Shimane World Heritage Onsen & Craft Tour

In this 2-day tour, you will have the opportunity to experience World Heritage Hotspring Town and crafts registered as UNESCO Intangible Heritage , enriched by natural sceneries and local food. By default, meals and accommodations are not included. However, we have good recommendations for different budget travelers.

Day 1

The meeting point is easily accessible from Hiroshima and Okayama by your own transportation. We will meet in the morning at a traditional coffee & bar restaurant in the Shiname area, which is a complex containing a snack bar and gallery. The restaurant operates as a cafe during the day and a snack bar (a type of old school Japanese bar) in the evening. Enjoy locally brewed sake, locally produced craft beer, seasonal food, and pottery cups and utensils, all locally produced. The owner and artisan strives to design a new lifestyle incorporating Satoyama - the zone between forests and land inhabited by humans - for the 22nd century.

Satoyama Walk & Sauna

We will guide you through a scenic zone, Satoyama, the zone between forests and land inhabited by humans.

You will also induldge yourself in a hotspring, a "reservation only" sauna facility located in the World Heritage Site. The sauna utilizes a wood-burning stove, which is rare in Japan. This facility features a 100% genuine free-flowing hot spring directly from the source. Naturally from underground at approximately 46°C, the hot water is poured into the bathtub without any modification. The comfortable, numbing temperature and the "fresh hot spring water" that changes color depending on the season and time of day warm the body from the core, making it popular as a way to boost the immune system and prevent unwellness.

Visitors can have a unique experience in the loft-type sauna while experiencing the Sekishu Tile that is representative of Shimane Prefecture.

Sekishu Washi Experience

Sekishu Washi is a local hand-made paper. Washi, craftsmanship of traditional Japanese hand-made paper, has been registered at “the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” based on the UNESCO Convention. We will visit a manufacturer's workshop and see the whole process of producing paper from raw material.

(Photo source: paper factory)

World Heritage Hotspring Town

Towards the evening, we will check you in a renowned Onsen Ryokan located in a small town with a population of about 2,500 people. This is the ONLY hot spring town in Japan that is recognized as a World Heritage Site. In the Edo period (1603-1867), the town was a silver shipping port for Iwami Ginzan, a mine that produced one third of the world's silver. The town was blessed with naturally plentiful hot springs and was a very prosperous hot spring resort. The retro townscape and nearby beach, and more recently, the fashionable guesthouses, saunas, restaurants, local beer, and a variety of other attractions, have made this area a popular destination for tourists.

We offer two types of accommodations fitting different budgets. Regardless which budget you choose, induldge yourself at the hotspring, followed by dinner at the hotel.

Day 2

Pottery Workshop

After breakfast at the hotel, we will bring you to a pottery workshop. Made of highly refractory Iwami clay and fired at high temperatures (1,300°C/2,372°), pottery produced in this workshop is hard and unbreakable, meaning it is ideal for long-term daily use as tableware.

Kagura Masks Experience

After the pottery workshop, we will bring you to an artisan who creates Kagura masks as a Japanese tradition. Kagura began with dances performed at shrines to celebrate the good harvest of the year and to pray for a good harvest in the following year. Even today, it is carried out every Saturday. More performances were added to please audiences over the years, and the musical accompaniment and movements became more flamboyant. The wooden kagura masks are now made of lightweight Japanese paper, and the costumes are embroidered with gold and silver threads. This splendid art is still proudly enjoyed by locals as the best entertainment.

The tour will end and we will drive you back to the train station or airport in Shimane area.

Included

• Experience and entrance fees of all visits

  
  

• Transportation and guide from and back to the pickup point

Excluded

• Meals (pay as you order at the restaurant and hotel)

• Hotel accommodation

• Travel or accidental insurance

• Extra food and drinks

• Any commercial item purchased by the guest during this visit