Walk Japan’s newest tour ventures beyond Kyoto City to explore Kyoto Prefecture, the little-visited but beautiful rural hinterland of Japan’s ancient capital.
Travel company Walk Japan has launched the Kyoto: Mountains to the Sea tour exploring Kyoto Prefecture, a bucolic rural region, where the contrast with Kyoto’s urban landscape could not be more stark. Yet, it is here that much of the sublime foods and crafts the city is famed for have been sourced for over a millennia.
Kyoto: Mountains to the Sea is a fully-guided, eight-day tour that ventures through Kyoto’s backcountry; a lovely countryside where the pace of life is still measured by seasons and a multitude of colourful festivals throughout the year. Here, however, visitors, Japanese and from overseas, are few and far between.
The tour follows ancient trails, once vital for commerce and communication, that weave their way through valleys and over high passes until culminating on the rugged Sea of Japan coast at Amanohashidate, rightly considered one of Japan’s three classic vistas. En route, it passes through little-known villages and aside historic temples and shrines, some grand and some very rustic.
Accommodation each night is in Japanese inns, where friendly hosts provide warm welcomes and mouth-watering meals composed of locally-sourced and grown ingredients such as Kyoyasai heirloom vegetables, Miyama ayu sweetfish, Tanba buri yellowtail, and saba mackerel. These are the self-same staples that are celebrated in the cuisine of Kyoto City’s famed high-class ryokan inns and restaurants.
Kyoto: Mountains to the Sea is an eight-day, seven-night, fully-guided walking tour for up to 12 participants starting in Kyoto City and concluding at Amanohashidate. Daily walking distances range between eight to 16 kilometres following mountain trails and quiet country lanes. A Level 4 tour, it is suitable for anyone who leads a reasonably active lifestyle.
