Welcome to a 10 days Yoga Hiking Biking Japan Adventure

Meet at Granvia Hotel above the Kyoto Station at 3 pm in the lobby. Settle down with a Welcome Drink at 4 pm followed by a Kaiseki Dinner at 6pm.

After breakfast we will join a guided bike tour of Kyoto, learning about the Japanese history, religion and social life while visiting the Golden Pavillon, the Gion-Geisha District and the famous Red Gates of Fushimi-Inari. In the afternoon we will take the Sightseeing Limited Express Train, Aoniyoshi, to Nara and check into the Mikasa Ryokan, for a short yoga session, an outdoor hot bath and another delicious Kaiseki dinner, special to the Kyoto and Nara region of Japan, with 10-15 courses depending on the season.

This day we will start with a yoga session, then after breakfast join another guided Bike Tour around Nara to visit some old temples, learn about buddhism and shintoism and their influence in the Japanese culture. We will also have opportunities to feed the sacred deer, who will bow in gratitude for any treats they receive. After the bike-ride we will return to our Mikasa Ryokan up on the hill for more Yoga, hot spring baths, and a dinner together.

After yoga and breakfast some people will have an opportunity to join a more strenuous bike-ride up the mountain or stay at the Ryokan, relax with a book or explore Nara on your own. This evening everybody have the opportunity to find your own special dinner among 30-40 different restaurants nestled around down town Nara.

On this day we leave Nara after yoga and travel south for about 5 hours taking several trains, a gondola and a bus high up the mountains to Koyasan, which is a sacred Buddhist settlement founded 1200 years ago by one monk called Kukai. It is now a World Heritage Site with 117 temples and 700 monks, who live peacefully among giant cedar and hemlock trees surrounded by eight mountain peaks, Astanga, the 8 steps to enlightenment.

Several of the temples also offers Shukubo, a temple stay, for pilgrims and tourists, where the monks themselves prepare and serve vegetarian meals for their guests. In the evening we will visit the Okunoin Graveyard that has 200,000 statues, each representing a deceased monk or feudal lord waiting for enlightenment. The 2 km long trail of gravestones are lit up at night with 10,000 lanterns bringing a magical spirit to the history of past souls since 1200 years back in history.

At 6am we have the opportunity to join the monks for their early meditation practice, together with their chanting and quiet times of reflection. And at 5pm we are again invited to join their quiet meditation practice. The head monk will give us a simple guidance to meditation that we can take with us home for life. The monk will end each meditation with an inspirational speech and a delightful broken English.

During the day we will join a guided hike through the tall cedar groves, visit some of the temples and learn about the history of the Koyasan Shingon-Buddhist Sect. Before the afternoon meditation practice, the monks have given us a beautiful space for a short yoga session.

On this day we travel onwards to the Island of Shikoku and the Iya Valley, often called the Hidden Japan. After a 6 hour journey by multiple trains and a taxi ride we will reach our next hotel, Kazurabashi, sitting on a hillside with a genuine thermal hot spring nestled among brightly colored fall foliage, Koyo and Momiji. Here the hotel manager has offered us a nice space for yoga that we can use before we take the short tram ride up the mountain to enjoy the magical Onsen experience under an open sky.

This morning we will meet our guide Takashi in a nearby town with his ”Brompton Puttering Bike Tour”. We will explore the Iya Valley with some natural wonders and its old world charm while we bike along winding roads and quaint villages. One highlight is the Katzurabashi suspension bridge made of local vine, a nationally designated Cultural Property which reaches over a deep gorge. In the olden days the vine-bridge could quickly be cut down to stop hostile samurai’s from crossings the gorge and plundering the village. For lunch we will stop to savior the famous Iya Soba, a buckwheat noodle soup unique to this region of Japan. This bike-ride is quite strenuous with some steep hills and traffic. We will also have an option for some people to take a taxi tour to some of the special sights that the bike ride also covers. The day will end with a short session of yoga, more relaxing onsen and a lovely dinner using local mountain foods and flavors. As usual during this Japan adventure we will sleep on tatami mats, a futon and with a special Japanese pyjamas, Yukatas, which is provided to each guest and will make you sleep even more soundly.

After yoga a local guide will take us up to the top of Mt. Tsurugi, a 6000feet high mountain with wide open vistas and hills covered with brightly colored authumn foliage. It’s a 3 hour hike after a lift that will help us half way up the mountain. On the return to our hotel, we will visit a village farm house, where we will learn the art of making the local Iya Soba. We will experience the whole process from grinding the local buckwheat in stone mortals, kneading, rolling, and cutting the dough to the finished product. We will feast on what we have made in company with the family. In the late afternoon a taxi will take us higher up the mountain for a stay at Iya Onsen, an exclusive retreat place where we will take a tram down the mountain to an open air hot spring right next to a river. It’s an experience of a lifetime! Unfortunately no yoga at this retreat.

On our last day of our Yoga, Hiking, Biking, Japan Adventure we will return to Kyoto after taking a few trains including the fast, bullet-train, Shinkansen. Again check into Hotel Granvia for our Good-Bye Dinner with Shabu-shabu. Befgore the evening dinner we will go together to the famous 400 year old Nishiki Market, where you will find 5 blocks with hundreds of stores and restaurants. There you can wonder around on your own, have lunch, shop for souvenirs and fill yourself with a different experience of Japan midst thousands of friendly people, surrounded by vivid colors, smells and visual sensations. We will meet back at the hotel at 17:00 for a good-bye drink followed by our last dinner together at 18:00.

After breakfast we will return home or travel onwards. Maybe with a few souvenirs in our luggage and hearts filled with new experiences, insights, inspirations, and friendships enriching our lives forward with the spirit of Buddhism and Shintoism, with loving kindness, care, and respect. But also with a humble awareness that while we are all so tiny in this universe, we are in essence divine, including all of life….even the deer walking around in Nara!!

(P.S. Our itinerary is “flexible” and there might be some changes depending on weather and other unforeseeable circumstances).

$500 Non- Refundable Deposit will save your space Now!

$4425, Your Balance Due on August 14th

• The fee is for double occupancy for each guest
• Full refund available minus the deposit before August 14th, 2025After August 14th refunds only possible if your spot can be filled from a waiting-list

Space Limited to 12 people.

Sign Up Now as our Japan Adventure will fill up fast!

To book and for more information please contact ingelaabbott@aol.com.
Only two spots left!!