14 Day Japan Itineraries

Zicasso's travel specialist and her team planned an absolutely outstanding 16-day trip for me and my family. We visited Tokyo, Ghibli Park (near Nagoya), Kanazawa, Kyoto (with day trips to Nara and Osaka), and then wrapped things up with two nights at a beautiful and luxurious ryokan in Hakone.

Communication leading up to the trip was clear and efficient, and whenever we had a question during the trip, we were able to get quick answers from our travel company's rep in Japan.

I would absolutely book another trip with this company.

Zicasso’s travel specialist is amazing! She went out of her way to plan the best trip for 11 of us to Japan. She listened and understood exactly what we wanted. She is sweet and truly cares. Not only this, but she responds quickly.

As an added bonus, the travel company was reasonable, especially for all that was included. We were spoiled and had a driver and guide for most of the trip, so we did not have to worry about anything. We were also booked at lovely hotels, with delicious breakfasts and spacious rooms.

We absolutely loved our guide in Osaka and Kyoto. She was wonderful! She even got us hand warmers and gifts for Christmas! She was relaxed, positive, and went with the flow. She stayed later at times for us too! Our driver in Tokyo was able to get us a last-minute restaurant reservation for lunch because there was one more type of food we wanted to try there. He was very kind and flexible with us in Hakone too. Our guide in Tokyo was also very nice! Thank you to the team for our trip of a lifetime!!!!!

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.

Japan is great, so any trip shortcomings are diffused by the fact that it’s such a great country to visit! I think we had a few communication snafus for our ski portion, as it seems this is not a common request. The hotel was remote compared to other Niseko options and the ski guide situation was confusing.

We had a perfect day in Kamakura, where we had the entire day planned to perfection, so we would prefer similarly planned days. It seems the agency relied on tour guides on the day of our Tokyo portions, but would have preferred sightseeing options in advance in case tickets are needed.

Also, there was a bit of confusion as to the contact point while in Japan—the messaging app was not monitored by an English speaker, so we are not sure why this was an option for us. I was asked to communicate using line, which is fine, but maybe letting me know ahead of time would have alleviated some confusion. And my point of contact was U.S.-based, with a 14-hour time difference.

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.

Zicasso’s travel specialist and team made our trip to Japan absolutely unforgettable. Their attention to detail, organization, and genuine passion for creating personalized travel experiences truly set them apart.

They delivered a perfectly tailored itinerary and the guides were very knowledgeable. Every day was seamless, from exploring Tokyo to soaking in an onsen in Hakone, and Kyoto’s serene temples. Even the transfers between hotels and the airport were effortless.

I would highly recommend the travel company.