Group Expedition · Fall 2027
with Aaron Hynes, David Hatcher Childress & Robert Dakota
13 days through Japan's castle circuit and the megalithic heartland of Asuka — from Matsumoto's Black Crow to the 800-ton Rock Ship of Masuda, with a stop at Shibuya on Halloween night.
Your Guides
Tour Lead
Field researcher and creator of the Megalithic Mystery YouTube channel. Aaron has documented over 100 ancient sites across Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Easter Island, and Montana. In Japan, his focus is the anomalous precision stonework in the early phases of castle construction and the carved megaliths of the Asuka region — sites he's been researching for years before leading this expedition.
His method: measurements, documentation, and specific questions about construction techniques that the academic record hasn't answered. No ancient aliens — just honest evidence-first investigation.
Author & Researcher
Author of over 20 books on lost civilizations, ancient technology, and alternative archaeology — including works specifically on ancient Japan and its enigmatic stone monuments. David has appeared on Ancient Aliens, the History Channel, and dozens of other programs. His books on lost cities and ancient engineering have introduced millions of readers to the questions this tour is built around.
David will be active throughout the tour — not just a co-presenter but a co-explorer, bringing decades of field experience and a library's worth of context to every site.
Japan Specialist
Robert Dakota has spent years specifically researching the anomalous stone structures of the Asuka and Yamato regions — the carved megaliths, the geometric channel systems, and the ritual stones that predate everything around them. He's the group's specialist on the Asuka days: Masuda Iwafune, Ishibutai, Sakafune-ishi, and the carved stones that appear throughout the village.
This is the first time Aaron, David, and Robert have led a tour together. The combination of their different research backgrounds makes this expedition unlike anything offered anywhere else.
Japanese Translator & Local Coordinator
Tyler Hale spent two years living in Japan and is fluent in Japanese. He handles all on-the-ground coordination — hotels, restaurants, trains, and local logistics — so the group moves smoothly and nothing gets lost in translation.
The official narrative puts the earliest Japanese civilization in the 3rd–5th century CE. But the stone structures of the Asuka region, the foundation stones of certain castles, and the carved megaliths scattered across the countryside tell a different story — one that nobody has satisfactorily explained.
The Rock Ship of Masuda. Ishibutai's 2,300-ton dolmen. Sakafune-ishi's precise channel system. These aren't mysteries waiting for better research — they're mysteries that have been actively not-researched, filed under “ceremonial” and left alone.
This tour takes you to every major anomalous site in Japan with three researchers who have spent years thinking about what these structures mean. You will leave with better questions than you arrived with. That's the point.
What You'll See
13 days, two worlds: Japan's extraordinary castle heritage and the prehistoric stone mysteries of Asuka — in the same trip.
Asuka · Day 9
800 tons of carved granite, sitting in a hillside in Kashihara. Two rectangular shafts penetrate the top. Nobody agrees on its purpose: boat-form? astronomical platform? underground marker? Aaron and David have both written about this stone — seeing it with both of them present is the heart of this expedition.
Asuka · Day 10
A 7th-century burial mound whose earth cover has eroded away, exposing a 2,300-ton granite dolmen. The burial chamber is open — you walk inside.
Nagano · Day 5
"The Black Crow" — one of Japan's finest surviving original castles. The 1590s tower stands over a moat that perfectly reflects its dark silhouette.
Osaka · Day 11
The largest burial mound on Earth by surface area. The keyhole-shaped tomb of Emperor Nintoku — 486 meters long, surrounded by three moats, locked by the Imperial Household Agency.
Kyoto · Day 12
Built 1603. The Ninomaru Palace is a National Treasure — painted screens, sculpted ceilings, and famous "nightingale floors" that squeak underfoot as a security measure against assassins.
Osaka · Day 11
The Octopus Stone — Tako-ishi — weighs 130 tons and is the largest single stone in any Japanese castle complex. It's sitting in the outer wall of Osaka Castle, in plain sight.
Halloween Special · Day 3
One night in thirteen where ancient mysteries give way to something else entirely. We spend the day at Mount Nokogiri's giant stone Buddha, then race back to Tokyo for the Halloween costume dinner and Shibuya Crossing — hundreds of thousands of costumed revelers flooding the world's busiest intersection.
Asuka · Day 10
Beyond Ishibutai and Masuda Iwafune, the Asuka village is scattered with enigmatic carved stones: Sakafune-ishi (a carved granite block with a precise network of channels and basins — sake press? astronomical marker?), the Oni-no-Manaita and Oni-no-Yudo-oke (the Devil's Chopping Board and Bathtub — flat stones with carved channels of unknown purpose).
Also: Turtle Stone and the Saru-ishi monkey guardian stones — animal-form megaliths placed with deliberate precision at unknown dates for unknown reasons. Robert Dakota leads the walking tour through all of them.
Day by Day
Click any day to see full details: the sites, the schedule, what Aaron, David, and Robert will be focusing on. The Asuka days (9 & 10) are the heart of it — but the castle circuit before them is worth the trip on its own.
Everyone arrives independently and transfers to the hotel in central Tokyo. Guides will be at the hotel from midday to welcome you. The evening begins with a welcome dinner where Aaron, David, and Robert brief the group on what lies ahead: a 13-day expedition through Japan's most enigmatic sites.
Tonight is for orientation, introductions, and jet-lag recovery. Get a good night's sleep — Day 2 starts early.
We begin at the Imperial Palace East Gardens — the heart of what was Edo Castle, the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate for over 250 years. The stone walls here are some of the most impressive in Japan: massive granite and andesite blocks fitted without mortar, some weighing 10–20 tons. Aaron documents the precision construction and the anomalies that don't fit the standard historical narrative.
From there we head to the Shakujii Castle ruins in northwest Tokyo — an earthwork fortification that predates the city by centuries, largely unknown to tourists. Then north to Kawagoe, a preserved castle town with Edo-period architecture still intact, and the ruins of Kawagoe Castle itself.
David Hatcher Childress has written extensively on Japan's castle-building traditions and the anomalous stonework that appears in early construction phases. He'll be leading discussion throughout this day.
The carved cliff face at Nihon-ji on Mount Nokogiri — Japan's largest stone Buddha.
Mount Nokogiri (Sawing Mountain) rises from the Boso Peninsula south of Tokyo — and inside the Nihon-ji Temple complex, carved directly into the granite cliff face, is Japan's largest stone Buddha at 31 meters tall. This isn't a freestanding statue; it's carved from the living rock, along with 1,500 stone disciples lining the mountain paths. The quarrying history of this mountain is as mysterious as the carvings — stone was cut here for centuries in ways that raise questions about who was doing it and why.
We spend the afternoon on the mountain with Aaron and Robert Dakota, who has spent years researching Japan's stone-carving traditions. Then we race back to Tokyo for the evening.
October 31st in Shibuya is one of the world's great spectacles — hundreds of thousands of costumed revelers flood the scramble crossing. The group has dinner together in costume before heading out to experience it firsthand. This is the one night on the tour where ancient mysteries give way to something else entirely.
We leave Tokyo behind and drive west into Yamanashi Prefecture. Kōfu Castle (Maizuru Castle) sits in the heart of Kofu City — its stone foundations and remaining walls are among the finest examples of nozurazumi (undressed stone) construction in Japan. The massive stone blocks were transported from surrounding mountains without any machinery we can account for.
On clear days, Mount Fuji is visible from the castle grounds. We spend the afternoon exploring the ruins before settling in for the night in Yamanashi — a welcome change from Tokyo's pace.
Matsumoto Castle — 'The Black Crow.' One of Japan's twelve remaining original castle towers.
Matsumoto Castle is the reason this region is on the itinerary. Known as 'The Black Crow,' it's one of Japan's finest surviving original castles — the main tower dates to the 1590s and stands over a moat that reflects its dark silhouette perfectly. But Aaron's interest isn't just architectural appreciation: the foundation stones and early construction phases show characteristics that don't entirely fit the accepted history of when and how it was built.
The castle's interior is open to the public and we climb through all six floors. After lunch, we drive to Matsushiro, a former castle town and samurai district where an extraordinary network of wartime underground tunnels runs beneath the hills — a different kind of mystery entirely.
Ueda Castle is relatively compact but historically significant — it's one of the few castles that successfully repelled Tokugawa forces, twice. The surviving stone walls and reconstructed turrets give a sense of what a functioning castle felt like. We walk the grounds with David, who puts the military architecture in the context of the broader puzzle of Japanese castle construction.
After lunch we board the coach for Nagoya, arriving in time for an early dinner. The next three days in this region are dense with sites.
Nagoya Castle is one of Japan's great castle complexes — the main tower (a postwar reconstruction) is topped by golden shachihoko tiger-fish that have become symbols of the city, but it's the stone foundation and the surviving Honmaru Palace that hold Aaron's interest. The palace is a National Treasure; its rooms and painted screens are extraordinary.
After lunch, we drive to Inuyama — one of only four castles in Japan that remain privately owned, and one of the twelve original surviving towers. It perches on a cliff above the Kiso River: small, precise, and far older than most visitors realize. Robert Dakota has researched the unusual geometric precision of Inuyama's stone base construction.
Hikone Castle is a National Treasure — one of only five castles in Japan with that designation. Its three-story tower dates to 1622 and sits atop a wooded hill above Lake Biwa. The stone walls, multiple layers of fortification, and the perfectly preserved interior make this one of the high points of the castle circuit.
From Hikone we drive to the Lake Biwa shoreline to see the ruins of Azuchi Castle — once the most magnificent castle in Japan, built by Oda Nobunaga in 1579 and destroyed after his death. What remains are the enormous stone foundation platforms cut into the hillside. These foundation stones are the main target: some are among the largest worked stones in Japanese castle construction.
Time permitting, we'll visit either Naegi Castle ruins (perched dramatically on a granite rock formation) or Iwamura Castle ruins (one of Japan's 'three mountain castles').
Masuda-no-Iwafune — 'The Rock Ship of Masuda.' 800 tons of carved granite, origin and purpose unknown.
Today we enter the Asuka region — the ancient heartland of Japan, where the earliest imperial tombs and the most baffling carved stones are concentrated. The Asuka Historical Museum houses replicas of the Kitora Kofun murals: an extraordinary painted chamber discovered inside a burial mound, depicting the four cardinal animals (Black Tortoise, White Tiger, Red Phoenix, Azure Dragon) and an astronomical map of the night sky. The actual tomb mound is nearby.
Then we drive to Masuda-no-Iwafune — the Rock Ship of Masuda. This is the centerpiece of the Japan tour. The stone is a massive granite block weighing approximately 800 tons, carved into a shape that defies explanation. It sits in a hillside outside Kashihara, and nobody agrees on what it is: a boat? A platform? A marker for something underground? Two rectangular holes penetrate through the top surface to the interior. Aaron and David have both written about this site; seeing it in person with both of them present will be unlike any other visit.
Ishibutai Kofun — the exposed capstones of a burial chamber. Two stones weigh a combined 2,300 tons.
A full day in Asuka — one of the most concentrated collections of megalithic mystery on Earth. We start at Ishibutai Kofun: a 7th-century burial mound whose earthen covering has eroded away to expose the massive granite dolmen beneath. The burial chamber uses two capstones weighing roughly 1,300 tons combined — it is one of the largest megalithic tombs in Japan. The interior is open to visitors and we go in.
From Ishibutai we work through the village's carved stones. The Oni-no-Manaita (Devil's Chopping Board) and Oni-no-Yudo-oke (Devil's Bathtub) are two enormous flat stones with carved channels of unknown purpose. Sakafune-ishi is a carved granite rock with a precise network of channels, slots, and basins — possibly astronomical, possibly ritualistic, possibly a sake-brewing platform. Nobody knows. The Turtle Stone and the Saru-ishi (monkey stones) are smaller but equally strange: animal-form megaliths placed with deliberate precision.
Robert Dakota closes the day with a presentation on the common thread running through Asuka's carved stones and what it might mean about who was shaping this landscape before the historical record begins.
Left: Osaka Castle stone walls, home to the 130-ton Octopus Stone. Right: Daisen-ryō Kofun from the air — the world's largest burial mound by surface area.
Osaka Castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks — rebuilt in the 1930s over the original foundations, but those foundations are the real story. The stone walls surrounding the castle moat include some of the largest worked stones in Japan: the 'Octopus Stone' (Tako-ishi) weighs approximately 130 tons and is the largest single stone in any Japanese castle complex. Aaron has been wanting to document this stone in detail for years.
After lunch we drive to Sakai City to see Daisen-ryō Kofun — the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, the largest burial mound on Earth by surface area. The keyhole-shaped island, surrounded by three moats, is off-limits (it belongs to the Imperial Household Agency) but visible from the perimeter. Aerial views show the extraordinary scale: 486 meters long, with 23 hectares of mound area. It was built in the 5th century CE — or so the official account says.
Nijō Castle — the Tokugawa shogunate's Kyoto palace, built 1603.
Nijō Castle was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Unlike the military castles we've visited, Nijō was a diplomatic and administrative center — its architecture reflects power through elegance rather than defense. The Ninomaru Palace inside is a National Treasure: its painted screens, sculpted ceilings, and famous 'nightingale floors' (that squeak when walked on, as a security measure against assassins) are unlike anything else in Japan.
The stone walls and gates of Nijō are also worth close attention. The construction shows characteristics that predate the Tokugawa period, and David has thoughts on what was here before the shogunate built over it.
After Nijō, the afternoon is free for personal exploration in Kyoto — the Fushimi Inari shrine gates, Gion district, temple circuits, or just sitting by a canal. We gather in the evening for the farewell dinner: the last meal together before tomorrow's departures.
The tour formally ends after breakfast. Most guests fly home from Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Osaka, or take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for onward flights. Aaron and the guides will be available through the morning for any last questions, recommendations, or goodbye conversations.
Many past travelers have found that Japan in fall is worth staying an extra day or two — the autumn foliage (koyo) peaks in early November, and Kyoto in particular is extraordinary. If you want to extend, let Aaron know when you book and he can suggest options.
No Surprises
How Payment Works
A $1,000 deposit holds your spot. The remaining balance is due August 1, 2027.
Non-refundable. This holds your spot.
Full remaining balance — all permits, hotels, and coach locked in.
On the non-refundable deposit: the day you book, money goes to locking hotel blocks, coach availability, and site access. None of that comes back. That's why the deposit can't be refunded — and why travel insurance is strongly recommended.
Early Bird
$5,695
per person, sharing
Standard (after early bird)
$6,995
per person, sharing
Single supplement
+$1,200
own room throughout
Deposit
$1,000
non-refundable, holds your spot
Reserve Your Spot
The group is deliberately small. Early bird pricing is open now — when spots fill or early bird closes, the price goes to $6,995.
Straight Answers
You need to be comfortable walking 5–8 miles per day on uneven terrain, climbing steep castle stairs, and standing for extended periods at outdoor sites. Day 3 (Mount Nokogiri) is the most strenuous — 700+ steps. You don't need to be an athlete, but you can't be mobility-limited. If you have concerns, email Aaron before booking.
Most Western nationals (US, Canada, UK, EU, Australia) enter Japan visa-free for up to 90 days. Check requirements for your specific passport at the Japanese Embassy website. Japan's entry requirements have been stable for years but confirm before you book flights.
Fly into Tokyo (Narita NRT or Haneda HND) on October 29. The tour ends in the Osaka/Kyoto area — most guests fly home from Kansai International (KIX). Alternatively, take a Shinkansen back to Tokyo for your return flight. Either works; let Aaron know your plans when you book.
No. Licensed English-speaking guides accompany the group at all major sites. Aaron, David, and Robert speak English throughout. At restaurants and hotels in tourist areas, English is widely understood. In rural areas, pointing and translation apps work fine — and the group has experience navigating Japan.
David Hatcher Childress is the author of over 20 books on lost civilizations and ancient technology, including 'Technology of the Gods' and multiple volumes on ancient Japan. He's appeared on Ancient Aliens, History Channel, and dozens of other programs. Robert Dakota is a Japan specialist and researcher who has spent years documenting the anomalous stone structures of the Asuka and Yamato regions. This is the first time the three guides have led a tour together.
Yes — and we encourage it. Japan in early November is beautiful. If you want to stay after the tour ends November 10, just book extra nights in Osaka or Kyoto (or take the Shinkansen to Tokyo). Aaron can suggest good hotels and what to see. The fall foliage is worth it.
A $1,000 deposit holds your spot. This is non-refundable — the moment you book, funds are committed to locking hotels, site access, and coach availability. Your deposit protects your spot; travel insurance is strongly recommended if life intervenes.
The early bird price is $5,695 per person (sharing a room). The list price is $6,995 — that's what booking will cost once early bird closes. Early bird is open now. Both include the same itinerary, same guides, same hotels, and same everything. The only variable is when you book.
The group is kept deliberately small — under 20 people. Small groups move faster, get better site access, and allow for real conversation with the guides. When it's full, it's full.
Japan is extraordinary for food at every price point. Breakfasts and lunches are covered throughout the tour. Dinners not specified in the itinerary are on your own — this is intentional. Japan's food culture is worth experiencing independently. Vegetarian and most dietary restrictions are well-accommodated in Japan; severe allergies to shellfish or soy may require advance planning.
Something not answered here? Email Aaron directly.
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