Best of Japan Itinerary in Seven Days

Zicasso’s travel specialist did a fabulous job planning our 12-day trip to Japan! We took our two kids (12 and 14 years old) and worked together to come up with such an amazing and fun itinerary covering all of our interests.

In addition to seeing the sights around Tokyo and Kyoto, the travel specialist found us classes in and outside of the cities for sushi-making, Shibori fabric dyeing, and bamboo basket-making. We had the most wonderful guides, drivers, and translators take us to an organic green tea farm (an unexpected favorite!) and even managed to get tickets to the Ghibli Museum.

We had a phenomenal time and I look forward to working with this travel company again.

Zicasso’s travel specialist helped us put together a great family trip to Japan. He created the perfect itinerary based on our likes/dislikes and was easy to communicate with. We enjoyed our tour with our guide in Tokyo and were especially delighted that the travel specialist personally guided us around Kyoto. Both he and our guide showed us parts of these cities off the beaten track. The travel specialist is incredibly knowledgeable about Japan and his passion for the culture is contagious.

The trip was awesome! “Best trip ever” from my daughter. Zicasso’s travel agent planned the itinerary perfectly, with guided tours, our own time to explore, and a bit extra for shopping. There were plenty of suggestions for our free days, so we could choose the pace of our outings.

Our trip was wonderful and we had an excellent planner. He always responded within 24 hours and had an answer for whatever I was asking. Here is some additional feedback:

The documents provided (itinerary, cultural information, tour guide) were all very easy to read and informative. The instructions for using the trains and other modes of transportation turned out to be crucial for us.

We had a great guide in Tokyo. She spoke English well, provided interesting information at the sites we visited, and catered the day to our needs. She was also very good with children.

We ended up not going to Hakone, which was part of the itinerary, and our agent was able to help us get refunds for those tickets, which I understand was an unconventional request. It was nice to know the tickets and money didn't go to waste.

The Miyajima hotel and stay was so beautiful, and our experience there was very unique. I'm so glad our agent planned that as part of our trip.

The hotel in Tokyo was almost perfect; the staff were fantastic, the rooms were comfortable, and the included breakfast was delicious. The only drawbacks were that the pool was closed for renovations, which was disappointing, and their fitness center was very small and would often get extremely crowded in the mornings.

We had a good guide in Kyoto, but probably could've done a better job to account for the heat. We were outside for long stretches; I'm sure he just wanted to get us to more sites, but by the end of the day we were miserable from the sun and humidity. We had children and seniors in our family, and sometimes we were standing in the heat as he explained something which wasn't ideal. His English was okay, but some of our party felt he had difficulty answering some of our questions.

On our trip back from Kyoto to Tokyo, it's not clear why the agency booked us on the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo, then on a Narita Express from Tokyo to Shinjuku, when we could've taken the train to Shinagawa and saved some time.

Our agent clearly explained that the agency could not make restaurant reservations for our party, but that would've been very helpful since we were a group of 12 and it was often difficult to make that work. We ended up doing it ourselves or through the hotels.

The machiya houses were super-cool, but eight people in one of them was a lot. Also, I understand they're Japanese style, but there wasn't much furniture in there, so we ended up having to sit on beds or on the floor.

The IC cards didn't seem to be separated by child and adult (hopefully I'm not wrong there). This created an issue when we scanned our cards along with the child Shinkansen tickets. We got stopped and had to get the train attendant to help.

The sumo lunch was super-fun. The food (tonkatsu) was delicious, the service was great, and the wrestlers were very engaging, and a few of our party even got to wrestle a bit!

The photo shoot was enjoyable for the kids and the staff there were very patient, attentive, and helpful. Our pictures look great and they were ready within minutes!

I didn't like the application Zicasso uses for communicating with our travel agent. It was a little easier when it was just emails back and forth, but it was not ideal to have to log into a separate application (this one) to communicate. It's hard to do on a mobile phone and takes an extra few steps. It'd be better to communicate through existing platforms like email, WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook, Google Workspace, or Microsoft Teams.

We (A and B) had an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime, 36-day trip to Japan and were very grateful we found Zicasso’s travel specialist to help us plan our itinerary.

The travel specialist made sure that all our travel arrangements were well thought out and his instructions were (mostly) straightforward. He was a good listener and helped us craft an itinerary that totally suited our needs. We had about four sessions (hours) on Zoom with him before our trip to iron out details. A company that does customized tours was exactly what we were looking for and that is what we got. This way, we had a lot of say in where to go, how long to stay, how we wanted to spend our time, and what attractions we wanted to see. He told us ours was the longest trip to Japan he had helped arrange.

The trip was amazing and we were blessed to be able to see the spectacular fall foliage everywhere we went, Mount Fuji on numerous days, and many beautiful places, as well as eat authentic Japanese food and immerse ourselves in Japanese culture. In addition to all that, we had many days on our own where we were able to meet up with 12 friends of B in three different cities, people B met 45 years ago in Japan.

All the arrangements made for us by the travel company were fantastic, including local transportation, drivers in every city, and train and shinkansen rides. The accommodations were excellent too and we especially appreciated that the location of our hotels was very convenient and in the best areas. The two stays in ryokans in Hakone and Miyajima were unique and special.

Every single local guide we had was fantastic. They were all knowledgeable, friendly, personable, helpful, and kind. The drivers were terrific too and we enjoyed meeting them and talking with them.

We highly recommend this travel company if you are looking for a customized, comprehensive, and fun tour of Japan.

We just experienced amazing service and flawless execution on our custom-designed, 22-day itinerary from Zicasso’s travel company. Every single meeting went smoothly, with white-gloved drivers waiting for us beside luxury vehicles and guides who always went above and beyond. In fact, after leaving a shopping bag in a cab in Tokyo, we were blown away when our travel agency was able to track it down and deliver it back to our hotel. But that's not even the best part. The best part was the experiences. Our agent and the staff at the travel company really found the authentic, less-traveled experiences we love.

Tokyo and Kyoto were amazing, with private tours of gardens, temples, and the best local food. We did washi paper making at a 400-year-old workshop and a private calligraphy lesson, attended a real sumo practice, walked the bamboo forest, and dressed in kimonos for tea service.

But our most memorable experiences were found in Niigata, where we stayed in a lovely ryokan and were served dinner on the tatami mat in our room. We slept soundly with the relaxing sound of the hot spring water flowing in our private bath. 

In Yamagata, where we spent the day with an enchanting Yamabushi guide, climbing sacred Mount Haguro and learning about the life of connection with nature that he chose. We loved it when he blew his conch shell horn to scare away the demons as we entered new parts of the forest. 

And in Okinawa, we had the most interesting Blue Zones cooking class and lunch with Yukie Miyaguni, who appeared in the Netflix documentary about longevity and medicinal foods, and looks 25 years old at 55. We also learned about the ancient art of sabani making and spent an afternoon on the beautiful clear waters in one, visiting pristine, remote beaches and collecting beautiful pink shells.

It was these unique, enlightening experiences, away from crowds and tourists, that showed us the real Japan we wanted to see. Our agent understood what we wanted and provided the absolute perfect mix of luxury (every accommodation exceeded our expectations, with club lounge access in Western-style hotels), adventure, and top-shelf service. It was perfect.