Travel from Tokyo to Osaka by train on a culinary tour of Japan. Local people will share the secret ingredients, cooking techniques and stories that make Japanese cuisine one of the most intriguing and inspiring in the world.
TokyoKanazawa UjiKyotoOsakaCooking classes with local expertsMarket toursVisit a green tea plantationStay one night in a Buddhist temple
Price
£3370£2907To£4130£4030excluding flights
Duration
11 Days
Type
Small group
CO2
376.44kg
Offers
Up to £590 off selected dates. Late availability on these dates: 06 Sep, 27 Sep, 04 Oct, 11 Oct, 18 Oct, 25 Oct, 01 Nov
Description of Japan group holiday, a food adventure
Take your taste buds on a Japan small group cuisine tour and you’ll quickly become initiated into the eclectic, artistic and wonderful world of Japanese cuisine. The bright lights of Kyoto shine over home-cooked delicacies. And, on an overnight stay within the temples on Koyasan, you can try vegetarian offerings served by Buddhist monks.
With group sizes no larger than 12, you’ll be able to be accommodated by the smallest of local, family-run restaurants – one of the pleasures of this holiday.
One of the best parts of this tour is exploring famous markets in the cities you visit. Microcosms for the food culture of each place, they are fantastic for all the senses. Tsukiji Outer Market, Tokyo, is known for the eye watering prices at its tuna action and its sushi breakfasts, whilst Omicho Market in Kanazawa spills over with seafood, and Nishiki Market gives out free samples to tempt in hungry Kyotoites.
And there’s plenty of opportunity to get your hands on the goods, too. This trip features two cooking classes – one in Kanazawa with freshly bought market ingredients, and one in Osaka, where you’ll learn to make okonomiyaki – grilled savoury pancakes.
There’s never a dull moment on this 11-day adventure so grab your chop sticks and your sharpest chef’s blade as you head from Tokyo to Osaka. This is a culinary masterclass, amongst some of Asia’s most authentic restaurants, kitchens and street side stalls.
Map
Price information
£3370£2907To£4130£4030excluding flights
Contact Us
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From bullet trains to bubbling hot springs, we show you why Japan is such an interesting and unique country to visit.
Holiday information
Small group food tour, ideal for solos & couples:
Our focus on these trips is exploring our destination through regional specialities, eating where the locals eat, learning to cook traditional dishes and refreshing your palate with the local tipple! Our usual grass roots style of travel is still very much in evidence and you'll still get to explore a region's highlights as well as more out of the way places under the guidance of your group leader, but there will be a lot of focus on the unique flavours of the region you are visiting.
Responsible Travel
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we've screened this (and every) holiday so that you can travel knowing we've worked to maximise the benefits of your holiday to local people and places, and minimise any negative impacts.
Planet
As a global tour operator, we are committed to operating every one of our trips in a way that respects and benefits local people, their culture and economy, while minimising our impact on the natural environment.
We travel between Tokyo and Hakone on a bullet train, which is clean and modern and has recycling facilities for paper, bottles and cans. Once there, we stay in a traditional Japanese ryokan where we truly experience the local culture. We sleep in the traditional style on a futon which is spread out on a tatami mat, dress in a yukata (traditional robe) and enjoy a traditional multi-course dinner, referred to as ‘kaiseki’. This is a highly regional and seasonal approach to dining and dishes will vary according to what is freshly available at a particular time of year.
Hakone forms part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, and is home to hot springs, mountains, bush walks, lakes, and breathtaking views of Mt Fuji.
As a tour company, our responsibilities don’t stop when our tours end. In 2002, we established a charitable foundation so that our passengers and staff could support grassroots community projects around the world. To date, it has donated over £2million to over 75 projects around the world which are involved with health care, education, human rights, child welfare, sustainable development, and environmental and wildlife protection. We match every donation made by passengers and pay the administration costs, so every penny that is donated goes to a good cause.
People
We travel in small groups and wherever possible we use local transport, stay in locally-owned accommodation or homestays, eat at authentic local restaurants, support traditional artisans and small-scale businesses, and provide opportunities for travellers to interact with local people.
The maximum group size on this food-focused trip through Tokyo is 12 passengers, so we can visit small-scale restaurants, bars and markets. There are lots of opportunities to eat fresh, local, seasonal food – for example, at Tsukiji Fish Market, the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, where you’ll eat the freshest sushi breakfast imaginable. We also visit a rice wholesaler, where we learn that many locals only eat rice that is sourced from their home region, and a sake brewery to sample the quintessential Japanese beverage direct from the producer.
As well as a Responsible Travel Code of Conduct which we adhere to as a company, we expect our staff and travellers to demonstrate the principles of responsible travel and provide a number of responsible travel tips to facilitate this, for example advice on what clothing is appropriate and respectful. In Japan, where dress standards are quite conservative, we recommend modest clothing which covers the shoulders and knees particularly when visiting temples, working monasteries, holy shrines, cooking schools and ancient gardens.
