Sights and Tastes of Rural Japan

Journeys East is offering a 13-night tour called “From Farmhouse to Teahouse.’ The group departs May 11 and travels through Japanese villages, focusing on regional cuisine and folk architecture. Accommodations are all Japanese style and vary from thatched-roofed farmhouses, to temple lodgings, to a Kyoto inn where all rooms look out on private gardens and feature artwork reflecting the season.

Traveling north from Tokyo toward the Japan Sea, the group stays in an Edo period “post-town” that specializes in lacquerware. In Nagano, where the 1996 Winter Olympics will be held, lodging is at an elegant temple that specializes in Buddhist cooking. Guests dine on a meal called shoiin ryori, which consists of more than 20 dishes, all vegetarian and noted for their subtle flavors. Spending the night in a thatch-roofed farmhouse, the group sips sake on the veranda and then gathers around a fireplace to dine on the day’s fresh harvest.

At a stop in Gujo Hachiman, the “Venice” of Japan, trip members walk along the town’s canals to a tea museum and on to a restaurant where the meal is gathered from the local forest, served on handmade bamboo dishes and cooked on hot stones.

The group’s final meal is Japan’s most elegant cuisine, called kaiseki, which features foods that are selected and prepared to appeal to the eye as well as the palate. Typically, one of the many courses may consist of tiny gingko nuts carved to look like pine cones or special rice wrapped in bamboo leaf “boats.” Food is served on dishes that have been in the chef’s family for seven generations. A tea ceremony, visits to imperial villas and the Moss Garden are also planned.

Cost: $3,985 per person, double occupancy, including all transfers, lodging and most meals. Not included: air fare to Japan. Contact: Journeys East, 2443 Fillmore St., No. 289P, San Francisco, CA 94115; telephone (800) 527-2612..

French Waterways

The Smithsonian Associates are organizing a cruise to explore the French waterways near Paris on the Anacoluthe, a 46-passenger river cruiser. The Anacoluthe will sail June 1 on a six-night voyage, with stops in Giverny, Sens, Fontainebleau and other colorful towns. After the cruise, the itinerary includes two nights in Dijon, bus tours to museums, historic buildings and the vineyards in the area, a train trip to Paris with two nights in the City of Light.

Cost: $5,328 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, meals and sightseeing. Not included: air fare to France. Contact: Smithsonian Associates, Department 0049, Washington, DC 20073-0049; tel. (202) 357-4700.

Adventure Cruise

A seven-night journey from Special Expeditions on a vintage luxury yacht goes to out-of-the-way Caribbean ports on several dates in February and on March 16. The tour departs from St. John on Antigua. After a day at sea, the first stop is Carriacou, the largest island in the Grenadines, where guests will visit the village of Hillsborough. The afternoon is spent at Sandy Island, where interesting reef formations make for good snorkeling. Other less-traveled areas on the itinerary include Tobago and the unique bird life at Little Tobago, and St. Lucia, where the ship anchors at Soufriere, beneath the twin volcanic peaks of Les Pitons. Next, it’s on to the rain forests of Dominica, Isles des Saintes (a group of French-speaking islands) and Antigua.

The Sea Cloud is a four-masted, 60-passenger sailing vessel with outside staterooms and suites, conceived in the late 1920s by heiress Marjorie Merriwether Post and her husband, E.F. Hutton. Interiors are paneled in carved oak and fitted with Italian marble, parquet floors and burnished brass.

Cost: from $3,990 per person, double occupancy, including all accommodations, meals, shore excursions, taxes and service charges, and use of snorkeling equipment. Not included: air fare. Contact: Special Expeditions; tel. (800) 762-0003.

Italy’s Folk Crafts

Join Roberta Kritzia, artist/lecturer, on a tour of the medieval hill towns of Umbria and Tuscany. The focus in these historic villages will be the craft studios of local artists. Participants will visit the studio of Giuseppe Mascherini, the “Geppetto of Orvieto,” considered a national treasure for his handcarved Pinocchios. In Siena, guests will be invited to a wine sampling party at the home of Maria Elena Torchio, whose garden terrace offers spectacular views of Siena and San Domenico. Nestled among the vineyards of Chianti and Vernaccia is San Gimignano, where the group will taste the cuisine of Tuscany at a restaurant which is surrounded by medieval towers. Participants also visit Montalcino, a hill town whose local wine, Brunello di Montalcino, is celebrated for its hearty flavor and aroma. In Deruta, guests can shop for the intricate handpainted crafts that have earned this town the title “ceramic capital of Umbria.” In central Italy, guests will visit Spoleto, Assisi, Perugia, Gubbio and Florence. Gourmet cuisine, regional wine, small groups, accommodations in a country inn and two hotels are included in all Ciao Italia 1996 programs.

Three departure dates are available: May 22-June 2, Sept. 2-13, and Sept. 23-Oct. 4.

Cost: $2,500 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, motor-coach transportation, eight meals and sightseeing. Not included: air fare to Italy. Contact: Roberta Kritzia, Personalized Travel, 5455 Slymar Ave. No. 902, Sherman Oaks, CA 91401; tel. (818) 994-2402.

Holland in Bloom

A 10-night cruise/tour departs April 9 and 16 from Los Angeles for Amsterdam. Participants spend three nights at the Golden Tulip Barbizon Centre Hotel in Amsterdam near shopping and museums. In Amsterdam there will be opportunities to see Dam Square, the Royal Palace, to visit the landmark Rijksmuseum ( where Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch,” is displayed). Also on the itinerary is the National Vincent Van Gogh Museum filled with his paintings and drawings with works by Van Gogh’s friends and contemporaries, the Aalsmeer Flower Auction south of Amsterdam, the Peace Palace in the Hague, and the coastal resort town of Scheveningen, where shopping for Royal Delft Blue Pottery is the attraction.

A seven-day cruise on the waterways of Holland is next on the agenda, with lecturers on board to provide an insight into the customs and history of the area. Shore excursions include a visit to the Kroller--Muller Museum in Otterloo which houses 276 works by Van Gogh; the Netherlands Open Air Museum in Arnhem; a walking tour in Zierikzee to explore the village of Zeeland, the center of the Delta Works Project, a plan to reclaim land from the North Sea by building dikes. At Veere, once continental Europe’s entry port for wool from Scotland, a local folklore troupe performs for passengers; there’s also stops at Middleburg with its 15th century buildings, and at Goes on its colorful market day. Highlight of the cruise is a medieval style dinner served in an old converted stable in the village of Geertruidenberg, and a visit to the Keukenhof Gardens, a 70-acre park showcasing 8 million blooming bulbs. Other shore excursions allow for a visit to a cheese market in Hoorn and to Enkhuizen, considered by many to be the prettiest town in the Netherlands, Giethoorn for a short ride on its canals, and to Maarken with its stilt houses. A finale dinner party with musical entertainment shipboard completes the cruise.

Cost: $3,725 per person, double occupancy, includes land/cruise rate with outside cabins with large picture windows, 10 breakfasts, eight lunches, and eight dinners, airport transfers and baggage handling. Not included: air fare to Amsterdam. Contact: Bonar Travel Service, 24 Whitewater Drive, Corona del Mar, CA 92625, tel. (714) 640-7402.

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The Times is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with cruise lines, travel agents or tour operators.