Optional Tours: The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law Meeting 2019

We are pleased to offer the following Optional Tours in Tokyo. This year, we are offering a Pre-Conference tour on the Saturday before the meeting begins, and a Post-Conference tour on the Friday after the meeting. If you choose either of these tours, please make sure your flights are scheduled to arrive or depart accordingly.

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All tours have a minimum number of participants who must register. Registrants cancelling tours on or before March 30, 2019 will receive a 100% refund less a USD $30.00 processing fee. Registrants cancelling after March 30, 2019 will not receive any refunds. Registering for an activity guarantees a space for that activity/tour so the cancellation policy will be strictly enforced. You are welcome to find a substitute for yourself on the tour. Tours not meeting the minimum numbers by March 30, 2019 are likely to be cancelled.

Proceed by coach to Mt Fuji’s 5th Station that is located at 7,545 feet (2,300m) about halfway up the mountain and offers another vantage point for Mt Fuji and the surrounding lakes (subject to weather conditions). The 5th Station also features shrines, torii gates, souvenir shops, and perhaps a few climbers completing their preparations for their ascent.

You will have time to enjoy Japanese-style lunch or dine on your own. You will then drive to Lake Ashi, located nearby in Hakone National Park. Admire the pretty scenery as you take a short cruise across the lake, which is surrounded by mountains including Mt Fuji and Mt Komagatake.

Your journey will take you to the top of Mt Komagatake on the Mt Komagatake Ropeway, an aerial tram that lifts off from the shores of the lake and takes you up Mt Komagatake in an enclosed cabin with 360-degree views.

When you reach the summit, enjoy time to take in views over Lake Ashi and Mt Fuji. You can also take a short stroll along one of the walking trails at the mountain top. After visiting Mt Komagatake, transfer by coach to the evening bullet train (Shinkansen) for your return to Tokyo Station.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

Visit a Bonsai Garden in Tokyo for a lecture on the art of Bonsai, and the opportunity to try cutting and creating one of the owner's prized trees.

The owner, “Mr. Miyagi,” has over 30 years of experience working with Bonsai, and one of the finest private collections of Bonsai in Japan, whose oldest tree is now 800 years old.

This bonsai garden visit will be combined with the opportunity to experience a real kimono first hand, in the bonsai master’s traditional Japanese house. Learn the “dos and don’ts” of kimono-wearing, followed by the actual process of dressing, under the supervision of an expert. Then make memories and mementos to take home, taking photographs with the bonsai garden as backdrop.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

The Yakatabune were popular with the upper classes of Japanese society in the middleages, and now have become almost a landmark, dotting Tokyo Bay and Sumida river.

The traditional interior and easy-to-enjoy food (sushi & tempura) makes these boats an ideal venue for arousing and totally Japanese lunch, while taking in Tokyo’s architecture from the waterways.

The route we will take you up the Sumida river towards Asakusa and the Skytree, then take a turn around Tokyo Bay to take in the impressive Rainbow Bridge and the iconic spherical Fuji TV building. Once out of the narrow central Tokyo canals with their lowbridges, you will be invited to the open fresh air on the upper deck to take in the full panoramic view.

*A minimum of 45 people is required for this tour to operate.

By chance TIAETL 2019 conference is ‘in the right place at the right time’, to attend a Grand Sumo Tournament. While one of the strongest cultural Images of Japan is Sumo, it is also one of the most difficult to actually witness, as only six tournaments a year take place across the country.

Tournaments last two weeks, with wrestlers fighting every day. The action takes place from midday, with the standard of the fighters gradually rising through the ranks (see the pyramid) until the Yokozunav Grand Champions and wrestlers in the ranks closest to them enter the area for the ‘Ring Entry Ceremony’, an elaborate and colourful event which takes place around 15h30, heralding the final bouts of the day.

We precede the tournament itself with the special opportunity to beef up on a modest portion of ‘Chanko-nabe’, the special protein-rich hot pot that sumo wrestlers eat daily to replenish their muscles after a day of training or competition. After a preamble and introduction of what to expect and look out for from your guide, we will then head to our grandstand seats at the tournament.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

In the space of 400 years, the fishing village of Edo has grown to first become “Tokyo,” the “Eastern Capital,” and subsequently one of the great cities, business centres and economic fulcrums of the modern world. This tour takes us to Asakusa, the historic centre of Tokyo.

Your expert guide for the day will tell you the story of Tokyo, and of Asakusa; including its imposing Sensoji Temple and the surrounding Nakamise temple town that is bordered by the formidable Kaminarimon gate.

Part of your experience will be a ride in the backstreets in Japan’s most traditional forms of taxi transport the rickshaw, or ‘jin-riki-sha’.

The rickshaw is a mode of transportation that is generally considered to have been invented in Japan in 1869. The actual name, “jin-riki-sha,” when broken down literally means, “human-powered-car”. Today your driver will show you sights, photo-opportunities and insights that are only available from this special vehicle for two.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

Visit the charming old Tokyo district at Ningyocho located in Nihombashi area to feel the traditional Edo period of Tokyo.

It might look like a regular business district at first glance, but don't be fooled. Many original houses, long- standing restaurants, traditional craft shops and tasty Japanese sweet shops can be found here.

You will start by visiting the famous Suitengu Shrine, a Shinto shrine for safe childbirth and blessing with children. Just renovated in 2016, its gleaming gold structure is definitely a must see in this area. Your guide will then introduce you to Ningyocho and Central Nihomnashi afterwards, where you will have some time to shop and exlpore.

Tokyo National Museum is probably the pre-eminent museum in Japan. This tour will be of a small selected segment of the collection with an expert guide. We will then enjoy a special tea ceremony in the historic, and normally closed tea houses hidden in a secluded area of the grounds.

The tea ceremony developed from Buddhism, the Zen Buddhist monks used the caffeine in the tea to help them stay awake during long sessions of meditation. The ceremony became formalized as a way to appreciate nature and the human position within nature.

Later it became popularized and further refined by the samurai warrior classes. One of the most important rituals of the tea ceremony was the requirement to leave all swords and weapons outside the tea room. Within the tiny confines of a traditional tea room during tea ceremony the most factors become the harmony and trust between the people, often with very different views and agendas, taking part.

We will make a special visit to the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation Trust Museum which has been especially prepared for TIAETL. In the museum itself your guide will lead you through the exhibits that discuss the development of the concept and legal status of trust. The exhibits then turn their focus to the development of the law and practices in Japan, leading up to the present. It also explains why Mitsubishi UFJ has chosen Peter Rabbit and other Beatrix Potter characters to represent its services to the Japanese market. The special exhibition is the final part of the Museum tour, and the exact details of this will be announced just before TIAETL conference in 2019.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

Zen is the school of Buddhism whose premise is that Enlightenment can be achieved not through knowledge and reasoning, but through Meditation. Like so many things in Japan, Zen is not something that is practised for just a few minutes or hours each week; it is a way of life and living that informs how monks and priests spend each day.

Meals and eating are an important part of Zen Buddhism, and first we experience this in full through a traditional ‘Shojin Ryori’ Zen Buddhist lunch at the temple.

Shoji Ryori specifies that only vegetables may be used in its preparation, with no strong flavours such garlic. At the same time the following taste elements must be included in each meal; salt, spice, bitter, sweet, sour. Furthermore, the monks and priests must only eat enough so that their stomachs are just over half full. Even within these strict rules and practices, the cuisine is surprisingly imaginative and satisfying.

After the meal an experienced Zen monk will explain the principles and process of Meditation, an ability which can be used to control and release stress in daily life. Participants will then have a chance for a short practice.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

After early morning departure from the hotel with a transfer to Tokyo Station. Catch a bullet train and gaze out of the window as you pass spectacular scenery on the 2-hour journey to Kyoto.

Upon arrival in Kyoto, greet your guide at the train station and enjoy a Western-style lunch in an elegant hotel restaurant before beginning your comprehensive city tour. Travel by comfortable coach to the spectacular Heian-jingu Shrine, a sacred Shino structure built to commemorate the founding of Kyoto in the 19th-century. Check out the opulent decorations and lavish ornaments of the shrine then venture to the majestic Sanjusangen-do Temple.

Take a moment of quiet reflection within the temple and see the colossal size of the Thousand Armed Kannon, an altar flanked by more than a 1,000 life-size statues dedicated the Buddhist deities. Afterward, visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple and hear the story behind the temple's construction from your guide. After your city tour, return to the station for the bullet train back to Tokyo.

*A minimum of 15 people is required for this tour to operate.

optional tours

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