❖ Meet at Yamato-Yagi Station

09:00

Your English-speaking guide meets you at the Yamato-Yagi Station ticket gate. Coin lockers are available at the station if you wish to leave luggage before setting out for the day.

❖ Walk to and Stroll Around Imaicho

09:10 - 10:15 (1:05 h)

Imaicho stretches across a compact grid of some five hundred wooden houses from the Edo period, one of the largest preserved historic districts in Japan. The narrow streets branch off one another like a labyrinth, with few signs of modern life inside; you are more likely to see a lone retiree painting the landscape than any crowd. The town began in the sixteenth century as a temple settlement around Shonenji Temple, growing into a flourishing merchant town whose elaborately tiled roofs still line the lanes today. In 1993 the district was formally designated a Nationally Important Preservation Area.

During your morning walk you step back into Edo-era Japan by visiting several old residences opened to the public. The Imanishi Residence is the richest and most impressive of them all, its beams and screens intact from the family’s mercantile heyday. Nearby, the Imai Machiya Museum occupies a restored merchant house, and Kometani, a still-working hardware shop, welcomes anyone. You will pause briefly at the Hanairaka information center to see a scale model of the town and historical photographs of the district before its preservation.

The town’s living traditions run deeper still. You visit the Kawai Sake Brewery, a family-run house that has been featured in a Japanese period drama, where the owners pour a complimentary tasting inside the old-fashioned shop. Any store that catches your eye is open to you: the Tsuneoka soy sauce brewery, in operation since 1909, greets visitors much as it did a century ago, and small merchants sell homemade cola, hand-churned cherry ice cream and other local specialities you will not find outside the district.

❖ Kashihara Jingu

10:30 - 11:30 (1:00 h)

A short train ride of five minutes brings you to Kashihara-Jingumae Station, and a further walk along the cypress-lined approach delivers you to the shrine. Kashihara Jingu is a relatively young shrine, established in 1890 on the site where Emperor Jimmu, Japan’s mythical first sovereign, is said to have ascended the throne in 660 BC. The shrine sits at the base of sacred Mount Unebi, and in Japanese mythology Jimmu is believed to be a direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. The main and prayer halls were gifted by Emperor Meiji himself, moved plank by plank from the former Kyoto Imperial Palace. The vast gravel courts and towering wooden torii exude a serenity and photogenic grace that leaves an impression: many visitors compare it favourably to Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu.

❖ Lunch at Matsuyama Cafe (Asuka Kominka)

12:00 - 13:00 (1:00 h)

A five-minute train transfer to Asuka Station brings you into the countryside village of Asuka for lunch. We recommend Matsuyama Cafe, tucked into a restored kominka house of blackened cedar beams, low tokonoma alcoves and paper shoji screens unchanged since the day it was built. The seasonal menu features cakes and hearty savoury dishes made with local Nara vegetables and mountain herbs. If your tastes run elsewhere, your guide can discuss alternatives before you settle in.

❖ Cycling Asuka: Temples, Tombs, and Rice Fields

13:00 - 16:00 (3:00 h)

After lunch you collect your rental bicycles from the shop in front of Asuka Station. Child bikes and adult bikes with child seats are available, and if you prefer not to cycle, please let us know in advance so alternative arrangements can be made. Asuka can be considered the cradle of Japanese civilisation: it is where the first emperors established their capitals and remains an archaeologist’s dream, littered with ancient tombs, monuments and shrines. Long before Kyoto rose to prominence, and even before Nara City ruled, the area between Asuka and Sakurai was the political and cultural centre of Japan. You will cycle through this now quiet, quaint and rural landscape, visiting historical sites along the way while enjoying the greenery of the countryside. The electric assist smooths the small hills so you can cover the whole valley at your own pace and stop wherever the light or your guide’s stories ask you to.

Asukadera Temple

Asukadera is Japan’s oldest known Buddhist temple, founded in 588 by Soga no Umako with craftsmen and monks invited from the Korean peninsula. At its heart sits the Asuka Great Buddha, cast in bronze in 609 by a sculptor of Korean descent and, remarkably, still enshrined on the same spot where it was made over fourteen centuries ago. The temple is small and countryside in feel, set amid farmland. Open 9:00 to 17:30 April through September, 9:00 to 17:00 October through March; closed 7 to 9 April.

Nara Prefecture Complex of Manyo Culture

The Nara Prefecture Complex of Manyo Culture opened in 2001 on the site of Japan’s first known mint. Its two main halls use models, theatre displays and modern painting to bring to life the Man’yoshu, the oldest surviving anthology of Japanese poetry, whose 4,500 verses were composed here in Asuka and Nara during the seventh and eighth centuries. Admission to the main halls is free. Open 10:00 to 17:30; closed Mondays.

Ishibutai Burial Mound

Ishibutai, meaning stone stage, is Japan’s largest known megalithic tomb: some thirty enormous granite blocks framing a chamber whose ceiling stone alone weighs about 75 tons. The earthen mound that once covered it has long vanished, leaving the seventh-century stones exposed against the sky. It is believed to be the tomb of Soga no Umako, the statesman who founded Asukadera. Open 9:00 to 17:00, year-round.

Takamatsuzuka Tomb

The small Takamatsuzuka Tomb was discovered by chance in 1970 when villagers dug a hole to store ginger, and formally excavated in 1972. Inside, its walls hold vividly preserved paintings of courtly women, star constellations and the four cardinal guardian beasts, a rare fusion of Tang Chinese and Goguryeo Korean style dating to the end of the seventh century. A separate mural hall exhibits full-scale reproductions of the paintings. Open 9:00 to 17:00; closed 29 December through 3 January.

Inukai Manyo Memorial Hall

The Inukai Manyo Memorial Hall opened in 2000 in a quiet farmhouse compound, dedicated to the scholar Inukai Takashi, who spent his life walking to every place named in the Man’yoshu and reciting its poems aloud in a cadence he made his own. Recordings of his readings still play softly through the exhibition rooms. A teahouse with an outdoor terrace serves drinks and offers a place to rest. Open 10:00 to 17:00; closed Wednesdays.

Okadera Temple

Okadera, also known as Ryugai-ji, sits at the foot of the hills above the Asuka valley. Local legend tells of a dragon that guards the temple and warns nearby villages of approaching rain by wobbling and shaking a sacred stone in its precinct. Inside, the principal image is a Nyoirin Kannon modelled in clay in the eighth century: at 4.85 metres tall it is the largest and oldest clay Buddha in Japan and is counted among the three great Buddha statues of Nara. Local tradition also marks the temple as Japan’s first sacred site for warding off evil. Open 8:00 to 16:30 December through February, 8:00 to 17:00 March through November; open year-round.

❖ Return to Asuka Station

16:00

The tour concludes at Asuka Station, where your guide sees you back on the local train toward Yamato-Yagi or your onward destination.