Highlights and Hidden Treasures of Japan Tour

My wife and I chose this agent and his company because he had spent 14 years living in Japan.  He is also fluent in Japanese.  We felt that he had the right combination of being an American who also was attuned to the culture and rhythm of Japan.  We had been to Japan twice before – Kyoto for two weeks together; my wife, Kyoto for three weeks when my she attended a course on Japanese gardens, and I, ten days in Tokyo for work.  This tour took us from Osaka (Kansei) to Hiroshima and back to Kyoto in 17 days.

We are experienced travelers who have driven around Europe, taken river cruises, and a few escorted tours to SE Asia, Russia, and India.  Although we had taken trains before, we were surprised and curious how a trip entirely structured around trains and mass transit would fair.  We also had only three of seventeen days with guides – one day in Osaka, and two days with our homestay host.

Here is what stood out.  First, the guides – their spoken English was excellent.  They were well informed and flexible. Our guide for Osaka met us when we deplaned at Kansei Airport.  She immediately got us the official JR rail passes and reserved seats on trains that could have been crowded given that we were in the Fall (leaf peeping) high season.  She then gave us a detailed itinerary of where we would be each day and what trains to take with the exact times of each train and the corresponding departing and arrival stations.  If you have any trepidation about train travel in Japan – lay them to rest.  Not only does Japan have the most efficient and cleanest rail travel (we have been on many European rail lines), the trains run exactly on time.  So, one can easily find which train to take by looking at the schedule board at each station.  The signs (almost 98% of the time) are in both Japanese and English.  We found that if you missed one train, another would arrive in a few minutes going to the same destination.  Almost every station has escalators and elevators.

Our homestay host gave a very texture feel for rural Japan.  Her village indeed has only 300 people.  We walked around the village and a broader surrounding area that encompassed farmland, a working grain elevator, the village park and recreation area.  We also went to the larger town to enjoy her local ramen shop, the grocery store where I found these marble-sized ume that I loved the previous time we were in Japan, a second-hand store, and the next day to an antique shop.  What a contrast from the usual portrayal of Japanese squeezing on subway cars (we had that experience during Osaka rush hour).  We would recommend that everyone if they have the time, take the option of two days at a home stay. 

Second, the places were stayed.  We kept commenting that it seemed like we had the best room in the house and our hotels/ryokans were well located.  The western styled hotels were top of the line – the hotel in Osaka was right above the Namba station (the Nanka rail and three subway lines); the hotel in Takamatsu was a block from the main railroad station; the hotel in Hiroshima was within 400 meters of the Peace Memorial Building; and the Kyoto hotel was above Kyoto Station.  The ryokans had the old-world charm.  In three of them, we were in our own separate building.  In another, we were in the corner room with own bath overlooking the valley; however, we also opted to take the funicular to the onsen by the river.  We were in awe with the dining in the ryokans; beautiful presentation with Michelin-star quality taste. 

Third, our agent was a good listener.  After proposing an initial route, he fine-tuned it based upon feedback that we gave him.  Whenever I sent an email, he responded within 24 hours.  When I asked for advice, he gave his opinion. His recommendation for us to book the home-stay was spot on.  Thanks to this agent and his company – highly recommended!

We had a wonderful experience from start to finish and I recommend them highly. The tour designer from the tour company provided us with a fantastic itinerary that hit everything we were hoping to see and do - from guided tours through Tokyo and Kyoto, to views of Mt. Fuji and hot springs in Hakone, to fabulous meals and cultural experiences. Our detailed itinerary, rail passes, and pocket wifi made it very easy for us to navigate through Japan and all of our accommodations were great. 

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.