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 is Gifu,where a modernized castle on the mountain and a hidden golden Great Buddha-statue make visitors sigh in admiration. This tour will satisfy your curiosity you might have about Japan.
At JR Gifu station , At Meitetsu Inuyama Yuen station or At Nagoya station
Inuyama Castle
tea-house 'Joan' with tea tasting
Gifu Castle
Great Buddha statue (Shoboji)
Kawara-machi strolling
Nagaragawa Ukai Musium
At JR Gifu station
You will enjoy one-day excursion visiting both a castle town ‘Inuyama’ in Aichi and a local capital city 'Gifu'.
First you will visit a National Treasure 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.
Secondly you will visit another National Treasure, tea-house ‘Joan’ in Inuyama. It is located in a beautiful Japanese garden near the castle, You will 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 feel it,too.
After lunch, you will move to Gifu city and go up to Gifu Castle standing on Mt Kinka (329m high) by ropeway, where you will have a nice view again and enjoy seeing many antiques,pictures and documents.You can also enjoy feeding squirrels near the ropeway terminal.
Next, you will visit an old temple 'Shoboji' which accommodates a golden Great Buddha statue which is one of the three most famous Buddha-statues in Japan.
Then you will stroll around the street,'Kawara-machi',with many old wooden buildings where you will find some unique souvenir shops,cafes and fancy restaurants.
Finally, you will visit 'Ukaiya' area that is the home town of cormorants 'U' which are birds used for traditional fishing event on the Nagara River. Visiting Nagaragawa Ukai Museum, you can learn everything about cormorant fishing. You can also visit one of the fishing master cafe 'U-no-Iori U' where you can see and come close to cormorants while drinking coffee.
*an attached video is the view from the ropeway connecting Gifu Castle and Gifu Park
guide fee
transportation fee (you and guide,It totally costs about 3000yen/person)
entrance fee (you and guide,It totally costs about 2200yen/person)
lunch (you and guide)
I can guide in Kyoto in case you support transportation fee.
1) The tour is not possible during extremely bad weather, such as typhoons and snowstorms.
2) The destination is flexible. It will be customized according to your interests, preference and physical conditions.
3) Food preference information is important. I would like to know your likes and dislikes in advance.
4) Hotel pick-up is possible depending on the location.
Tetsuji was a great guide. Was very kind, patient and flexible with us. He was constantly communicating with me from the day I booked the tour until the last moment. He proactively reached out to me and provided regular updates on the weather, how we needed to be prepared, our dietary requirements, making restaurant bookings, etc. He was also kind enough to recommend how we should spend the rest of our time in Takayama when we were planning to explore without a guide.
Thank you for high evaluation of my job. I was able to enjoy myself guiding Takayama with your help. I feel also happy to have learned a little bit about Sri Lankan culture. I hope you will visit Japan and share some other journey with me again in the future. Please give my best regard to all your family members and your friends.
Away from the tourist shops and restaurants, Tetsuji showed us parts of Takayama we never would have found. I'll admit we did little very little research and just wanted someone to show us Takayama and its history. In the afternoon we went to the Hida Folk Village. Tetsuji did recommend going to Shirakawago, but we did not want to spend too much time traveling. We appreciate his professionalism and giving us a very good tour.
I also appreciate your last comment for my 'professionalism' which stimulates my motivation for better guiding. I hope to accept the next guide-request from you.
Tetsuji is a knowledgeable and gentle man. He organised bus reservations form Kanazawa for us and provided a detailed itinerary. We had a wonderful day and learnt so much about Japanese culture. We highly recommend Tetsuji as a private guide . Our family couldn’t be happier. Thank you so much Tetsuji. It was a pleasure to meet you. Debbie, Chris, Jessie and Matt
I am really glad that you seem to be satisfied with my tour against having a little shower and feel honored to help you enjoying journey with your family members. I actually had a happy time with you all day. I hope you will visit central Japan and share some time with me again. Please give my best regards to others.
I hired Tetsuji for our Nakasendo trip, specifically at the post town of Magome, Tsumago and Narai. At the beginning of the trip, he explained to us the history of Nakasendo using maps that he printed out in advance. He helped to interpret when the local staff at the museum could only explain in Japanese. He also warned me a few days in advance of the impending heavy rain at Magome so that I could modify my itinerary in advance and avoid the rain when we hike between Magome and Tsumago. This advice was really helpful because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the hike in bad weather.
Thank you for a nice review for my job. It was the first time for me to help clients enjoy traveling for three days in a row. I appreciate that you gave me a good chance to perform a variety of roles that satisfied participants. I learned a lot from this tour which was a really good lesson for me. I will make more efforts to improve guiding skills. I look forward to helping again you.