Japan

UPDATE: This trip is now fully booked, but will be organized again in 2026.
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This trip has been put together by See All This and Dimsum Reizen, the travel agent that has been organizing trips to Asia for over twenty years. This program, especially for readers of See All This, contains surprising encounters with locals, takes you to undiscovered places and enables unique visits to museums, temples and gardens on the Setouchi Islands, in nature, and in cities such as Kyoto and Tokyo. Meet artists, visit studios and be seduced by the unsurpassed refined Japanese cuisine.

Dimsum Reizen is convinced that traveling in a responsible way makes a positive contribution to a sustainable world. That is why they pay a lot of attention to the impact that their travels have on the social structure of local communities and on the ecology of the earth. Read more about responsible tourism here

What is special about this edition is that you will not only visit the Setouchi Triennale (which only takes place once every three years), but you can also extend the trip with a specially composed program. These extensions can also be booked separately from this trip.

Extension 1: Art & architecture in Tokyo
Extension 2: Ceramics in Tamba Sasayama
In this Art Room you will discover a number of highlights of the trip. Read more about it and reserve your place at the bottom of this Art Room.

In Kyoto, you can feel and smell the still very much alive Japanese traditions between the seams of the hypermodern society. Frank Witkam, Japanologist, member of the associate-fellow program of the Tokyo National Museum and lecturer in Japanese art history at Rikkyo University, takes you to his favorite cultural-historical places and you meet a number of artists in their studios.

On Japan’s Art Islands
The Setouchi Islands in the Seto Inland Sea are a home for anyone who loves art and nature. Plagued by heavy industry and illegal toxic dumping, these islands were given a new lease of life in the late 1980s by visionary and former publisher Soichiro Fukutake, who used art and architecture as an antidote. A new edition of the triennial will take place next year, inviting international artists to create work on location.

Naoshima Island is known as Japan’s art island. Here you can visit several museums, including the Lee Ufan Museum, Chichu Art Museum, Bennesse House and New Museum of Art, which will open its doors for the first time in spring 2025.

In the Setouchi Islands, art and environment merge seamlessly, as in the artwork Matrix by Rei Naito at the Teshima Art Museum on Teshima Island. An unforgettable installation dedicated to water droplets welling up from invisible tubes in the concrete floor. The droplets repel each other or merge, forming a spherical droplet or a stream that will eventually evaporate into the air above the open oval in the vault. The shell structure is designed in such a way that pillars or columns are not needed to support the structure. For many travelers, this is one of the most impressive works of art they have ever seen.

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was an influential Japanese-American artist and designer known for his timeless sculptures and iconic furniture. In his Takamatsu studio, located at the bottom of an old quarry, Noguchi worked with local stonemasons to bring his abstract and organic sculptures to life. Today, the studio has been transformed into the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, where you can see more of his working process surrounded by impressive sculptures and the serene Japanese nature that deeply influenced his art.

The Ritsurin Garden in Takamatsu is one of Japan’s most beautiful and important historical landscape gardens. Over 100 years in the making, this masterfully landscaped garden showcases traditional Japanese gardening with large, carefully pruned conifers and six serene ponds. Originally commissioned by the former ruler of Takamatsu, the garden reflects a deep commitment to craftsmanship and harmony with nature.

NEW!
For the Japan trip in 2025, we have created two programs
that allow you to extend your trip:

Extension 1: Art & Architecture in Tokyo incl. 4 nights in the city and 2 days on the road with a guide.
Extension 2: Ceramics in Tamba Sasayama incl. 4 nights in local village houses and 2 days of studio visits and ceramic workshops.

Read more about these programs below. These extensions can also be booked separately. Those who have booked the Setouchi basic trip will have priority for these extensions.

For this ceramics program you will travel by train to Tamba Sasayama in Hyogo (above Kyoto). Here you will find one of the six oldest kilns in Japan, together with Seto, Tokoname, Shigaraki, Bizen and Echizen. During these days you will not only visit ceramists in their workshops, but you will also get to work with clay yourself under the guidance of two professional ceramists.
With a small group (max. 8 people) you will stay in one of the beautiful wooden village houses of Sasayama. You will get to work with local ceramists and will have the opportunity to glaze and fire a raku work yourself. Finally, you will attend a traditional tea ceremony to see high-quality Tamba ceramics in action.