Air France Japan Area guides: Chubu and Kansai

Discover adventurous, gourmet, traditional and cool Japan

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Chubu and Kansai guide

Charming Kyoto, with its majestic temples and refined sensibilities, is the jewel in any Japan itinerary. Leave the modern centre and head for the city’s outskirts where temples, shrines and teahouses nestle in the foothills. Take the Path of Philosophy along the narrow canal between Nanzen-ji and Ginkaku-ji, two of the city’s greatest temple attractions, ponder the Zen rock garden at Ryoan-ji, or take tea in the tranquil grounds of Shoren-in, one of the quieter spots off the beaten temple track. But don’t overdose on temples: save some time for picturesque Nara, the even older ancient capital, just half an hour away by train. Here you can also see one of Japan’s huge bronze Buddha statues – 15 metres tall and weighing 500 tons – housed in the world's largest wooden building.

At the other end of the scale is big, brash Osaka – Kansai’s playground and one of Japan’s great night cities. Head to the bright lights of Dotombori, where covered alleyways either side of the eponymous canal are packed full of arcades, fast-food restaurants, boutiques and pachinko parlours – Japan’s strange national obsession that looks something like vertical pinball.

Beyond the cities, mountains extend northwards as the central Japan Alps, and to the south-east are the tablelands and forests of Mt Koya. History permeates the region, with many of the sites, including Kyoto, Nara, Mt Koya (known as Koya-san) and the thatched villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama designated as Unesco World Heritage Sites.

How to get to Chubu and Kansai

Air France offers 7 weekly flights to Osaka. Fly via Paris Charles de Gaulle from any of the following UK airports: London Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Adventure

The Grand Shrines of Kumano
£250 per person for two-day hike, (www.kumano-experience.com)
See more of a country that is more than 70 per cent mountains by hiking to two of the Grand Shrines of Kumano – Kumano Hongu Taisha and Kumano Nachi Taishanow – a Unesco World Heritage site along the ancient pilgrimage routes in the Kii Mountain Range.

How to get there
The Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine is 90 minutes by bus from Shingu. Shingu is 3 hours and 30 minutes from Nagoya by limited express. Nagoya is 1 hour 40 minutes from Tokyo by Nozomi shinkansen or one hour from Osaka.
Rafting on The Nagara River
1709-1, Nishi-Otsubara, Hachiman-cho, Gujo-shi, Gifu (www.adventures.jp)
Cool off during sticky summers on the waters of the Nagara in Gifu, a dam-free river where the meltwaters from the Japan Alps create grade three to five rapids just perfect for summer rafting.

How to get there
By train: The Gujo base 1 hour 40 minutes from Tokyo by Nozomi shinkansen to Nagoya, or one hour from Osaka, then one hour 20min via Gifu by JR express train and private railway.
See Snow Monkeys
6845 Yamanouchi-machi, Shimotakai-gun, Nagano (www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp)
You’ve seen the pictures of their boiled red faces and snow-speckled fur, now see the ‘snow monkeys’ of the Japan Alps blissed-out the hot springs for yourself. Touristy as it is, the place to go is Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano. An unforgettable experience.

How to get there
By train: Nagano is two hours from Tokyo by Asama shinkansen. One hour from Osaka to Nagoya by Nozomi Shinkansen, then 3hours to Nagano by express train.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Gourmet

Sample sushi
1-6-9 Dotonbori Chuo-ku Osaka (www.mawaru-genrokuzusi.co.jp)
Find out for yourself whether the sushi conveyor belts in Osaka really are faster than those in Tokyo: head for Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Dotomburi – the company that opened Japan’s first conveyor belt sushi shop back in 1958.

How to get there
By train: A short walk from Nanba subway station in central Osaka. Osaka is two hours 30 minutes by Nozomi shinkansen from Tokyo.
Aoki Shuzo brewery
1214 Oaza Shiozawa, Shiozawa-machi, Minami-uonuma-shi, Niigata (www.kakurei.co.jp)
Taste your way around the breweries of Niigata, Japan’s sake country. Stop at the historic Aoki Shuzo brewery and sample the International Sake Challenge silver award winner Kakurei Daigingo, made by the twelfth generation of the brewing family.

How to get there
By train: Niigata is 2 hours and 20 minutes from Tokyo by Toki shinkansen or 2hours 40min from Osaka to Tokyo by Nozomi Shinkansen.
Traditional dining
From £45 per night excluding meals, 456 Shirakawa-Mura Ogi-Machi, Gifu (www.jnto.go.jp)
Dine on local vegetables and river fish around a traditional sunken Japanese hearth in a rare gassho-zukuri (‘praying hands construction’) house in the Unesco-listed village of Shirakawa-go in Gifu. The atmospheric Koemon house is one of a handful that accepts overnight visitors.

How to get there
By bus: Shirakawago is 50 minutes by bus from Takayama.
By train: Takayama is 2 hours and 20 minutes from Nagoya by local train. Nagoya is 1 hour 40 minutes from Tokyo or one hour from Osaka by Nozomi shinkansen.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Traditional

Stay in a Buddhist temple
From £75 per night, 700 Koya-san, Koya-cho, Ito-gun Wakayama (www.shukubo.jp)
Check in to Rengejo-in near Mt Koya in Wakayama, for a stay with a difference: Rengejo-in is a twelfth-century Buddhist temple and your hosts are the monks who make it their home. Try the famous vegetarian monks’ cuisine, shojin ryori.

How to get there
Koya-san is 2 hours 30 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka by Nozomi Shinkansen, then 2 hours 40 minutes by local train and cable car.
Experience a rice planting ceremony
(www.sumiyoshitaisha.net)
The purpose-built paddy field in the grounds of Sumiyoshi Taisha ‘Grand Shrine’ in urban Osaka hosts a surprising rice planting ceremony annually on June 14. Watch costumed ‘shrine maidens’ plant the shoots amid a flurry of ritual and music.
Stay in a luxury resort
Genrokuzancho 11-2, Arashiyama, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto (www.kyoto.hoshinoya.com)
Traditional ryokan meets contemporary architecture, Kyoto’s luxury new resort Hoshinoya is well worth the two-hour punt up-river to get to it. Don’t worry – there’s someone to do the punting for you.

How to get there
Kyoto is 2 hours and 20 minutes by Nozomi Shinkansen from Tokyo or 30min from Osaka by Special Rapid Service.

Adventure | Gourmet | Traditional | Cool and contemporary

Cool and contemporary

The Fuji Rock Festival
Naeba Ski Resort, Yuzawa-machi, Niigata (www.smash-uk.com)
Japan’s answer to Glastonbury, the Fuji Rock Festival takes place each summer in the ski resort of Naeba (nowhere near Fuji). Details for 2011 yet to be announced but previous performers have included Kaiser Chiefs, Iggy Pop, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Oasis. Last weekend in July.

How to get there
Naeba Ski Resort is 40 minutes by (free) bus to Yuzawa, then 1 hour, 30 minutes from Echigo Yuzawa station to Tokyo by Toki shinkansen.
Stay in a capsule hotel
£3 per hour. Basic charge £7 plus £3 per hour (between 21:00-09:00), 588 Teianmaeno-cho, Shijyo, Teramachi-dori, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto (www.9hours.jp)
No tatami mats, no sliding screens and no futon; just a person-size pod – complete with ergonomic pillows – at Kyoto’s coolest capsule hotel, Nine Hours Kyoto Teramachi.

How to get there
By train: From Shingu it is three and a half hours to Nagoya by limited express. Nagoya is one hour 40 minutes from Tokyo by Nozomi shinkansen, one hour from Osaka.
See the famous taiko drummers
(www.kodo.or.jp)
See Kodo, Japan’s most famous taiko drummers, perform alongside musicians from around the world at the annual Earth Celebration, which transforms the quiet port town of Ryotsu on Sado island, once a place of exile for criminals. The annual festival takes place on August 19-21 in 2011.

How to get there
Sado Island is 1 hour from Niigata port by jetfoil. Niigata is 2 hours and 20 minutes from Tokyo by Toki shinkansen and hour flight from Osaka.