and one of only four castles in Japan
that are designated as national treasures. Rebuilt from 1600 by Ikeda
Terumasa, many famous figures including Senhime and
Miyamoto Musashi, the master of two-sword fencing are closely associated with Himeji Castle. From here we will head to the
vast hilltop monastery complex of Shoshazan. This is
one of the most important pilgramage sites in western Japan, extensively preserved, and yet rarely crowded - you may have
seen some parts of it before since it was where many of the temple scenes of the movie "The Last Samurai" were filmed. Our
final destination today is the city of Nara, the first
permanent capital of Japan (710-794). In Nara we will (assuming traffic is kind) visit
Todaiji, home of Nara's famous great Buddha, the
Nara Park area with
the sacred deer and Kofukuji.
|
N/A
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2130
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No
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|
4
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NOV/12
|
Our theme today is "monozukuri" - the art of making things. We begin with a visit to
Okutono Jinya, an
old samurai barracks of the famous Matsudaira clan with a beautiful Japanese garden, before heading to one of the key reasons for Japan's
emergence as a modern economy. At Toyota Motor we walk through their superb
Kaikan, learning about the processes involved
before heading to a Toyota Motor Factory for
a birdseye view. On our return journey we visit historic
Hatcho Miso - one of the oldest and most
successful Japanese businesses in existence today.
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0800
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1830
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Yes
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|
5
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NOV/13
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We head to Magome and
Tsumago. Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku were post towns
on the old Nakasendo highway linking Edo (the capital of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, now called
Tokyo) and the imperial capital of
Kyoto.
Magome was the home of the famous Japanese novelist
Shimazaki Toson (1872-1943) and we will visit a small
museum there as well as enjoy the village. The main attraction for us though is the chance to hike (downhill) part of the
original Nakasendo on our way to fascinating
Tsumago. This old town was bypassed when the railroad
was built in the Meiji Period and as a result is almost perfectly
preserved, with no overhead electric cables etc blighting the landscape. We will be able to enter the
Honjin and a superb
museum. The small village is also a perfect place to pick up some souvenirs.
|
0745
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1930
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Yes
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+Departure from/Return to Okazaki times given using 24 hour clock (ie 0800 = 8am, 1830 = 6.30pm)
+Lunch - No/No indicates whether lunch is included or not.
Return = N/A means an overnight stay, usually in a ryokan or minshuku, where evening meal/breakfast is always included.
Departure point is either your student accommodation, or in the case of students doing Homestays or living off campus, from
Aoi Hall.
Discounts: As this is an off-season tour (the usual number of participants is 5 or less), it is possible to obtain
a discount of 5000 yen off the total program fee if payment is completed more than ten weeks before program commencement. This
discount is refunded to participants after they arrive at Yamasa.
Notes:
In the week before a tour commences, an informal briefing will be held for the participants, usually on the Monday preceding the
tour start date. If the number of students
participating is 6 students or less (which is usually the case in the off season), then the actual destinations, or the
order in which they are visited, can often be altered to reflect the specific interests of the group members.
Please also note that the schedule may need to be changed in the event of inclement weather/typhoons etc,
or the unforeseen closure of any given destination. Appropriate alternative destinations are chosen only after
consultation with you.
To help ensure that students can budget for expenses accurately, Institute staff will either purchase food (usually
bento and drinks) for you to eat or find a reasonably priced restaurant (maximum cost 1000 yen - with Yamasa paying for the
remainder of your food bill) if due to traffic/weather conditions we are delayed by more than one hour on the days we
return to Okazaki accommodation.
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C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S
