Travel with Unity and experience Japan’s unparalleled natural beauty, sacred sites, and rich traditions as you explore its creativity and culture. Discover your own Buddha nature, awaken your inner samurai warrior spirit, and marvel at Japanese aesthetics – returning home with a renewed vision of beauty, creativity, compassion, and peace for yourself and the world around you.
Experience Japan’s unparalleled natural beauty, sacred sites, and rich traditions as you explore its creativity and culture. Discover your own Buddha nature and awaken your inner samurai warrior spirit, returning home with a renewed vision of beauty, creativity, compassion, and peace for yourself and the world around you.
This spiritual tour of Japan will take you deep into the heart of Japanese culture, faith, and history. Through its breathtaking landscapes, exquisite cuisine, and ancient wisdom, you’ll have the opportunity to embrace life fully, celebrate its impermanence, and embody the principles of “wabi-sabi.” Our journey includes places in Kyoto, Mt. Koya, Osaka, and time at a very special Zen Wellness Retreat Center.
With Spirit Tours, you travel in an open and relaxed state, knowing that all the details are taken care of! Enjoy daily spiritual practice and be surrounded by loving, like-minded travelers as you experience all that Japan has to offer.
Passcode: g$WA!l9N
SUMMARY OF DAILY ITINERARY
YOKOSO! (Welcome!)
Welcome to Japan! Immediately, you’ll be immersed in a whole new world – beauty, spirituality, language, food, culture, and creativity.
Upon arrival in Osaka, at either the Kansai International Airport (KIX) or Osaka International Airport, you can easily make your way to our first 4-Star Hotel and get settled in for your sacred journey. You’ll love the accommodations we’ve chosen for our first 2 nights – a luxurious Onsen hotel. Experience the warmth of a Takarazuka Onsen, with over 800 years of tradition, the scenic Rokko mountain range, and views along the Mukogawa River. There is a large indoor onsen bath and an open-air bath. The spring quality of the water in the open-air bath is sodium-chloride cold mineral spring, which has the property of warming the body from its core, keeping you warm after the bath.
Meal Included: Dinner
After breakfast, we have an Opening Circle to get to know one another and set intentions for our pilgrimage. We take a quick ride to we visit the famous Osaka Castle and its surrounding Nishiomaru Garden. Take some time to explore this magnificent structure and “slip backwards in time”.
We’ll have a unique experience in the Tenjinbashisuji Shopping Street for lunch on your own – choose from one of the multitude of places to eat.
We then travel to the Osaka Tenmangu Shrine. This is one of Osaka’s most beloved Shinto shrines, dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the deity of scholarship and learning. Students come here to pray for success on examinations. Artists pray for inspiration. Business leaders seek clarity of thought. But beneath those traditions lies something even deeper. Spiritually, Tenmangū reminds us that true wisdom does not come merely from accumulating knowledge—it comes from bringing the heart, mind, and spirit into alignment.
Return to the hotel and cap off the day with a special Welcome Dinner at a local restaurant. Enjoy authentic Japanese cuisine while connecting with fellow travelers and sharing your day’s reflections.
Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner
We begin the day by becoming still and turning inward. At Ryōan-ji, the Temple of the Peaceful Dragon, we experience the profound serenity of one of Japan’s most celebrated Zen landscapes. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is renowned for its mysterious rock garden—an intentionally simple arrangement of stone, moss, and raked gravel that has inspired contemplation for centuries.
We have time on our own at the Nishiki Market to enjoy lunch and explore Kyoto’s local shops for unique treasures and souvenirs in a quaint neighborhood.
We then dive into the life and philosophy of the Samurai, guided by the Hagakure’s teachings. Reflect on bushido’s principles of discipline, loyalty, and courage as you learn about the Samurai’s way of life. As we visit the Samurai Museum for an immersive look into the Samurai’s history and culture. Participate in a fun and interactive Ninja activity, where you can channel your inner warrior and try something new.
Enjoy authentic Kyoto cuisine style dinner, where the best chefs in the world live, while connecting with fellow travelers and sharing your day’s reflections.
Meal Included: Breakfast and Dinner
We’ll return to our hotel and you can explore Kyoto for dinner on your own.
Meal Included: Breakfast
Today we take a deeper step into the history and majesty of the ancient capital of Kyoto. Experience the ultimate torii gate experience by walking through the thousands of vermillion torii gates that climb through the hills near the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. Here, at this shrine, we encounter the Japanese “Inari”, the fox-guardian spirit (the Shinto god of rice). Found in fable, legend, and the spirit world, the fox is a messenger and guardian. This walk is part of our spiritual practice today.
We then visit the Sanjusangendo Temple that within its temple hall, holds Japan’s longest wooden structure. In the center sits a large, wooden statue of a 1000-armed Kannon (Senju Kannon) that is flanked on each side by 500 statues of human sized 1000-armed Kannon standing in ten rows. Together they make for an awesome sight.
Our spiritual practice today includes a private, guided Zazen meditation experience at the Shorinji Temple. Shorinji means “The Wood of Awakening”. Zazen = ‘Za’ is the harmony of the body, breath, and mind. Zen is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit, dhyana, or meditation. Zazen is the gradual unification of your body, breath, and mind through seated meditation.
You then have the afternoon and evening to explore the magnificent city of Kyoto on your own. There’s an option to participate in an authentic Japanese Tea Ceremony.
Meal Included: Breakfast
Our journey takes us to Kibune – only around thirty minutes from Kyoto City, but it feels like worlds away. The area is filled to the brim with wildlife and seasonal flowers blooming along the river, and the local restaurants and ryokan (traditional inns) serve meals on platforms built over the cool waters. We climb the steps to the Kifune Shrine. This shrine is particularly significant to the Japanese as home to Kami, the God of Water. It’s recognized as the head of over 2,000 such water shrines all over Japan. This entire area is calm, healing, and deeply spiritual for the Japanese people. Legend has it that a goddess traveled to this location from Osaka. It is here where her spirit, as well as her boat, is kept. There is a boat stone, under which, is said to be buried the goddesses’ boat. People who own businesses, come here to seek blessings.
We then head to the Sanzenin area to enjoy special places to shop and pick a place to eat lunch.
Afterwards, we visit Sanzen-in Temple, which is a very significant temple for the branch of Buddhism called “Pure Land Buddhism”. The method of worship is in the form of chanting sutras. This kind of Buddhism is also called “Jodo Buddhism” – the belief that one can be reborn into a new “Buddha-field” and make steps in the next life to improve and come closer to enlightenment. This branch of Buddhism is widely spread throughout Asia and is popular because it grants the possibility for people to improve and find “the Buddha” even if they are not particularly virtuous in this life.
The various magnificent gardens reflect the seasons and are particularly famous in autumn for the fall colors. On the grounds, the path meanders around small halls with ancient histories and through moss gardens dotted with smiling little jizō statues, making for a beautiful and relaxing time.
Take some time to wander and explore this marvelous and sacred space. Afterwards, you can choose to BE and have some tea in a gorgeous setting or walk to the Otonashi no Taki Waterfall is found on the Sanzen-in Temple grounds and its name, “Oto-nashi” means, “soundless”.
Meal Included: Breakfast and Lunch
We depart Kyoto and transfer to one of the holy of holies of Japan, Koyasan (Mt. Koya).
Koyasan is a holy site that is a series of temples, but also a gravesite that is the final resting place for about half a million people. Among those who are interned here are several very significant historical figures, famous monks, as well as the legendary figure of Oda Nobunaga.
Before arriving in Koyasan, we participate in a spiritual deepening experience today – we visit the Sumiyoshi Taisha for a special Shinto ceremony – a private experience to receive blessings and prayers from an authentic Shinto shrine. This shrine is dedicated to the three gods of the sea (the Watatsumi, a creature in three manifestations), god of war, and god of poetry. We then indulge our eyes and tastebuds in one of the most remarkable meals one can eat in Japan at Sumiyoshi. Trust us – it’s incredible!
We arrive in Koyasan and spend the night in a Japanese Buddhist temple for a genuine, sacred ryokan experience. Enjoy the stillness, beauty, simplicity, meditation, and meals.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
After breakfast, we experience one of the most beautiful and sacred walks of our pilgrimage at an ancient graveyard.
In the most central part of Koyasan is the Okunoin Temple (ancient graveyard), where Kukai (posthumously named “Kobo Daishi”) is resting. Legend has it that Kukai is not, in fact, deceased yet meditates day and night until he is ready to come back to this world. Monks carry meals to his mausoleum every morning and evening.
Koyasan is also the endpoint for those finishing their holy pilgrimage. You may see “ohenro pilgrims” in their white clothing and sedge hats. It is considered a sacred duty of many Japanese Bhuddhist to make a pilgrimage here, one time in their life. They come here to pay homage to Kukai and to thank him for his steadfast companionship on the path they have just completed. In their hands they may carry a staff which is said to be the embodiment of Kukai, and they keep it/him with them as they travel. On the staff reads in Japanese, “Dogyo-Ninin”, which means, “two travel together”.
We then transfer to Kobe to a 4-star hotel for two nights that you will love! Kobe is located between the sea and the Rokko mountain range, Kobe is also considered one of Japan’s most attractive cities. In 1995, Kobe was hit by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which killed over 5000 people and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings. Today the city is completely rebuilt, and few signs of the terrible event remain.
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Today is a very special day as we travel out to the island of Awajishima (Awaji Island). It is here that the very first gods met and from this place that all other islands of Japan were born. This is the very epicenter of Japanese legend and Shinto tradition.
We enjoy some marvelous time at Zenbo Seinei (a Japanese Zen Retreat) for a Zen Wellness Experience overlooking the panoramic views of the valleys all around.
Your ZEN Retreat is designed to detoxify and retreat your body and mind by experiencing meditation and other sacred activities in the brilliant sunlight, clean air, and magnificent greenery. You’ll enjoy freshly prepared original Zenbo dishes by our chef, handmade tea cakes and more surprises. Everything about this our time there is about being present to the beauty of Japan! It’s an unforgettable experience on many levels, including the view.
We close our last evening together with a spectacular Celebration Dinner and share, reflect, and give thanks on all our priceless moments along our pilgrimage.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
PRICING FOR 10-DAYS and 9-NIGHTS LAND PACKAGE:
Per person Double Occupancy: $5,889
$889 nonrefundable deposit to hold your space.
*Single Supplement is $1,250
PAYMENT SCHEDULE AND CANCELLATION POLICY:
There is a $889 nonrefundable deposit required to reserve your spot as tours are limited to small groups.
Payment of $1,100 due by October 1, 2026
Additional $1,100 due by January 15, 2027
Another $1,100 due by April 1, 2027
Final payment (Full balance) tour is due by July 1, 2027
If cancelled outside of 120 days of tour date – full refund minus $889 nonrefundable deposit
If cancelled between 91 and 119 days – 50% is refundable minus $889 nonrefundable deposit
If cancelled within 90 days – No Refund
Itinerary is subject to change if necessary without notice.
Trip Insurance (Cancellation/Interruption/Medical) highly recommended and medical insurance required for all international tours. Assistance with insurance and airfare are available through Spirit Tours.
Note: Improper required travel documentation is typically not covered by travel insurance. Spirit Tours/Agency/Agent not liable for errors and omissions of approved/paid itinerary and held harmless for unforeseen travel complications as of result of Pandemics and Quarantines.