AsiaLuxe Holidays

Kansai Journal: Day Seven, The End - I read the final page of my journal to the members of our group on the bus after breakfast, while the engine purred, waiting to depart for the market. They thanked me for my journaling efforts and I told them I...

Kansai Journal: Day Six I awoke before dawn in the silence. The lodge was warm and lighted, but no one stirred. I pulled on my warmest corduroy pants, and slipped a sweater over my long sleeved shirt before I grabbed my muffler, hat and jacket to...

Kansai Journal: Day Five Toji temple’s five storied pagoda loomed over the busy street as we approached by bus. Inside the temple complex we discovered that in 794 the capitol of Japan was transferred from Nara to Kyoto, and that Emperor Kammu built...

Kansai Journal: Day Four Morning brought clear, bright skies that soon started to melt the cold. We thanked the Hanayashiki people for our souvenir porcelain cow bud vases (It was the Year of the Cow) and soon puttered off in our motor coach, once...

Kansai Journal: Day Three After a buffet featuring Japanese breakfast food along with scrambled eggs, croissants and waffles with maple syrup at the hotel’s Serena Restaurant, we left for Todaiji Temple. But first we had to brave the famous deer...