Hidden Wonders of North Japan: 14 days Tokyo to Sapporo

Welcome to Tokyo, Japan's capital and the world's most populous metropolis. Check-into your hotel, your Special Stay for the next two nights. With direct access to four subway lines, the hotel was recently rated in the Forbes Travel Guide as Tokyo’s exclusive Japanese decor 5-star luxury hotel. Rooms overlook the most picturesque sites in Tokyo, such as the Imperial Palace, the 500-year-old Hie Jinja Shrine and beautiful landscaped Japanese gardens. This evening meet for your welcome reception and dinner.

Gather your bearings of Tokyo from above as you take in the view from Tokyo Sky Tree, the world's tallest tower at 634 meters.

Scenic Enrich
Given by Taiko Masters, partake in an interactive, private group demonstration and lesson in playing the Taiko drums.

Scenic Freechoice Dining:
This evening, choose from one of these Scenic Freechoice Dining options.

Ninja Restaurant: This popular but unusual restaurant has an underlying ninja theme to create a memorable dining experience.

Nobu Tokyo: Part of the famous international chain of Japanese restaurants by Nobu Matsuhisa, this casual but chic restaurant is known for its fusion cuisine blending traditional Japanese dishes with Peruvian ingredients.

Izakaya Nightlife: Sample a Yaki-tori and Kushiyaki dinner over some drinks at small local bars. This is a chance to mingle and dine in a traditional Japanese way.

Begin the day with your first Shinkansen journey to Koriyama where we then drive to the preserved Edo postal town of Ouchijiku. Try the local delicacy of Soba Noodles for lunch and explore the restored buildings. Learn all about the brewing of Saki at the Suehiro Brewery before moving to your hotel for the night, where you can relax in your own open-air bath overlooking the magnificent Aga River.

Visit a local home to paint your own Akabeko ‘red cow’, a traditional Japanese toy of a legendary cow from the Aizu region. Afterwards step back in time when visiting the rebuilt Aizu Bukeyashiki Samuari Mansion, originally destroyed in the Boshin War in 1868. Enjoy a scenic drive to Sendai where you can enjoy a local Sendai beef sirloin lunch on arrival.

Scenic Freechoice:
Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore: Learn all about the history of the Date Clan in the Edo period including viewing the Date Masamune’s armour, weaponry and works of art encompassing 400 years of Sendai history.

Kirin Brewery: A historical brewery that has been making beer in Sendai since 1923. Discover the special production methods and the secret taste of Kirin Beer during the KIRIN ICHIBAN brewery tour. Taste the malt, touch the hops and smell its aroma. End the tour with a toast. Kampai!

Later check in to your hotel for a two-night stay.

Scenic Freechoice Dining:
Local Izakaya: Venture out with your Tour Director for a night of eating and drinking like a Sendai local down the atmospheric back-alleys of Bunka-yokocho and Iroha-yokocho!

Japanese BBQ at Taizan: Try Japanese BBQ at Taizan– Yakiniku. Taizan is a jewel of a restaurant situated in the heart of Sendai City: great food, lovely setting, and a welcoming and traditional Japanese atmosphere. ‘Yakiniku’ simply refers to grilled barbecue meat.

Today take a short drive to Matsushima Bay, for centuries celebrated as one of Japan’s three most scenic views. On arrival test your creative and imagination skills and paint your own as wooden Kokeshi doll, an item originally created and sold at hot spring resorts in northern Japan. Visit the Zuiganji Temple, one of Tohoku’s most famous Zen temples, originally dating back to 828. Continue next door to the Entsuin Temple, built in 1647 as a mausoleum Date Terumune’s son. Following a quick lunch of local street food, board your boat for a cruise around the 200 small islands covered by pine trees in Matsushima Bay. Before returning to Sendai, enjoy a Japanese tea and traditional snack at the Kanrantai Tea House whilst overlooking the bay.

Today you will visit a Disaster Recovery Memorial Museum for the devasting 2011 tsunami. Continue on to the scenic Genbikei Gorge before arriving at Chusonji Temple, established in 850. Located within one of the original buildings is Konjikido, a hall completely covered in gold dating back to 1124. Tonight, enjoy a Special Stay and indulge yourself in the full Japanese onsen resort experience.

Scenic Enrich
As part of your Onsen stay, enjoy a private performance of Shishi-odori whilst enjoying your traditional Kaiseki dinner dressed in your provided onsen Yukata.

Bedding Choice - For tonight’s stay default bedding is Western style, however if you would prefer Japanese style bedding this can be requested by contacting our Reservations Department. Subject to availability.

Drive to Towada City (via the Iwate Prefecture Hachimantai Snow Corridor drive in April), with a short leg stretch and walk around the rustic hot springs and the volcanic landscapes of the Towada - Hachimantai National Park. After lunch, enjoy the picturesque drive toward Lake Towada and your two-night Special Stay. The hotel is located on the Oirase Keiryu mountain stream, one of the most scenic locations in Japan.

Stretch your legs on a pristine but short walk along Oirase stream via the Deai-bashi Bridge.

Scenic Freechoice:
This morning, explore the city on one of these Scenic Freechoice excursions.

Oirase Lamp Workshop: Transform Oirase’s natural beauty into a working lamp to bring home. At the Oirase Stream Museum use your creative skills and imagination to create your own Moss ball Gour Lamp, a craft specialty of the region. Using a moss gour grown in the waters of the Oirase River as the lampshade, use your own design to hand create the lamp’s light pattern.

Oirase Walking Trail: For the more active, explore the beauty of Oirase Stream and Gorge up close by venturing along one of the many hikers trails in the area with your Tour Director. You’ll see why the stream and the gorge have inspired painters and poets for centuries.

After lunch visit the Towada Art Centre, featuring works from artists both inside and outside of Japan, including Yoko Ono, Yoshitomo Nara, and Jeong-Hwa Choi.

Visit one of the most beautiful locations in Japan for sakura viewing (April), Hirosaki Castle and it’s botanical gardens. Known for its five original turreted gates and fortified moats, this castle ranks as one of the country’s most beautiful feudal era castles. Continue onto Aomori, the capital of Aomori prefecture. Here view amazing giant papier-mâché doll floats used in the Aomori Nebuta Festival at Rassera Land, located along the waterfront. Enjoy an overnight stay at your hotel.

Travel back in time to learn about the original inhabitants of the area at the Jomon Museum and Sannai-Maruyama Archaeological Site. With the site dating back to the late early to middle Jomon period, some 5500-4000 years ago, it shows the Jomon were the first people in the world to create pottery. Return to Aomori and travel by Shinkansen through the undersea Seikan Tunnel to Hakodate on Hokkaido Island. Upon arrival in Hakodate, walk through the Motomachi Neighbourhood, an area full of historical buildings, before checking into your hotel for a two-night stay.

Choose to begin the day with an optional early morning visit to the Fish Market and try to catch some fresh squid for breakfast. Later visit the 107m tall Goryoki Tower to get a bird’s eye view of Mt. Hakodate, Tsugaru Strait and the Yokotsu mountain range. Afterwards walk through the Goryoki Park located inside the old star-shaped fort adjoining the tower, visiting the old Hakodate Magistrate office within. Spend the afternoon at leisure shopping around the historic Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses before meeting again to travel up the Mt Hakodate Ropeway at dusk to see that amazing view over the city. On clear days and nights, in particular, the views from the mountain are spectacular and included among Japan's three best night views. Enjoy dinner tonight in one of Hakodate’s beer halls.

Travel by Super Hokuto Limited Express train to Sapporo. Here visit the Historic Village of Hokkaido, an open air museum which exhibits roughly 60 typical buildings from all over Hokkaido, dating from the Meiji and Taisho Periods (1868 to 1926). After checking into your hotel, your home for the next two nights, move to Ramen Yokocho in Susukino, a narrow lane lined with shops serving Sapporo's famous ramen.

After breakfast travel to Otaru.

Scenic Enrich
Enjoy leaning how to create and cook Japanese traditional sweets known as wagashi. Most wagashi are made from ingredients including rice flour, sweet azuki bean paste (anko), Japanese agar (kanten), sesame paste and chestnuts.

Spend free time in the historic Otaru Canal area’s museums, shops and restaurants before returning to Sapporo. Upon arrival, transfer to your chosen activity.

Scenic Freechoice:
Shiroi Koibito Park: Indulge your sweet tooth at Shiroi Koibito Park, a theme park by Ishiya, a local chocolate company. Visit the Chocolate factory, shop and museum where you can try making one of Sapporo’s famous souvenirs, the Shiroi Koibito cookie, which consists of two thin butter cookies and a layer of white chocolate in between.

Sapporo Olympic Museum: Venture to some of the sites of the 1972 Winter Olympics, including taking a ski lift to the Okurayama Observatory which was the ski jump at the games and wander through the museum highlighting Sapporo's Olympic connection, athletes and history.

This evening enjoy your farewell meal with your fellow travellers at Garden Grill in Sapporo Beer Garden.

Bid a fond farewell to the ‘land of the rising sun’.

The itinerary is a guide only and may be amended for operational reasons. As such Scenic cannot guarantee the journey will operate unaltered from the itinerary stated above. Please refer to our terms and conditions for further information. Hotels are indicative and subject to change.