Tokyo • Akita • Akira • Kyoto • Hiroshima • Nagasaki • Seoul • DMZ • Naju
16 Days - Our prices include airfare from your home town and exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels everywhere
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Trip Includes
- A Catholic priest will be with the group to celebrate daily Mass.
- Round-trip airfare from your hometown connecting in a major city to fly overseas is included.
- Airport Taxes, Security Fees, and Fuel Surcharges!
- Exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels in downtown areas.
- All breakfasts and all dinners. Wine is included with all dinners.
- Transportation with luxury bus.
- All entrance fees to all the sites.
- All tips to everyone involved in the tour.
- The tour fees for our guides. Our tour guides are well educated, caring, and professional. Most of them have their PhD's in Church history, archeology, philosophy, languages, or Theology.
- Luggage handling. Please pack light, one piece of luggage and one carry-on.
- Dress casually throughout the whole trip. Shoulders and knees should be covered when visiting Basilicas or churches.
- If you are traveling alone and you allow us to find you a roommate, you don't pay the $900 single supplement. If you wish to have your own room and you are not open to rooming with another passenger, then the single supplement fee is $900.
- Wheelchair can be provided for those passengers who cannot walk, with prior notice at registration for $150. A traveling companion has to push the wheelchair throughout the trip.
- At the time of registration, as a part of the total balance, a non-refundable $500 (hotel and airfare deposit) is due in the form of a credit card. For example, if your trip costs $3,700, when you sign up, you pay a $500 deposit, then your balance would be $3,200 and is due 4 months before departure date. If you sign up after the final payment due date or at the last minute, you pay the entire cost of the trip at registration.
Trip Does Not Include
- Lunch
- Insurance ~ The total trip cost is non-refundable, we recommend trip insurance to protect your investment.
Trip Itinerary
September 7 - Day 1: Depart USA for Japan.
September 8 - Day 2: Arrive in Tokyo, Japan. Upon arrival you will be transferred to your hotel. Remainder of the day at leisure. Dinner and overnight.
September 9 - Day 3: Enjoy a sightseeing tour including Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, Asakusa Temple, Tokyo`s oldest Buddhist temple, and the Ginza District, renowned for its excellent shopping. Dinner and overnight in Tokyo.
September 10 - Day 4: We depart the cosmopolitan city of Tokyo and head for the small town of Akita located in the northeastern part of Japan. Our high-speed bullet train takes us through a lush countryside of many rice fields. We wonder at the apparent synthesis of East meets West. Dinner and overnight in Akira.
September 11 - Day 5: Our day is devoted to visiting Seitai Hoshikai featuring the wooden statue of Our Lady that wept human tears 101 times between 1975 and 1981, its oriental style church, and the Chapel where the apparitions happened. You`ll have time to visit the beautiful Japanese gardens next to the church to do some meditations and possibly follow the stations of the Cross, all located on the same property. Dinner and overnight.
September 12 - Day 6: We are on our way to the once imperial city of Kyoto which was moved to Tokyo in 1868. Today Kyoto is Japan’s seventh largest city with a population of over one million people and the only city spared from the bombs of World War ll. Check-in our hotel and overnight.
September 13 - Day 7: Our morning sightseeing includes the Kyoto Imperial Palace, seat of the imperial family from 1331 to 1868, and the Heian Shrine, Kyoto’s most famous built in commemoration of the 1100th anniversary of the founding of the city. It also deifies two of Japan’s emperors. The afternoon is free to shop at Kyoto’s craft center & tonight you might want to explore Gion, Kyoto’s fascinating pleasure district enjoying the sight of heavily made-up Geishas dressed in traditional kimonos.
September 14 - Day 8: Travel to Hiroshima. Later we are on our way to the southern port town of Nagasaki. Dinner and overnight.
September 15 - Day 9: Nagasaki, one of Japan’s most liberal cities, can pride itself with a lively harbour. In fact, Nagasaki used to be the only link to other cultures and the rest of the world during Japan’s 200 years of isolation. In 1571 it became a port of call for Portuguese and Dutch ships. St. Francis Xavier and other missionaries found many converts here. In 1587 the shogun banned Christianity. We visit Nishizaka Hill where in 1597 twenty Japanese and six foreign Christians were crucified. In 1862 the 26 martyrs were sainted by the pope. Our sightseeing includes Oura Catholic Church, built by French missionaries in 1864, Glover Garden, and Hollander Slope. Dinner and overnight.
September 16 - Day 10: Travel from Nagasaki, Japan to Seoul, South Korea. Upon arrival you will be transferred to your hotel. Remainder of the day at leisure. Dinner and overnight.
September 17 - Day 11: Our day begins at the Myeongdong Cathedral, the birthplace of the Korean Catholic community, The Cathedral was once the tallest building in the capital, an awe-inspiring sight for the populace that has stood the test of time. Then travel to the site of Yi Byeok, where the Korean Catholic Church was officially established in 1784. Dinner and overnight in Seoul.
September 18 - Day 12: Today we will start at Gye-dong, home of the Gahoe-dong Catholic Church, and the place where Korea’s first mass was held followed by Seosomun Historical Park, surrounded by lush greenery. Next, we will tour Yakhyeon Catholic Church, which is located on the hills looking over the Seosomun, it was the country’s first Western style Gothic cathedral. We will then travel past the Danggogae martyr’s shrine of 1839. Dinner and overnight in Seoul.
September 19 - Day 13: Travel to DMZ - Experience the extraordinary Korean Demilitarized Zone on the South Korean side and learn about the war between the North and South and how the demilitarized strip of land came about. Get a rare glimpse of North Korea from the Dora Observatory. Dinner and overnight.
September 20 - Day 14: Journey on to Naju. Spend time in prayer at the House of the Blessed Mother which houses the miraculous image of the Blessed Mother known to have shed tears and blood. Relive the Passion of the Lord as you pray the Way of the Cross at the Naju Holy Mountain with fellow pilgrims. Visit places where Korean Catholics were martyred for their faith at the Haemi Shrine; The Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Namyang; and Solmoe, the birthplace of St. Andrew Kim Dae-geon, the first Korean Saint and Catholic priest. Dinner and overnight in Naju.
September 21 - Day 15:Today we will visit the Holy Shrine at Mirinae, where the tomb of Kim Dae-geon, the first priest of Korea, is laid to rest. We will see the cathedral, the tomb of Father Kim Dae-geon, the Garden of Gethsemane, the house of retreat, the vicarage, the monastery, and the nunnery.
September 22 - Day 16: Return home.