1 Day Tour from Kanazawa: Beautiful Natadera Temple, Craft Village and Dance with Real Geisha in Yamanaka Onsen

Yamanaka Onsen is a sleepy town in the mountains near Kanazawa whose origins go back more than 1300 years. It's said that a monk was guided here and healed by the hot springs. Today, its proud traditions include beautiful lacquerware, mountain trails and geisha dances unique to the area. On this tour, your local English-speaking guide will take you to an ancient temple with a beautiful garden, a craft village filled with chances to try your hand local crafts, and finally to Yamanaka Onsen itself to see a real geisha performance. You will even have the chance to dance with the geisha - a memory sure to last a lifetime!

Highlights

• See a real geisha performance and have the chance to dance with them yourself!
• See a temple dating back to the early-700s and walk through its beautiful garden.
• Experience Kaga Yuzen - traditional kimono dyeing - and have time to try a second local craft at a traditional craft village.

*For those looking to join the tour from Tokyo, please see the FAQ Section below

Description

This tour will start at Kanazawa Station at 9:00 A.M., where your guide will meet you in front of the Information Center near the Shinkansen Ticket Gates. You will have the opportunity to put your belongings in a coin locker at the station as well if you feel the need; however, you can of course store your belongings on the tour bus as well.

You will get on the bus at the bus terminal on the Kanazawa Port side of the station. After boarding, you will ride about an hour on the highway through the countryside of the Hokuriku Region to Natadera Temple.

Natadera dates back to the year 717 and has been known for its scenic beauty for hundreds of years. The temple practices an interesting mix of Buddhism and nature worship, so the gardens have become renowned as a place of healing.

At the back of the garden lies the oldest part of the temple. The main shrine, designated as an Important Cultural Property, is carved out of a small cave. People believed that by passing through these caves, their spirits were cleansed.

Around the gardens, there are plenty of spaces that make for beautiful pictures, like this area which is a Inari shrine used for mountain worship. You can really feel peace and tranquillity as you walk through these garden paths and take in the nature.

Heading back to the bus, we will drive a short way to our next destination: Yunokuni-no-Mori craft village. This area offers a wonderful selection of different experiences making local crafts.

Inside the craft village, your guide will explain more about each of the experiences on offer. Depending on the activities that pique your interests, you will have enough time to do two or three experiences before leaving the park.

Before splitting up, we'll head into the area to try our hands at Kaga Yuzen. This traditional art dates back to more than 500 years ago. Over time, the patterns painted on the kimono became more intricate and elegant. By the 1710s, Kaga Yuzen had become a famous industry in Kanazawa. It's known for using five basic colours: indigo, ocher, dark green, royal purple and crimson.

Shown above, you'll get a chance to decorate your own item - such as a handkerchief, lunch box wrap or placemats - using Kaga Yuzen techniques. When you're finished designing, you literally paint onto the fabric. There are a wide variety of designs available, and the colours of the paints beautifully blend onto the material. If you'd like, you can also sign your name on the fabric. When it's all done, the staff will iron it to finish it off, then you can keep it forever!

Once you've finished your Kaga Yuzen, you are free to explore the park. There are a couple of restaurants to get lunch and 23 other experiences on offer. From gold leaf decorating, glass blowing, sandblasting and ceramics to making cookies, lacquerware and even your own incense, there are a host of things to choose from!

Once we meet back up, it's time to leave the park and head for the main attraction of the tour: the geisha performance. The bus will head to Yamanaka Onsen, a quiet town tucked away in the mountains.

**Please remember that costs for any additional experiences after the Kaga yuzen that you do at the park are not included on the tour. Some experiences may depend on availability and time constraints.

We have a little time before the show starts, so your guide will take you on a short walk through some of the village's sights. There are also some shops you may wish to browse. If you tried your hand at lacquerware in the craft village, compare your work to the masters' on display in the shops - you may have discovered untapped talent!

We'll be back at the venue in time for the show. Geisha will perform a variety of traditional dances and songs local to the region. Being able to see the geisha up close is a really magical experience. You can tell they have practiced years to do each movement perfectly.

We'll also see a performance of the traditional Kaga lion dance, shishimai. This dance is said to have first been done to celebrate the first lord of Kanazawa, Toshiie Maeda, arriving to the region after a century of war. Lions are not native to Japan and were mythologised by merchants travelling from ancient India through China and the Korean Peninsula. Here in Japan, they became symbols of power and wisdom who drove away evil spirits. The sculpted lion heads used in the dance were placed in each town in the region to guard against misfortune.

For the final dance of the show, the geisha will invite audience members onto the stage to do Goshugi no Mai, the dance of celebration. This dance is popular even into today as a celebration of Kanazawa's rich history, calling back to when it was considered among the mightiest cities in Japan.

As pictures are strictly forbidden during the performance, we recommend you take the chance and try dancing for yourself! The geisha will walk you through the steps (there aren't many!) before doing the dance with the group. This is sure to be the memory of a lifetime and this is one of the few places in Japan where experiences like this can be done outside of a private performance.

After a long day exploring the region, we'll get back on the bus and start our journey back to Kanazawa. The ride takes a little over an hour, so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride back to the station! If you have any questions about other parts of your trip, this is a perfect time to ask!

Meetup Points

Kanazawa Station @ 9:00 A.M.

The meetup point is outside of the Shinkansen ticket gates, in front of the information center. If you are heading out from the gates, look forward and to the right and you will see four large sumo wrestlers lined up. This is where we will be meeting. For those coming from outside the station, you will find this sign immediately inside of the East Entrance of Kanazawa Station. You may wait nearby there until the tour begins at 9:00 A.M. Be sure to look for the guide wearing a SNOW MONKEY RESORTS tour tag.

Notes

Included

• Transportation to and from Yamanaka Onsen and between all destinations during the tour.
• English-speaking guide.
• Entry fees at Natadera Temple, Yunokuni-no-Mori Craft Village and the geisha performance at Yamanaka Onsen.
• Kaga Yuzen Experience

Excluded

• Lunch
• Experiences at the craft village(other than Kaga Yuzen)
• Accommodation

Other Information

• In winter the temperatures will be below 10℃ at the high , and in the morning and evening may be close to or below 0℃. Please wear warm clothing and footwear appropriate for snowy and cold conditions. There may also be snow and ice on the road/sidewalk, and so you should take care to not slip by preparing the correct shoes for such conditions.
• This tour involves several hours of walking/being outdoors. We recommend that you wear shoes and clothes which are easy to walk in. Please check the weather forecast before you head to the meetup point and prepare an umbrella or rain coat if necessary.
• There will be free time along the way for guests to enjoy the locations at their own pace. However, please make sure that you are at the respective meetup points at the time stated by your guide. If you get lost or need assistance, feel free to call the number which is listed on your tour pass, and our staff will assist you immediately.