Japan 5* VIP Kosher Tour: November 5-15, 2012

Yet again, we are proud to offer a new and exciting destination, largely in response to several requests received: JAPAN. The inaugural tour is at the very best time of the year. We will be staying and dining in a number of the finest hotels in Japan, whose chefs will be cooking kosher for the very first time. Yes, sushi too….and miso soup!!   

By using the famous “Bullet Trains”, which are expensive but very efficient, we are able to move hotels just twice. This has numerous advantages: obviously, there is less packing/unpacking and less check-in/check-out. More especially, this enables the hotel chefs to create a series of kosher feasts.

 To this end we have again engaged the services of Rabbi Menahem Fogel of Efrat, who is well acquainted with Japan, to act as the Rav Machshir and the Mashgiach tmidi. His successful work on our February 2012 India trip, guaranteeing the Kashrut of incredible local cuisine, has made waves on all 5 continents.

 Japan in a nutshell: the Japanese culture combines an aesthetic perspective that would not shame the ancient Greeks, an obsessive attention to the tiniest details, and a level of precision in all they do which makes a Swiss watch blush!! All this in a land of immense natural beauty, incomparably exquisite autumn colors (hence the November timetable) and wonderfully hospitable friendly people, a disproportionate number of whom like Jews!! Go figure…..

Day 1:(Monday): Osaka airport Arrival 5

We will meet you between 16.30 – 20.00 at either Osaka airports: KIX (if you arrive directly from outside Japan) and from Itami (for those arriving via Tokyo).

Our hotel will be the much-acclaimed Hyatt Regency in Kyoto, where we will stay for 3 nights. Check out the reviews on Tripadvisor!!

Transfer to the hotel will be by luxury coach in time for a late dinner and a good night’s sleep!!

Day 2: (Tuesday) : Hiroshima

After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll jump into taxis to bring us to the station for our first experience of the famous bullet trains, and we’ll be taking the fastest one of them all!! Within no time we’ll be in Hiroshima, to visit the Peace Memorials before transferring by ferry to Miyajima Island, one of Japan’s top three “must-see” scenic spots. A cable car ride up Mt Misen will complete our first day’s touring in this fascinating land.

Dinner and Overnight: Kyoto Hyatt

Day 3: (Wednesday) : Kyoto tour

Kyoto is the old imperial capital of Japan, and as such is blessed with many beautiful buildings and gardens. We will visit the Nijo Castle, Ryoanji and Kinkakuji Temples, enjoy the famous Tea Ceremony and take in a calligraphy workshop.

   We hope to visit also Beit Shalom of Kyoto, operated by a pro-Israel group - the Japanese Christian Friends of Israel, with as many as 10,000 members. The group is also well known for its choir, the Shinome (Dawn) Chorus, which sings Israeli and Japanese songs and has traveled to Israel, Europe, and the United States. The group's main ideology centers on support for Israel and includes prayers for the coming of the Messiah. Rather than encourage conversion to Christianity, the group emphasizes peace between peoples. Jews and Israelis are specifically welcome to stay at Beit Shalom for up to three nights free of charge. We thank them, but will head back to our hotel!!

Dinner and Overnight: Kyoto Hyatt

Day 4: (Thursday) Kyoto .....continued

Sake, the rice wine of Japan is usually kosher, so we’ll get to taste it. Today we will visit a sake brewery, the Fusimi Inari Shrine and the Nishiki market, rich with history and tradition, known for its foods and local products. Here we’ll be able to taste...next to nothing!

After dinner we’ll take a stroll through the beautiful medieval Gion district where the local geisha community, called Geikos, are concentrated.

We will meet with a geisha who will tell us about her work and, more specifically, what her work is NOT!!

Dinner and Overnight: Kyoto Hyatt

Day 5: (Friday): Nagoya (Toyota Factory Tour) - Kobe

Another bullet train, this time a half-hour ride to Nagoya, to experience one of the most incredible examples of Japanese engineering precision – the Toyota factory.

The tour of the factory and the museum gives an insight into how the Japanese, vanquished in WW2, became the technological power-house of the world just a few years later.

From Nagoya we’ll take yet another bullet train to the city of Kobe where we will be spending Shabbat, while our luggage will have been sent directly!!

Jewish Japan

Although Japan may be regarded as quite removed from Jewish life, the country has had its own rich Jewish history. Here can be glimpsed distinctive Jewish values as well as significant and unique ties to the wider Japanese society.

Jewish travelers are known to have entered Japan with Portuguese and Dutch merchants as early as the sixteenth century, but Jews did not permanently settle in Japan until after 1853. The first Jewish settler came to Yokohama - near Tokyo - in 1861. The earliest Jewish tombstone dates from only four years later. By 1895 this community, which developed to about 50 families, was able to dedicate Japan's first synagogue. In Yokohama cemetery are tombstones etched in Hebrew, German, French, Russian, German, and Japanese.

Jews also settled in Nagasaki during the 1880s. As a significant Japanese port, the city was more accessible to Jews fleeing from Russian pogroms. Accordingly, the Nagasaki community, with about 100 families, was soon larger than the one in Yokohama. The Beth Israel Synagogue was built in 1894. There is also a Hebrew section in its foreigners' cemetery. Although the Nagasaki community was regarded as an active one, during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 the community disintegrated, passing its Torah scroll to the Jews of Kobe, a group of Jewish soldiers and recently freed prisoners of war who had participated in the Czar's army and the Russian revolution of 1905. One of the most esteemed members of this group was Joseph Trumpeldor, who lost an arm during that war and later became one of the genuine heroes of the Zionist movement for his role in the formation of the Jewish defense forces in Palestine.

The great earthquake of 1923 that destroyed most of Tokyo had a major effect on Jewish life in Japan as well. Until that time the most active Jewish community in Japan was in Yokohama. Following the earthquake the community moved to Kobe, which then had about 50 families.

During the early to middle 1900s, the Kobe community was composed largely of Jews from Russia, the Middle East, and Germany. In most cases, the Russian Jews had arrived in Japan via the Manchurian city of Harbin. The Middle Eastern Jews, known as "Baghdadi Jews," originally came to Kobe from present-day Iraq and Syria, as well as from Yemen, Iran, and other areas in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Perhaps the most prominent family among them was the Sassoons, known as the "Rothschilds of the East." Other Jews came to Japan from Central and Eastern Europe, and particularly from Germany. While some emigrated for economic reasons, others responded to changing developments during the 1930s.

In 1941, the Mir Yeshiva fled the advancing Nazi troops to Kobe, where they did not remain long before continuing to Japanese held Shanghai. We must also never forget the heroism of the Japanese consul-general in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who issued several thousand transit visas to Jews, saving their lives by enabling them to travel to Japan in order to flee the Nazis.

Hotel Crowne Plaza: the best hotel within walking distance of the Synagogue.

 Day 6: (Shabbat): Kobe

Shabbat services and meals will be at the Synagogue of Kobe. There will also be a walking tour of the town on Shabbat afternoon.

After Shabbat we’ll ride the old-world cable car up Mt Rokko to see from above the gorgeous lights of Kobe by night.

 Hotel Crowne Plaza

Day 7: (Sunday): Kobe - Tokyo

Before leaving Kobe we’ll take a look at the Jewish Cemetery of Kobe.

Our final bullet train will whisk us to Tokyo, where we will begin immediately with visits to 2 extremes of the “look” of Japan…. the Meiji shrine and Harajuku. 

The Meiji shrine boasts beautiful classical Japanese gardens, famous for their iris, while Harajuku is regarded as one of the fashion capitals of the world.

Here, every Sunday, moi young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers spend the day in Harajuku socializing. The fashion styles of these youths rarely conform to one particular style and are usually a mesh of many.

Dinner and overnight: Tokyo Hilton

Day 8: (Monday): Tokyo – Mt Fuji Day

No trip to Japan would be complete without visiting Lake Kawaguchi, one of the five lakes close to Mount Fuji.

Here we will visit the Kobota Itchiku museum. Kubota Itchiku (1917-2003) was the artist who revived the lost art of silk dying, used to decorate elaborate kimono during the Muromachi Period (1333-1573). In his early twenties he was so inspired by a fragment of Tsujigahana textile exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum, that he devoted the rest of his life to recreating and mastering the labor intensive silk dying technique.

Exhibited are several of the artist's kimono creations, depicting themes of nature, the cosmos and the seasons. Also on display are parts of his unfinished masterpiece "Symphony of Light", a huge work comprised of 80 kimono that together form of a picture of Mount Fuji.

From there we make the short journey to Hakone by bus. Here the open-air museum blends art with nature, with offerings by Picasso and a host of other Japanese and western artists, in an atmosphere of trees, grass and mountains.

The highlight of many visitors’ tour of Japan, the Hakone Ropeway, is the second-longest ropeway in the world after the Kriens Bahn in Switzerland. Gondolas carrying 13 passengers rise up into the sky once every minute. The large windows of the Swiss-made cabins allow visitors to observe the sweeping panorama of Hakone’s unspoiled natural setting. The magnificent scenery makes it hard to believe that it is so close to Tokyo. Owakudani, one of the stations along the way, offers magnificent views of Mount Fuji and hot springs in what is still an active volcanic region.

The journey between Sounzan and Togendai takes approximately 28 minutes.

 Day 9: (Tuesday) : Tokyo City Day

We’ll start off at the observatory for a literal “overview” of the city and then take in the highklights of this bustling ancient-modern metropolis. Temples and shopping arcades, art and architecture, oases of peace among 21^st century bustle.

Asakusa, Nakamise, Shinjuku Gardens and Shibuya, Tokyo’s very own Times Square.

Day 10: (Wednesday) : Nikko

A day spent in one of Japan’s most beautiful natural regions, with lakes mountains and waterfalls.

Nikko, Lake Chuzenji, the Kegon waterfall are all on today’s itinerary along with a hike for a couple of hours along the hilly waterside trails. The autumn colors are at their best and we will enjoy them, both on foot and from a boat tour on the lake.

Back to the Tokyo Hilton for our farewell Gala Dinner

Day 11: Thursday: Transfer to the airport to arrive 2 hours before your departure

 Japan is a VERY expensive country, but we are cutting no corners to offer you the most luxurious, comprehensive, gastronomic, kosher tour that we can design.

Price: $9,995 pp per person sharing double occupancy, single room supplement: $3995

Upgrades available on request

Kashrut:

Full board – all meals (local chefs , hashgacha Rabbi Menachem Fogel, a highly respected Rabbi from Efrat with extensive experience in the East)

 All food will be cooked fresh in the hotels where we are staying by the hotel chefs with Rabbi Fogel in attendance. Some meals will be taken in strictly vegetarian lacto-vegan restaurants which have been acceptable in the past but will be checked again before we eat there

  Tour Cost includes:

• Accommodation (double/ sharing room) in top hotels as shown
• 6 bullet train journeys
• Full transportations as tour program indicated by a/c luxury bus
• Local English speaking guides
• All entrance fees
• Airport transfers
• All entertainments, activities as shown

  Tour Cost excludes:

• International airfare
• Airport taxes (NO VISAS REQUIRED)
• Travel insurance
• Personal expenses
• Emergency transfers
• Tips ($250 pp recommended)

Please note – program can change for any reason at any time

Payment by checks or wire transfers only

Full prepayment is required 90 days prior