Most flights arrive into Tokyo Narita (NRT) Airport between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. 

Individual transfers with car and driver to our hotel, The Palace Hotel, Tokyo. 

Time to check-in and unpack at the 5-star Palace Hotel in the heart of Ginza, right next to the Imperial Palace a lively international district known as a stimulating center for business, culture and fashion.
The travel time is approximtately 80 minutes.

Tokyo

Tokyo is located on the eastern side of the main island of Honshū and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. The Greater Tokyo Area is the world's most populous metropolitan area with about 39 million people.   Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government, the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. In 2012 Tokyo was named the most expensive city for expatriates as well as the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis.  The Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world.

Private welcome drinks with an overview of the upcoming week followed by dinner at Sankame, located close by in Ginza.  Awarded a Michelin star for its Kansai style cuisine with an omakase menu that changes day to day. Total seating only 32 people. 

Overnight: The Palace Hotel Tokyo

Breakfast in The Grand Kitchen Restaurant of our hotel.

Following the visit we transfer late morning out to the workshop and studio of Takashi Murakami.

Gourmet Bento Box lunch at the appropriate time on the bus. 

On the outskirts of Tokyo sits the atelier/factory of Murakami where we will visit the artist and his collaborators in the KaiKai Kiki Studio.   This famous artist will show us through his process. 

KaiKai Kiki Studio and Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami is a curator, entrepreneur, and a student of contemporary Japanese society.  As an artist, Murakami questions the lines drawn between East and West, past and present, high art and popular culture. 

Arrive back into Tokyo late afternoon for some free time to shop or relax. 

6:30 p.m.  Private visit and cocktail reception in the Mori Art Museum with Director Fumio Nanjo and Sr Curator Mami Kataoka.

The Mori Art Museum occupies the top five floors of the 54-story Mori Tower, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, in the new Tokyo district of Roppongi Hills. 

Dinner at the 3-Michelin-starred Ryugi.   Ranked #28 in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants. 

Ryugin had been awarded 2 Michelin stars for 5 years in a row and finally acquired its third Michelin star in 2013. 

Overnight: The Palace Hotel Tokyo. 

Breakfast in The Grand Kitchen Restaurant of our hotel.

10:00 a.m.  Curator-led visit of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s permanent collection and current exhibitions.

12:15 p.m.  Lunch at the CONTENT Restaurant at the MOT. 

1:45 pm.  Visit to the Koyanagi Gallery.  Exhibtion TBA. 

3:30 pm.  Curator-led visit of The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. 

The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art is one of the oldest museums of contemporary art in Japan and is located in the Shinagawa area of Tokyo.  

Return late afternoon to our hotel for some time to shop or relax. 

8:00 p.m. Dinner this evening at Bird Land in nearby Ginza, a Michelin-starred yakitori restaurant with excellent Japanese beers to match the food. 

Overnight: The Palace Hotel Tokyo. 

Breakfast in The Grand Kitchen Restaurant of our hotel.  

9:30 a.m.  A cultural, historical and philosophical visit to the famous Meiji Shrine for an introduction to Japan’s Shinto religion. 

Meiji Shrine, located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.  The shrine is located in a 175 acre evergreen forest and holds 120,000 trees of 365 different species, each one donated by people from all over Japan when the shrine was established.

11:00 a.m.  Curator-led visit of The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. 

The Watari Museum (aka the Watari-um) is an impressive and unusual sight – an elegant wedge of concrete designed by Mario Botta in 1990. The museum has showcased a wide variety of work, from pioneering street photography by Katsumi Watanabe to the offbeat videos, drawings and photographs of Tam Ochiai.

1:00 p.m.  Delicious soba noodles and tempura lunch at Aoyama Kawakami An.

2:15 p.m. After lunch a walking visit of Omotesando, one of the world’s foremost architectural showcase streets. 

Omotesandō is an avenue in the Minato and Shibuya wards known as one of the foremost 'architectural showcase' streets in the world, featuring a multitude of fashion flagship stores within a short distance of each other.

The shopping is the best in the world here and at the end of the walk, there will be the option to stay on and shop or return to our hotel. 

Dinner at leisure this evening with many suggestions.  There are some excellent restaurants in our hotel but they are very small and so good for 2 - 4 people but not more. 

Overnight: The Palace Hotel Tokyo. 

Breakfast in The Grand Kitchen Restaurant of our hotel.  

8:50 a.m.  departure on our First Class Bullet Train Nozomi Shinkansen to Kyoto.  Total time of the journey 2 hour 21 minutes at speeds up to 190 mph.    Arrival 11:11 a.m.  Never late. 

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Kyoto is one of the few Japanese cities that still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya.   With its 2000 religious places - 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, as well as palaces and gardens - it is one of the best preserved cities in Japan.  Traditional Japanese crafts are also major industry of Kyoto, most of which are run by artisans in small plants. Kyoto's kimono weavers are particularly renowned, and the city remains the premier center of kimono manufacturing.

Visit to Ryoanji, the most famous Zen garden in all Japan. 

To many, this temple's name is synonymous with the concept of a 'Zen garden'.  The simple yet striking garden is just 30 meters long from east to west and 10 meters from north to south. The elimination of trees and plants and overall simplicity is reminiscent of abstract art.

Vegetarian lunch at Isuzen in the temple complex of Daitokugi. 

Daitokuji is a large walled temple complex and the head temple of the Rinzai sect's Daitokuji school of Japanese Zen Buddhism. The complex consists of nearly two dozen sub-temples and is one of the best places in Japan to see a wide variety of Zen gardens and to experience Zen culture and architecture.

In the temple complex we will visit as time permits:
Shunkoin.
Daisen-in. 
Zuihoin. 

Short transfer to our perfectly centrally located 5-star Kyoto Hotel Okura.  Check-in and time to relax. 

Dinner this evening at Tokiwa, the excellent rooftop teppanyaki restaurant of The Okura. 

Teppanyaki is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food.

Overnight. Hotel Okura, Kyoto.

Full buffet breakfast in The Top Lounge Orizzonte on the top floor of our hotel.

On to the country’s finest maker of traditional kimonos in their tiny private atelier under the eaves where they hang their long silk creations. 

Visit the studio of Eriko Horiki, a traditional shibori tie-dyeing artist.

Kyoto-based artist Eriko Horiki has described her practice as the reawakening of the sense of wonder and appreciation of the beauty of paper.

Visit to the studio of a fascinating husband and wife team who have truly taken traditional mediums into contemporary art forms.  Shihoko Fukumoto is the creator of indigo-dyed silk-hangings while husband, Shigeki Fukumoto, is the innovator of a unique form of Rozome wax resist dye works.

Shihoko Fukumoto blending the demanding traditional Japanese craft of indigo dyeing, shibori, and tonal gradation dyeing, bokashi, Fukumoto creates subtle works of luminous, transcendent beauty.

Lunch at Shibazaki Restaurant in the Kiyomizu area. 

Private Tea Ceremony in a small sub-temple. 

The Japanese tea ceremony (cha-no-yu, chado, or sado) is a traditional ritual influenced by Zen Buddhism in which powdered green tea or matcha, is ceremonially prepared by a skilled practitioner and served to a small group of guests in a tranquil setting.

Return to our hotel in the early afternoon. 

Dinner this evening is at leisure.  Kyoto is renowned as the food capital of Japan but many of the restaurants, especially the best sushi and tempura, can only take 6-8 people in their establishments.  Suggestions will be made and reservations should be made well in advance for these highly sought-after tiny gems. 

Overnight. Hotel Okura, Kyoto. 

Full buffet breakfast in The Top Lounge Orizzonte on the top floor of our hotel..   

1 hour First Class Bullet train Nozomi Shinkansen to Okyayama.   Short private bus transfer to Uno Port and 20 minute ferry ride to the island of Naoshima and our hotel.

 Naoshima Island is located in the Seto Inland Sea and until 20 years ago was a fishing community in decline. Its renaissance began when Japanese publishing company Benesse decided that Naoshima's beaches and wooded interior would be the perfect place for Benesse Art Site Naoshima, showcasing the best up-and-coming Japanese artists alongside international talent.  The fundamental aim is to create special places by situating modern art and architecture within the nature and the unique culture of the Seto Inland Sea, a landscape with a powerful cultural and historical resonance. 

Light and quick lunch at The Park Restaurant.

With curator Takafumi Shimooka we visit two of the major museums on the island Naoshima - Lee Ufan Museum and the Chichu Museum. 

Lee Ufan Museum resulted from a collaboration between the internationally acclaimed Korean artist Lee Ufan, presently based mainly in France, and the architect Tadao Ando. 

Chichu Art Museum was constructed in 2004 as a site rethinking the relationship between nature and people. Artworks by Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria are on permanent display in a building designed by Tadao Ando.

Dinner this evening at Umi No Hoshi Restaurant with fish and seafood as the foci. 

Overnight: Benesse House, The Park, Naoshima. 

Breakfast served at The Park overlooking the sea. 

10:00-12:30 p.m.  We visit the Naoshima Art House Project with Mr Kikuta.  We will come to understand the art but also the effect that this project has had on the community and on Japanese artists. 

The Art House Project takes empty houses scattered about residential areas and turns the spaces themselves into works of art, weaving in the history and memories of the period when the houses were homes.

Honmura Lounge & Archive
Formerly a cooperative supermarket, this building was renovated by architect Ryue Nishizawa to create Honmura Lounge & Archive, leaving the original structure essentially unchanged.  Here visitors can find books and other material by and about the artists and architects who have contributed to Benesse Art Site Naoshima art projects.

Kadoya
Kadoya was the first art house completed. This nearly 200-year old house was restored using Japanese plaster, smoked cedar board and traditional tiles.  Inside, Tatsuo Miyajima's Sea of Time '98 was created with participation from local residents.

Minamidera
Located in the historical and cultural heart of Naoshima near Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines (Gokuraku-ji and Hachiman Jinja), Minamidera is a new structure that pays homage to a temple formerly at this site, a spiritual gathering place for the community. Designed by Tadao Ando for the artwork by James Turrell inside.

Kinza
Kinza was formerly a small house, well over a century old. The original roof and supporting structures are still intact, but traditional techniques have been employed to transform the building (including the outer walls) into a work of art.

Ishibashi
One industry in Naoshima about a century ago was salt making. The Ishibashi family prospered in this business, and restoring the building where the family lived was identified as a significant way to bring Naoshima's historical and cultural heritage into clearer perspective.  Design by Hiroshi Senju. 

Gokaisho
Gokaisho (literally "a meeting place to play go") was built where a gathering place for go players once stood. Artist Yoshihiro Suda turned the entire building into an ideal presentation setting for his Tree of Spring sculpture inside which was inspired by the painting Falling Camellia by Hayami Gyoshu.

Haisha
Haisha (literally "dentist"), once the home and office of a local dentist, has been completely transformed by artist Shinro Ohtake into a sculptural/graphic work of art or perhaps a kind of sculptural scrapbook combining an array of eclectic styles.

12:30 p.m.  Private boat transfer to the nearby island of Inujima.   

1:00 p.m.  Simple lunch on Inujima at the Café.

1:45 p.m.  First a visit of Sirensho and then the Inujima Art House Project  with Mr Shimooka. 

Inujima Art House Project and Inujima Art Project Seirensho. 

Inujima Art Project Seirensho is a museum that preserves and reuses the remains of a copper refinery on the island. Based on the concept of using the existing to create the yet-to-be, the project brings together architecture by Hiroshi Sambuichi, which makes use of the existing smokestacks and karami bricks from the refinery and uses solar, geothermal, and other natural energies to reduce the burden on the environment.  The art by Yukinori Yanagi, uses Yukio Mishima, who sounded warnings over aspects of Japan's modernization, as a motif. The project truly embraces the concept of a recycling-based society as a model for a new type of regional revitalization through industrial heritage, architecture, art, and the environment.

4:30 p.m.  Private boat transfer back to the Benesse private dock on Naoshima. 

Time to visit The Naoshima Bath Project if desired. 

Pre-dinner opportunity to visit the Benesse House Museum while it is closed to anyone but those few staying in the hotel. 

Benesse House Museum opened in 1992 as a facility integrating a museum with a hotel, based on the concept "co-existence of nature, art and architecture."

In addition to the works in its collection, the Museum also contains permanent site-specific installations that artists have created especially for this building, locating the installations on their own and designing the works for those spaces.

Traditional Kaiseki-Ryori dinner at ISSEN Restaurant within Benesse House. 

Overnight: Benesse House, The Park, Naoshima. 

Breakfast served at The Park overlooking the sea. 

Morning free to explore the Art Seitouchi Triennale 2013 whose temporary installations are sprinkled throughout the island until the 4th of November. 

Or perhaps more time to visit the many far-flung permanent installations around the island. 

12:20 pm.  Private Benesse bus to the Miyanoura Port then ferry to Uno Port where we take a short private bus to Okayama. 

Gourmet Bento Box lunch onboard the Nozomi. 

1:45 p.m.  From Okayama we take a First Class Bullet Train Nozomi Shinkansen to Shin-Kobe arriving at 2:15 p.m. 

Short private bus transfer into the hills and the hot spring area of Arima where we check into our deluxe traditional Japanese ryokan Kinzan . 

Dinner can either be in the room served privately or together in the Juraku private salon with traditional sunken seating.  Either way, a gourmet kaiseki dinner with local Kobe beef to end our sojourn together. 

Overnight: Kinzan Ryokan, Arima-Onsen. 

Full breakfast in our elegant ryokan.

Private transfers to Osaka KIX and ITM Airports and Kyoto train station.