A Taste of Japan Through Its Cuisine

The many forms of Japanese cuisine will be explored on an 11-day tour to Japan in mid-July. Participants will dine on many of Japan’s culinary specialties, including sushi, sukiyaki and a kaiseki dinner, which is a long succession of delicacies. The group will also experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and visit the Tsukiji Fish Market, where Tokyo’s sushi chefs shop early every morning. Cooking classes and visits to famous temples and hot springs also are planned.

Guests also will visit the historic city of Kyoto, Tokyo, and Takayama in the Japan Alps. An exact date for the trip will be scheduled in about a month.

Cost: $4,190 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals and sightseeing. Air fare is extra. Contact: International Dining Adventures, 106 Lynn St., Seattle, WA 98109; telephone (800) 447-6080 or (206) 281-8880.

Britain’s Gardens

A garden tour of Scotland and Ireland, Aug. 4 to 18, will begin with a bagpipe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Participants will visit gardens of Brodick Castle, Mt. Stewart, Birr Castle, the Italianete gardens of Bantry House, the Japanese gardens at Tully and Emo and formal gardens of Powers-court. In Ireland, more traditional sites include the Cliffs of Moher, the Ring of Kerry, the Blarney Stone, Holyrood Palace, Galway, Kenmare and Killorglin.

Cost: $2,795 per person, double occupancy, including air fare, select hotels, motor-coach transportation, baggage handling, a full-time guide, entrance fees to all attractions, daily breakfasts and two dinners. Contact: Don Eslinger, Historic Tours of America, 16142 Woodstock Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92647; tel. (714) 846-9595.

Monterey by Design

Monterey Peninsula College instructors Richard Janick and Kent Seavey will lead a tour of Spanish-influenced Monterey-style architecture Jan. 24 to 26. The tour will feature a sampling of both public buildings and private residences. Highlights will include the Asilomar Conference Center by Julia Morgan, Cannery Row and Clint Eastwood’s Carmel Mission Ranch, as well as the work of Charles Moore, Frank Lloyd Wright and others. A Friday night reception and lecture at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art starts the weekend.

Cost: $350 per person, including accommodations for one night at the Hotel Pacific in Monterey and the motor-coach tour. The tour is sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians. Transportation to Monterey is not included. Contact: Sundance Travel; tel. (800) 424-3434.

Solar Eclipse

E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, will lead a UCLA Extension travel study tour to Erdenet, Mongolia, to view the total eclipse of the sun (March 9) and to discuss possible links between sovereignty and astronomy in central Asia.

Rarely visited sites in China and Mongolia, along with sightseeing in Beijing, are included on this trip, which runs March 1 to 15.

The itinerary begins with three nights in Beijing, including sightseeing at the Imperial Palace and the Ancient Beijing Observatory, where elegant bronze instruments with which 17th century astronomers measured the sky are on display. The next day, participants visit the Great Wall, stopping off at Juyong Pass to view the Cloud Terrace Gate, a ceremonial platform that once supported three Buddhist shrines symbolizing cosmic order.

Next the group flies to Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia, home of the Temple of Five Pagodas and the Dazhao Monastery, reached through narrow, winding streets. Then the group travels to Ulan Bator, the capital of the independent country of Mongolia.

From there participants take a train ride to the key destination of Erdenet in the Bulgan Province to view the eclipse from 7:47 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. After local sightseeing, the group returns to Ulan Bator, visiting the Lamaist monastery. Participants also fly to Hebei province to visit the Imperial Summer Villa and Eight Outer Temples built by the Qing Dynasty rulers.

Cost: $6,700 per person, double occupancy, including tuition, round-trip air travel from Los Angeles, land transportation, accommodations, entrance fees and most meals. Contact: UCLA Extension, The Sciences, 10995 LeConte Ave., Suite 714, Los Angeles, CA 90024; tel. (310) 825-7093.

Eclipsed Again

See a total eclipse of the sun from a ship in the Caribbean Sea (Feb. 26) on a 10-day cruise that leaves Fort Lauderdale Feb. 22. A solar eclipse expert will help guests view the eclipse safely and give a lecture on the eclipse. Ports of call include St. Martin, Barbados, Guadeloupe, St. John, St. Thomas and Nassau.

Cost: $1,398 per person, double occupancy, including a pre-cruise stay in Fort Lauderdale for West Coast passengers. Air fare and port charges are not included. Contact: Carolyn Edwards, Your Travel Center, 1005 Casitas Pass Road, Carpinteria, CA 93013; tel. (805) 684-6601.

Galapagos Birds

Conejo Valley Audubon of Camarillo invites the public to join members on a 14-day birding and nature tour of the Galapagos Islands and mainland Ecuador from Jan. 11 to 24. Sixteen participants will see red- and blue-footed boobies, masked boobies, Galapagos hawks, Darwin’s finches, flamingos, penguins and many endemic species. From Quito, guests travel to Tinalandia, a wet forest and birder’s paradise.

Cost: $3,562 per person, double occupancy, including double cabin with private bath on Dorado, all air transportation, transfers, ground transportation, accommodations at Alameda Real in Quito and Tinalandia resort, Galapagos cruise, guides, all meals, park entrances and port fees. Contact: Sharon Lovell, Conejo Valley Audubon Society, P.O. Box 4782, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359; tel. (805) 484- 2739.

St. Patrick’s Ireland

Depart March 10 for nine days of festivities centered around St. Patrick’s Day on a tour of Ireland. The tour begins in Dublin and ends with St. Patrick’s Day in Limerick, where guests are invited to be part of the Guinness Brewery’s Marching Team. Guests travel through ancient monastic settlements, medieval villages and quaint country towns from Castledermot, Kilkenny, Killarney, the Dingle Peninsula and Adare. Accommodations include Dunraven Arms in Adare County and Kilkea Castle, the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland.

Cost: $1,497 per person, double occupancy, including breakfast daily, entrance fees, transfers, hotels and guides. Air fare is not included. Contact: Acacia Travel, 4250 Pacific Highway, Suite 125, San Diego, CA 92110; tel. (800) 243-6996.

Dubbing Dublin

A nine-day escorted tour to Ireland departs March 29 from Los Angeles beginning and ending in Dublin. Participants are met on arrival by the tour leader followed by an afternoon tour in Dublin, which includes the 400-year-old Trinity College, well known for its 9th century “Book of Kells,” St. Patrick’s Cathedral and historic Phoenix Park. The park encompasses 2,000 acres in Dublin City and contains the residences of the American Ambassador and the Irish president.

A scenic drive northwest is next to County Sligo, William Yeats’ country and nearby Drumcliff where the poet is buried. There is a side trip to the town of Donegal to visit the Tweed Centre. Next is an excursion to Killarney on the Ring of Kerry via the pilgrimage town of Knock, where stories of apparitions and miraculous cures have brought the town some fame. En route the tour pauses at Galway, then continues to Adare, considered to be one of the prettiest villages in Ireland.

Guests visit the 15th century Blarney Castle. At Waterford, home of the crystal, there is a visit to the crystal showroom and factory. At Cork, the second-largest city in Ireland, there is an orientation covering St. Finbar’s Cathedral and the old courthouse.

Cost: $1,295 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, full-time tour director, hotels, local guide in Dublin, full Irish breakfast daily, some dinners, motor-coach touring, Dublin airport transfers, all hotel service charges, tips and baggage handling. Other dates are available for the tour. Contact: Joan Irvine Travel, 1600 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach, CA 92663; tel. (714) 548-3481.

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