A welcome reception will take place on Sunday evening 18:30 at Portopia Hotel, "Rainbow" in 16th floor at the south wing. Please have fun with beautiful night view of Kobe city and Japanese harp "Koto" playing. All participants and their companions are invited.

Access to Welcome Reception

Please enjoy Japanese traditional culture on Wednesday evening at the venue. Gagaku, Japanese court music and dance, will be performed. The program will start 18:40 after Japanese Sake tasting.

Your tasted Sake at Japan Night Program

• Fukuju Cho-tokusen junmaishu (Kobe Shu-shin-kan breweries, Ltd.）
• Sakuramasamune "Masamune" Ginjo Genshu（Sakuramasamune Brewing Co. Ltd. )
• Takinokoi "Kissui" Junmai Ginjoshu (Kimura sake breweries, Ltd. )
• Nadaizumi "Kobe no Kaze" Junmai Ginjoshu (Izumi Yunosuke Shoten Ltd.)
• Doukan "Chiyodagura" Nada-no-kiippon (Ota sake brewing Co., Ltd.)
• Izumimasamune Tokubetsu-Honjozoshu (Izumisyuzou Inc.)

The conference banquet will take place at Kobe Kacho-en (Kobe Flowers and Birds Garden) (Japanese web page and multilingual weblog page) on Thursday evening. The dinner will be served under a huge trellis with numerous innumerable beautiful flowers. The dinner will start at 19:30. Birds and flowers will welcome ICALEPCS participants from 18:30. You will enjoy flower garden walking and have opportunity to feed birds before the banquet.

For your transportation to the banquet from the KICC, PortLiner railway is convenient because Kobe Kacho-en is located in front of "PortIsland Minami" (P08) station.

A technical tour to SPring-8 is scheduled on Friday afternoon. SPring-8, a 3rd generation synchrotron light source, is located about 100km west of Kobe. The tour will include a visit to the RIKEN/SPring-8 XFEL (X-ray free electron laser) construction site. The commissioning of the XFEL accelerator will start in March 2011. The tour will also include a short visit to the world heritage Himeji castle before going to SPring-8.

Participants must sign up at the registration in advance. The buses will leave KICC at 12:00 and return at 19:00

A conference tour to Kyoto will be held on Saturday. Two types of tours will be available as follows:

Course-A : Nijo castle (world heritage) -> Kinkaku-ji temple (world heritage) -> Heian jingu shrine -> Kiyomizu-dera temple (world heritage).

Course-B : Toufuku-ji temple (famous for beautiful Zen-gardens) -> Koryu-ji temple (oldest temple in Kyoto and famous for its wooden image of Bodhisattva called "Miroku-Bosatsu-Hanka-Shii-zo") -> Kyoto studio park (Uzumasa eigamura).

Explore the historical city by visiting famous temples, tranquil Japanese gardens and Samurai movie studio. This tour will start at 8:30 at the KICC and will return to Kobe at around 19:00. Tour buses will make a short stop at the Kyoto station at around 17:30 before leaving Kyoto for your convenience.
Please choose your preferred course at the registration in advance.

Kyoto tourist information