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with sake (rice wine) and matcha, a special tea.
For vegetarians, Shojin-ryori is recommended. The Buddhists meal is cooked without fish, poultry, meats, egg, dairy products or root vegetables like onion and garlic.
Celebrate Japanese Style
Festivals: Think Japan and the annual cherry blossom viewing or Hanami (April) comes to mind. Hanami is also Kyoto’s prime attraction. Mid-March
is the Higashiyama Hanatoro when literally thousands of lanterns are lit, and millions of flowers decorate the walkways from Sanjo to Gojo streets. May 15th is the Aoi Matsuri Festival, comprising a colourful procession of decorated oxcarts and people dressed in Heian-period costumes. July 1st to 31st marks Gion Matsuri, a month long extravaganza of floats around the Shiji-Karasuma area. August 16th is Gozan Okuribi, when five bonfires are lit in the form of kanji (Chinese characters) on five mountains surrounding Kyoto. It marks the end
of Obon, the traditional day of ancestor worship and is said to send ancestral spirits who come to visit the world, back to the other side.
For more information on dates of festivals, visit www.jnto.go.jp EV
Experience the Hot Springs of Japan in 2009!
with over seventy percent of Japan covered in mountains and blessed with more than 2000 thermal hot springs areas, you will be spoilt for choice!
relax your body and mind at one of the following rCi resorts offering this relaxing and traditional ‘onsen’ experience:
• Sun Resorpia Atami (0840), Atami
• Izu Kogen Izumigo (1642), Izu Peninsula
• Hotel Resorpia Hakone (1018), Hakone
• Hotel Resorpia Beppu (1023), Kyushu
put your deposit to good use before it’s too late!
Call our holiday Guides to place an exchange request for Japan now and you might just be on the next plane to the land of cherry blossoms!
Don’t:
1. Bargain as most prices are fixed – unless your Japanese ability does not get lost
in translation!
2. Forget to bring a plug adapter for your electrical appliances such as mobile phone batteries, digital cameras as only the
2- flat-pin type plugs are used in Japan.
ENDLESS VACATION 13
stay
rCi-affliated resorts in Kyoto include:
0328 SuN MEMbERS KYOTO Saga
1019 HOTEl RESORpIa KuMIHaMa
©Jnto