Textiles of Japan in Cherry Blossom Season

Meet Janice Gunner and your Arena Travel tour manager at London Heathrow airport for your overnight flight to Tokyo. 

On arrival we’ll be met by Yukako, our English-speaking local guide, and transfer to our hotel. After some free time to unpack and freshen up, we visit Meiji Jingu Shrine. Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the spirit of Emperor Meiji, the first Emperor of modern Japan, and his consort Empress Shoken and offers spacious grounds that are great for a relaxing stroll. 

A full day in Tokyo, seeing some iconic sites as well as exploring the traditional Japanese silk fabrics that are produced in the Tokyo area. Our crafty highlights include Akie Ginza Sashiko Museum & shop, a museum dedicated to Murayama-oshima tsumugi silk and Pigment Museum and shop.

Another full day in Tokyo includes a visit with award-winning quilter Noriko Endo and some retail therapy at one of the city's many craft stores (all five floors of it!)

Transfer to Haneda airport for our internal flight to Izumo. On arrival we’ll visit Izumo-taisha shrine, one of the most ancient and important Shinto shrines in Japan and the Izumo Museum of Quilt Art, displaying the quilts of internationally renowned designer Mutsuko Yawatagaki. The fabrics used in her quilts come from antique and vintage kimonos, some as much as 200 years old.

Our full day tour of Izumo and Matsue will include Amano Kouya indigo dyeing workshop, Izumo Folk Crafts Museum, displaying ceramics, lacquerware woodwork, and textiles collected from all over Japan and Nagata Sen Koujyo, a Tsutsugaki indigo dyeing specialist. Tonight, we'll stay in a ryokan, a type of traditional Japanese inn that has existed since the 8th century.  We'll enjoy a Japanese dinner and an Onsen hot spring bath.

Another day in Matsue and Yasugi before transferring to Okayama late afternoon. Our visits include Shiomi Nawate Street, once home to middle-ranking samurai and close to Matsue Castle, where the highest-ranking samurai lived and the Adachi Museum of Art, housing a collection of modern Japanese art. 

Full day tour of Okayama and Marugame including visits to Okayama Castle and Korakuen Garden, one of Japan's top three landscaped gardens and Uhiwa Japanese fan museum, a museum dedicated to the history of the rounded paper fans (Uchiwa) that have been used in Japan for many centuries. We’ll also have the opportunity to make our own Uchiwa.

Tokushima is located on the island of Shikoku and is famous for growing indigo plants and dyeing. We spend the day here visiting the Hall of Awa Japanese Paper Museum, dedicated to preserving papermaking techniques for future generations. Here we’ll enjoy a papermaking workshop before taking some free time to explore the old merchant houses in the Udatsu historical district and watching a performance of the traditional Awa-Odori dance, one of Japan's most famous traditional dances.

We round off our time in Tokushima with a visit to a local studio to learn about the indigo dyeing process before departing for Kyoto. En route we visit Naruto whirlpools, created by large volumes of water moving between the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific Ocean between high and low tide. 

A day trip to Arimatsu on one of Japan’s famous bullet trains. 

Arimatsu became famous and prosperous from around 1608 for its Arimatsu Narumi Shibori, an intricate, time consuming traditional tie-dyeing technique that leads to stunningly beautiful, complex patterns. The high-quality tie-dyed cloth became prized nationwide, particularly as large numbers of samurai, merchants, pilgrims and townsfolk passed through the dyeing and textiles village and purchased the dyed items as gifts and for personal use. Here we'll visit the museum dedicated to this technique and learn more about it from a local expert.

This morning, enjoy some free time on Teramachi Street, a historical street in Kyoto, which translates into English as ‘Temple Town’ and reflects the large number of Buddhist temples moved there in the 16th century. During the Edo period (1603-1867) stores selling books, writing brushes and medicines as well as shops belonging to paper and shamisen craftsmen flourished here, giving shape to the street that we see today. This afternoon we’ll visit the Museum of Kyoto that will be hosting a quilt exhibition from both Japanese and international quilters, including pieces from our very own Janice Gunner!

Time to say farewell to Japan as we transfer to Osaka airport for our return flight to London, via Tokyo.