Peregrinação ao Japão – seguindo as pisadas de São Maximiliano Kolbe e Papa João Paulo II (7 dias)

In the morning arrival to Tokyo airport, passport control, transfer to a hotel in the city centre. City-tour of the most significant parts of Tokyo: the Emperor’s palace (from outside) and its square, the famous double Nijubashi Bridge with a view of the Emperor’s residence.
Walk through the business districts Otemachi and Marunouchi to the luxury Ginza district. Ride to the top of Tokyo Tower – panorama of the city. Lastly: visit Zojoji Temple – introduction to Buddhist culture.
Dinner and overnight stay in Tokyo.

After breakfast, take the Shinkansen bullet train to Nagasaki, check-in at the hotel complex within the Unzen volcano national park, featured in Scorsese’s film „Silence”. Walk to places commemorating the martyrdom of Japanese Christians. Later, a walk around the national park to see the hot springs and the fumaroles. Mass in the Unzen area.
Typical Japanese dinner in traditional clothes next to an onsen (a hot spring).
Overnight stay in the Unzen area.

Breakfast and drive to Nagasaki, the city connected with the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Visit the Hongochi Monastery – one of the most important works of St. Maximilian in Japan; visit the museum with numerous exhibits dedicated to him; the cell where he lived, the printing machines and the place where the Japanese edition of „Militia Immaculatae” was published. Mass in the Lourdes grotto, also built by St. Maximilian.
Visit to the Oura church (the oldest church in Japan), which was the first place of Kolbe’s residence in Nagasaki. Visit the exhibition about the activity of the Polish saint and Japanese Christians and martyrs. Visit the museum and monument to the 26 martyrs of Japan visited by John Paul II and Mother Theresa.
Transfer to the city centre: visit the Atomic Bomb Museum, the explosion hypocentre and then a walk around the Peace Memorial Park.
Return to the hotel, dinner and overnight stay; a chance to use the hot baths once more.

Breakfast, then take the Shinkansen to Kyoto, the former Japanese capital. Visit the park with the Temple of the Golden Pavilion (UNESCO site), one of the most splendid historical buildings in the country of Cherry Blossoms. Transfer to the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral for mass (the first missionary in Japan.)
In the afternoon, a walk along the Kamo River to the district of geishas – Gion.
Transfer to the hotel, dinner and overnight stay.

After breakfast, visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine, one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Walk among the characteristic orange torii gates, featured in the film, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha.’ Take the Shinkansen to Akita, where Our Lady appeared numerous times. In the evening, mass in St. Augustine’s Church; visit the monument to Christian martyrs of northern Japan.
Dinner and overnight stay.

Breakfast and a day in Akita. Visit the weeping statue of the Virgin Mary at the Shrine of Our Lady of Akita, a convent where Our Lady appeared to Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa (the apparitions from 1973 are considered to be a continuation of the apparitions in Fatima). Time for individual prayer.
In the afternoon, return by Shinkansen to Tokyo, check-in to a hotel and then transfer to Shinjuku to the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Government Building for a farewell panorama of Tokyo.
Dinner and overnight stay.

In the morning transfer to the airport, check-in and flight back home.