In the Footsteps of Basho

A Cultural Odyssey through Northern Japan

Daily details in brief

Days 1-2 Tokyo / Nikko Arrive in Tokyo and travel by train to Nikko, where you discover the power of the shoguns in living color. You spend the afternoon among these flamboyantly painted shrines and temples. Days 3-4 Uru Bandai / Aizu-Wakamatsu You take the train north to Aizu-Wakamatsu, and begin to learn the legends of the samurai as you visit local samurai houses, as Basho did. The town is known for its crafts, including lovely pottery and lacquerware, and its sake, brewed with water from an abundance of local mountain springs. You walk through beautiful Uru Bandai National Park, a setting of lakes, marshes, and forests of beech, and hike the Gishikinuma (“five colors”) nature trail. Days 5-7 Sendai / Matsushima / Hiraizumi Onward to the city of Sendai today via the speedy “bullet train,” where you head straight to scenic Matsushima Bay to tour by boat and on a coastal walk. Another train journey takes you to the quiet village of Hiraizumi, once the capital of the Fujiwara clan, of whose history Basho reflected, “The glory of three generations passes as though in a dream.” Days 8-13 Yamagata / Dewa Sanzen You delve deep into the heart of Tohoku, as northern Honshu is often called, traveling through a rich landscape of terraced rice paddies, thatched farmhouses, and rushing mountain streams. On Dewa Sanzen, an extinct volcano that is also one of Japan’s most sacred mountains, you walk up an ancient stone staircase through a cedar forest to discover remote shrines that have been places of worship for a thousand years. At the castle town of Tsuruoka, you tour the “dragon pond” temple, then beachcomb along the magnificent coastline of the Sea of Japan. A train brings you to Niigata and you depart via Tokyo on Day 13.

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Orient-Go; Journeys with special faces & places