
November 1, 2016 issue
Newsletter from Guided Private Tours around Nagoya
Information
Need longer tours?

All of our tours are private and customizable, catering for the needs and preferences of particular customers. Unlike other major tour companies in Japan, we do not sell packaged tours. Most of the sample tours on our WEB site https://tourguides.nagoya/en/ are day tours, though, we can arrange longer tours.
For example, five-day central Japan highlight tour's itinerary can be like this.
Day 1: Depart from Nagoya, visit Nakasendo (Tsumago and Magome), and
stay in Takayama
Day 2: Takayama City tour (morning market, old
streets, etc.), Hida beef lunch, Shirakawa-go, and stay in
Kanazawa.
Day 3: Kanazawa City tour (Kanazawa Castle, Kenrokuen
Japanese Garden, etc.), stay in Kanazawa
Day 4: Move to Noto Peninsula,
visit Shirayone-Senmaida (photo), experience lacquer work in Wajima, stay
in Wajima or near by Fishermen's inn.
Day 5: Visit Wajima morning
market, Eiheiji Zen Temple and back to Nagoya.
If you propose tours for several days to your customers, we can help you to organize them. We can do hotel reservation, transportation arrangement and other bookings. For further information please contact contact@tourguides.nagoya.
Winter illumination around Nagoya

Recently, winter illumination has become very popular in Japan. Around Nagoya, there are some popular spots to enjoy winter illumination. We can arrange evening tours to visit winter illumination sites.
Such sites include Nabana-no-sato Flower Park (October 15 - May 7, 2017) (photo), 138 Tower Park (November 12 - December 25), and LAGUNA TEN BOSCH (from November 3) among others.
Dinners are available in Nabana-no-sato and LAGUNA TEN BOSCH but not in 138 Tower Park.
Links to official sites of facilities (mostly in Japanese but photos are available): Nabana-no-sato, 138 Tower Park and LAGUNA TEN BOSCH. For further information please contact contact@tourguides.nagoya.
Can't find accommodation in Nagoya?
Increasing number of tourists in Japan makes it difficult to find accommodation in large cities. Nagoya is still better than Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, but sometimes most of the tourist hotels in Nagoya are fully booked. In such cases, consider to stay out of Nagoya. Unless you love busy urban settings, there are good alternatives in nearby cities.
If you love nature, or if you have plan to visit Takayama, Shirakawa-go or Nakasendo (Tsumago and Magome) for example, consider to stay in Gifu or Inuyama. These two castle towns have both culture and nature, and they themselves are tourist destinations. Both have cormorant fishing in summer. Both have international class hotels for the tourists. Both are located close to the railways or highways that go north toward Takayama and Nakasendo.
If you like to stay much closer to Nagoya, consider Ichinomiya City. Ichinomiya Station is more convenient than subway stations in Nagoya City. There are no luxurious tourist hotels in Ichinomiya and most of the hotels in Ichinomiya are business types. However, they are located around the Ichinomiya Station, which is directly accessible from the Chubu Airport by train (Meitetsu Line), and only 11 minutes ride from JR Nagoya Station by a rapid train. JR train service between Nagoya and Ichinomiya runs every 5 to 10 minutes. JR Super Express trains to Kanazawa stop at Ichinomiya Station. Some super express trains to Takayama also stop here.
For the detail of Gifu City, please visit https://tourguides.nagoya/en/gifu.html.
For
the detail of Inuyama City, please visit https://tourguides.nagoya/en/inuyama.html.
For
the detail of Ichinomiya City, please visit https://tourguides.nagoya/en/honmachi.html.
For further information please contact contact@tourguides.nagoya.
Tour Pick Up
Itadori, a hidden village of mountains and rivers
Itinerary for an over night tour | 4 pax | 6 pax | 8 pax |
---|---|---|---|
Nagoya (hotel pick up) => Mino City (lunch) => Kabu-sugi Forest => Kaore Valley => Family Inn Hioki (over night) => walking tour in Itadori => lunch at Buzan-tei Restaurant (optional) => Nagoya | 73,850 yen per pax (295,400 yen per group) | 52,567 yen per pax (315,400 yen per group) | 41,925 yen per pax (335,400 yen per group) |
Prices are rough estimates and subject to change.
Included: A licensed guide and a jumbo taxi with a driver for 2 days, over night stay at family-inn Yamano-Yado Hioki, dinner and breakfast, and 10% VAT.
Not included: lunches, drinks, and admissions to any facility.
*Traveling by public transportation is not available.

Itadori Village is about 2 and half hours drive from Nagoya to the north. It is located deep in the mountains along the Itadori River, a branch of the Nagara River. You cannot find Itadori in any travel guide books. Itadori is not far from Nagoya so one day tour is possible. However, I strongly recommend to stay there over night to enjoy the stress-free atmosphere.
Although there is no major sight seeing spot in the village, once visited there, everyone loves there. I once took a group of people from around Caribbean, all of them were from travel industries. They spent over night in Itadori, and said "The attraction of this place is international level!" It's nothing more than one of numerous mountain villages found everywhere in Japan, but something is special in Itadori. My family visits Itadori every season every year.

Our first stop after Nagoya will be Mino City. In the Edo Era, this city flourished by paper making and trade using near-by Nagara River. The paper made in Mino is called "Mino Washi", or Mino Japanese traditional paper.
You can enjoy well preserved old street in Mino City. It looks like a smaller Takayama. Unlike Takayama, there is almost no foreign tourists here.
Near-by Mino Wahsi Akari (lighting) Art Gallery exhibits the lanterns made of Mino paper. It's a small museum but its exhibition of paper lantern arts is fantastic.

After lunch in Mino City, we go further north along Itadori River. The first visit in the afternoon is Kabusugi Forest. This forest is not a natural forest. It's a several-hudred-year old plantation. Huge Japanese ceder trees found there were planted by local people several hundreds years ago.
However, the unique forms of the trees are the creation of nature. Deep snow in the winter had deformed the trees and created these monstrous tree shapes. So it is a joint work of human being and the nature. This is not a national park but local people have protected this unique forest.

The second visit will be Kaore Valley. A part of Kaore Valley forms a deep gorge. You should not expect a Grand Canyon here, but water is very clean and scenery is magnificent.
Until the construction of a road, only the experienced mountain climbers knew this gorge. Now there is a circular walking path along the gorge, but the path is often closed because of falling rocks from above especially after heavy rains.
I have visited Kaore Valley several times, but it was completely closed or half closed many times. So if you can make a complete circle, you are lucky.

For the evening, I recommend to stay in Yamano-Yado (mountain inn) Hioki. It's a small family-owned inn and has only five guest rooms. No, it's not a five-star hotel. It cannot get even three stars. Each guest room does not have a private bath room nor toilet. However, a public onsen (hot spa) facility is only five-minute walk from Hioki across the river. So most of the guest do not use bathrooms in Hioki but visit onsen.
What makes Hioki outstanding is the atmosphere and the foods.
It is isolated from other houses in the village. If you are lucky, you can see wild monkeys in its garden. In the night, you can only hear the river flows.

The food in Hioki is one of the best you experience in Japan. They mostly use local materials of the season. Menu changes from season to season. In winter, you can taste the meat of wild boars shot in the village (photo). In spring and early summer, you can enjoy various wild mountain vegetables. The host may provide you with river fish he caught. In autumn, most of chestnuts, mushrooms, and rice are from their own gardens.

Next morning, we will have a walking tour in the village. Near the Hioki, there is the ruin of the Taguchi Castle. In Sengoku Period (16th century), Nagaya Clan ruled this valley. Another clan resided over the mountain had invaded to Itadori, and a fierce battle was fought here. It was just one of the thousands of minor battles not mentioned in the history book. Next to the ruin, there is a tiny shrine called Nagaya Shrine, named after the Nagaya Clan. Actually more than half of the population in this village have the last name Nagaya still. So this is an important shrine for local people. You may also see a 800 year-old cedar tree with a legend. You may pick some wild vegetables in spring. You may dip yourself into cold stream in summer (swim suite required).
After the morning walking tour, you can decide what you are going to do or where you are going to visit. You can go back to Nagoya or you can visit Gujo Hachiman City, about 30 minutes drive from Itadori.
For the detail of Itadori, please visit https://tourguides.nagoya/en/itadori.html .
For
the detail of Mino City, please visit https://tourguides.nagoya/en/mino.html.
For
the detail of Gujo Hachiman, please visit https://tourguides.nagoya/en/gujohachiman.html.
If you need more information and/or photos to show your customers, please do not hesitate to ask us. Send an inquiry mail to contact@tourguides.nagoya.
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Guided Private Tours around Nagoya is being operated jointly by Hitonomori Co. Ltd. and Fun Lead International Co. Ltd (registered travel agency with Gifu Prefecture No. 3-322).