July 22, 2009 provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view a total solar eclipse over six minutes in duration. We have secured a limited number of cabins on a vessel dedicated to maximizing this eclipse experience, and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard, Mark Van Baalen, will be on hand to set the stage for this dramatic event. After a brief tour of Beijing, China, we board the Costa Classica, making ports of call in Cheju, South Korea, and Kagoshima, Japan, before arriving at the optimum eclipse viewing location. Alumni from MIT and Princeton will join the Harvard Museum group on board the ship. We disembark in Kobe, Japan, and then continue our journey as a small, exclusive HMNH group only. We travel into the Japanese Alps to the mountainous region of Takayama, with a stay in a traditional ryokan, or Japanese inn with hot springs baths and tatami mat floors. Stroll through the morning market and narrow streets of restored merchant houses with shops, galleries, sake warehouses, and museums. Witness centuries-old thatched-roofed houses in charming Shirakawago en route to Kanazawa, the site of one of the most famous traditional gardens in Japan. Also, experience Kyoto, with its beautiful Zen temples and serene gardens. This astronomical event, combined with this exclusive HMNH journey capturing the highlights of Japan, cannot be repeated!