Visiting two distinctive castle towns make you more familiar with the soul of Japan. One is Inuyama where visitors can see and touch two national treasures, Inuyama Castle and tea-house Joan. The other one is Gifu where a modernized castle stands on the mountain and a golden Great Buddha-statue make visitors sigh in admiration.
At JR Gifu station , At Meitetsu Inuyama Yuen station or At Nagoya station
Inuyama Castle which is said to be the oldest castle in Japan. You can touch and feel the authentic wooden Japanese castle, climbing steep and narrow steps toward the upper floor. On each floor, you will see some antiques, maps and documents to learn stories about the castle. From the top, you will have a panoramic view while strolling along the outside balcony.
A national treasure 'Ttea-house Joan’ is located in a beautiful Japanese garden near the castle, You find a simple aesthetic value based on Zen Buddhism in it. You can also drink matcha-tea in an adjacent tea-house in the same garden. Once, matcha-tea tasting gave samurai a moment of relief between battles. You might feeling there.
After lunch, you move to Gifu city and go up to Gifu Castle standing on Mt Kinka (329m) by ropeway, where you have a nice view and enjoy seeing many antiques, pictures and documents. You can also enjoy feeding squirrels near the ropeway terminal if you want.
In Shoboji temple, you see a golden Great Buddha statue which is one of the three most famous Buddha-statues in Japan.
In the Nagaragawa Ukai Museum, you learn everything about cormorant fishing. You can also visit one of the fishing master's cafe 'U-no-Iori U' where you can see and come close to cormorants while drinking coffee.
Strolling around the old wooden building street, you enjoy dropping in unique souvenir shops, cafe and fancy restaurants.
At JR Gifu station
guide fee
transportation fee for you and guide, It totally costs about 3000yen/person)
entrance fee for you, It totally costs about 2200yen/person)
lunch fee for you and guide
I can guide in Kyoto in case you support transportation fee.
Tetsuji is a patient, knowledgeable guide who managed to fit all the highlights of two towns into a relaxed-feeling day. He introduced us to many under the surface aspects of local culture that we would have overall missed. And he made us feel comfortable traveling with children with constant food and bathroom needs. A five-star guide and great person!
Thank you for excellent praise for my tour. I am very happy to hear that you are satisfied with my guiding. I hope you could come back to Japan again and enjoy traveling around my area with me. I believe you still have a lot of places to visit and know the details. Please give my best regards to your family members.
We had a wonderful day with Tetsui who guided us through Shirakawa-go, the site of traditional gassho-zukuri houses. Tetsui was a terrific guide, providing a wealth of information on the traditional houses, but also any number of other topics related to Japanese culture along the way. He made helpful suggestions and adjustments to respond to our interests. Tetsui also handled the logistics extremely well, taking away any worry about our day. He even made bus reservations for us in advance to help us with a somewhat complicated day for us, as we were not familiar with the reservation process. We traveled with him from Takayama to Shirakawa, then we continued on to Kanazawa while he returned to Takayama. I thoroughly enjoyed his company and highly recommend Tetsui as a guide for a tour in Japan!
Thank you so much for your high praise. I am very happy to hear that you are satisfied with my job. I hope next opportunity could bring you back to Japan and give me a chance to help you traveling again. Please give my best regards to James.
We spent a really wondeful time with Tetsuji during this one-day hiking tour. He picked us in the lobby of the hotel and guided us very efficiently all day long (peace of mind for the whole family). He gave us all sorts of explanations during the hike and answered all of our questions (and we had a lot) about the place but also japanese culture and traditions. Having with us someone this knowledgeable, kind and professional made this day very special and one of the best moment (if not the best) of our stay in Japan. We can only recommend you contact him if you want to discover the Nagoya region !
I am very honored to have joined your family-reunion-journey in Japan. A friendly atmosphere of all a member of your family made me relaxed and enjoyed hiking while guiding. I hope you could visit Japan and spend happy times with me again.
Tetsuji was punctual, friendly and knowledgeable with a great command of English. He picked us up from the lobby of our hotel and took care of us until our train back to Nagoya. He made good preparations for our tour, having gone to recce the area prior as well as having found out which places might be closed. Although not everything went as planned, he was quick to find alternatives and make arrangements. Our only regret was not having a longer tour with him!
Thank you for so much praise to me. Now, I have a dream that I could have a chance to see your ceramic masterpieces in Singapore someday. Please give my best regards to your friends.