Religious Studies Tour to Japan – Great Faiths and World Cultures

Our 24- hour Tour Director will meet us at the airport and remain with us throughout our cultural and faith-based tour in Japan until our departure for North America.

Just over 400 years ago, when the Shogun Tokugawa Leyasu decided to move his government to Tokyo, the location soon developed into Japan's largest city and subsequently the largest city in the world in the 18th Century. The name changed from Edo to Tokyo, which means Eastern Capital. Home to nearly 16 million people, this huge, wealthy and fascinating metropolis brings high-tech visions of the future side by side with glimpses of old Japan.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

"We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey On every evening of the program, we will set time aside to update our Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come to the fore in the course of the day.

We will have an orientation meeting to provide tour participants with relevant information and useful tools to familiarize them with their host country and the program ahead.

Visit the Edo Tokyo Museum and learn about Tokyo's history and culture and which also serves as a project of the city and living in the future. The whole construction area covers about 30,000 square meters, that is 2.4 times bigger than the field area inside the Tokyo Dome Stadium.

Visit the Asakusa District of Tokyo. Asakusa is the center of Tokyo's shitamachi (literally "low city"), one of Tokyo's districts, where an atmosphere of the Tokyo of past decades survives. The main attraction is Sensoji, a very popular Buddhist temple, built in the 7th century. The temple is approached via the Nakamise, a shopping street that has been providing temple visitors with a variety of traditional, local snacks and souvenirs for centuries.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

Visit one of Tokyo's most beautiful, Japanese style landscape gardens. Rikugien is quite a spacious garden with a central pond, islands, forested areas, manmade hills and several teahouses. It takes about an hour to cover the garden's whole network of walking paths at a leisurely speed. Afterwards, enjoy tea at one of the teahouses.

Any Japanese culture tour would not be complete without a visit to the Akihabara Culture Tour where lovers of video games, anime, manga, and collector items go for the latest and most unique goods.

Tokyo is known for being a leader in technological development, including robotics. Attend a local robot show, where developers can showcase their latest creations.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

View the Meiji Shrine, dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji was the first emperor of modern Japan, born in 1852 and ascending to the throne in 1868 at the peak of the Meiji Restoration when the power was switched from the feudal Tokugawa government to the emperor.

Enjoy a walking tour from Shibuya to Harajuku starting at the famous crossing known as the Shibuya Scramble and rumored to be the busiest intersection in the world. Before crossing the road we will say hello to Hachiko the dog statue and learn about his story.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

LEAP Activity | Japanese Cooking Class

Indulge your eyes as well as your palate as you learn the creative arts involved in a Japanese culinary experience. Under the instruction of a professional chef, prepare, eat and enjoy a traditional Japanese meal.

As the former capital of Japan and capital of its Prefecture, Kyoto is a cultural center preserving formal traditions of old. From castles and shrines, beautiful gardens, to tea and geishas, Kyoto will help us understand traditional Japanese way of life. Visiting Kyoto will undoubtedly be on of the most memorable experiences on our educational travel tour to Japan!

Explore the Kiyomizu Temple, known as the Pure Water Temple, which is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. Founded in 780, it stands in the wooded hills of eastern Kyoto and offers visitors fantastic views over the city from its famous wooden terrace.

Explore Higashiyama, an historic district in Kyoto filled with small shops like pottery stores, tea shops and restaurants, that line the narrow streets.

Walk over to tour the nearby Gion area, known for its streets filled with rows of merchant houses and also its history of Geisha traditional entertainers skilled in the Japanese Arts. It is quite easy to spot them still roaming the area these days.

Continue to Pontocho, another historic area in Kyoto with narrow streets and many tea shops and places to dine.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

No Japanese culture tour would be complete without a day dedicated to the ancient Japanese art of Zen. We start in the Arashiyama area, with a visit to Tenryuji Temple, where we'll take part in a lecture on Zen Buddhism and Zen meditation session led by one of the temple's monks. Spend time in the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, which consists of a trail in the middle of tall bamboo stalks.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

Today we will take a day trip to Nara, a small city outside of Kyoto. Visit Todaiji Temple (Great Eastern Temple), one of the most important in Japanese Buddhism and home to the largest bronze Buddha.

Explore Nara Park, one of the oldest public parks in Japan, and home to sacred deer which over time have become friendly with visitors. You can feed them crackers sold from the park service centers.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

Visit Fushimi Inari Taisha, a famous shinto shrine in Kyoto. Walk through the many bright red torri gates.

Visit Nijo Castle, which was built by Tokugawa Leyasu. The palace building, now known as Ninomaru was completed in 1603 and enlarged by Leyasu’s grandson Lemitsu.

Manga is a type of comic and graphic novel developed in Japan in the late 19th century with a long history.

Enjoy an evening meal with your group.

This evening we make the final entries in our Reflection Journal and share some of the most significant observations and perspectives that have taken shape in the course of our cultural immersion experience and religion tour in Japan tour and how these experiences may be most relevant for us all as we return home.

Our rewarding and enjoyable Japanese cultural tour comes to an end as our Tour Director accompanies us to the airport on our final day.