Reviews

Most Inspirational Moment

The overall sense of order and respect for others, even in crowded city centres. The attention given to presentation - of food and everything else.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ayaka took great trouble to ensure we optimised our time by being fully prepared: helpful annotated maps, advice on tickets, and so forth. She took us to a variety of types of restaurant for the optional meals, which are not in the programme, but where in fact the majority of the group chose to eat together. And she was great fun !

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't worry about whether it's cherry blossom time: there are plenty of beautiful sights anyway. Be prepared to pay cash for meals if the group eat together.

Suggestions

The first ryokan didn't quite live up to expectations; it was in a more urban environment than we'd imagined.

Most Inspirational Moment

It is difficult to choose any single inspirational moment from the serenity of the temples when you got away from the crowds, the friendliness of the people or the rush you feel when bullet trains go shooting through the stations at high speed. However, we were lucky to have fantastic views of Mount Fuji on a fun jaunt around Hakone on the various modes of transport.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ayaka Tsukamoto was a brilliant tour leader who was tireless in her enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring we had a fantastic and fulfilling tour. Even on our free days she helped by ensuring we used the most effective transport to maximise our time and in recommending places to visit and where to eat. She took us to restaurants that we would not normally have chosen and these were some of the best restaurants that provided us with great experiences along with the authentic cuisine. Throughout the tour she kept us informed of historical and cultural details and amused us with her anecdotes that gave us an insight into growing up in Japan.

Advice for Potential Travellers

This is a tour with lots of walking and some long days so that you get the most out of your time on holiday. Using public transport gives you more contact with the friendly Japanese people and is much more ecological than using coaches.

Most Inspirational Moment

There were many moments that come to mind Mount Fuji appearing out of the cloud. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo Visiting Hiroshima Travel by bullet train

Thoughts on Group Leader

Our tour leader Ayaka Tsukamoto looked after us all very well. She is particularly good at her job,we were always kept supplied with maps that had all the places of interest marked and any other information that we requested. I have a food allergy and she took particular care that food was always suitable for me.I especially thank her for that.......

Advice for Potential Travellers

Pack your bags and go....

Most Inspirational Moment

Every day provided us with an inspirational moment- In Kyoto the beautiful garden at the Silver Palace, coming across a Geisha in the lamplight outside a tea house, exploring tiny Zen gardens at the minor temples, waiting to begin the most beautifully arranged food all of which is completely alien in looks and flavour. Tokyo, a city of contrasts. It is epic in size and yet manageable via its incredible transport system. Something weird and wacky on every corner. Owl cafes??? Japan has the appearance of familiarity and yet is so culturally different.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ayaka was energetic and enthusiastic. Always on hand to help us make the most of every moment of the trip. Her attention to detail was second to none, ensuring that we managed the busy itinerary and navigated transport systems with ease. In the major cities she provided us with a guide and a transport map that she had annotated with the major sites and suggestions for quirky areas to visit. Always with a smile and an infectious laugh. She gave her time to every person on the trip ensuring that we all gained a personal experience of her country. Her knowledge and information giving was always just enough for us to gain an insight and understanding of the sight or area we were visiting yet she was always willing to expand further to individuals with specific questions. Ayaka was an excellent guide and we would not hesitate to recommend her.

Advice for Potential Travellers

There is a lot of walking and the pace is fast so you need comfortable and water proof shoes Take an umbrella or buy one when you arrive. When it rains it can be torrential! Be prepared for early starts and very long days. You will often not return to the hotel before 9pm. If you have particular interests research them before you go and your guide will help you to locate shops or museums. Take a good guide book as you will have a free day in Kyoto and another in Tokyo. If you are on the group flight home you will not leave the hotel until 5pm so you have effectively a 2nd free day. Your guide will also be incredibly helpful. Just ask. Breakfasts are not provided. Eating out is possible but local stores sell yoghurts, fruit and some even oats and muesli so easy to have breakfast in your room. The local bakeries are fantastic. The Akibukuro station close to the Tokyo Hotel has an excellent supermarket and takeaway food dept. Consider adding additional days to the end of your trip.

Suggestions

This trip was one of our best. If we didn't have the rest of the world to explore we would return to Japan next year!

Most Inspirational Moment

The Hiroshima display was moving. The Silver pavilion in Kyoto, its makes you realise a garden does not have to be just lawn, so beautiful and peacefull But I come back to the Japanese people, I dropped my watch at a Station and some young person ran after me to hand back the watch to me and didnt even wait for me to say thank you

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ayaka Tsukamoto Clearly in the top 3 of tour leaders i have had with Exodus (around 20 trips) the effort she put in to make sure the trip was wonderful was amazing. On our days off - she spent time making sure we could see everything we wanted and the best way to achieve it i mentioned, just in passing, whether there was an english language Japanese paper - next day there was one at my hotel door we where given guides for each city and in each guide, by hand, each page was circled with things of interest and what would be covered in the tour and where we could go on our days off Ayaka is a very lovely person and was laughing all the time - we were very very lucky to have her Channa

Advice for Potential Travellers

In Toyko there is two underground companies (Metro/ Toel) and i recommend instead of I/c Pass that you purchase from the ticket office , a metro/toel pass (800 yen- if you have your passport, 900 yen otherwise). Though you can get unused money back from I/C card for 200 yen fee - i found that i kept hopping on and off the tube (easiest way to navigate the city) and would have saved money with the pass Bring an umbrella and good waterproof for the daybag - when it rains it rains heavy all day - there is a reason why Japan is so lush and green

Most Inspirational Moment

The people, culture, efficiency of the transportation system and the food. We organised a trip ourselves to see the Sumo which was excellent and a major highlight. We adored Kyoto and the geishas, the little old streets and the Noku hotel was our favourite of the trip. We loved the alps and the scenery too. Our favourite temple of the trip was a slightly weird one on Miyajimi island which our guide recommended- excellent.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Absolutely brilliant. Very friendly, organised, great sense of humour, always made sure everyone was OK and knew how to get to things they wanted to do in their spare time. She was hilarious, great fun and showed us many thinfs we would never have seen on our own. Would have liked to have known a bit more about Japanese peopke’s lives and how things work e.g. health service but it’s very difficult when using public transport. It’s not like being on a bus for hours with the whole group when such information coud be shared with everyone at the same time. Ayaka was always happy to answer our individual questions.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Do the Hakone trip. We didn’t and regretted it. I think it should be part of the itinerary rather than an option. Trip notes need updating. Easy to obtain cash from Seven Eleven stores so you don’t need to being loads of cash. We used cards quite easily for meals etc, just not small purchases. We spent a lot less than expected. Wifi was excellent in all types of lodgings. Tip! Use the hotel’s mobile phone in Tokyo and fiwnload the Tokyo metro and google maps. Brilliant! Saved us a lot of time. Tip! Buy a 2 or 3 day metro/subway card. It aaves a lot of money and makes moving around a lot eadier. You need your passport to purchase one though. Book Sumo tickets if it’s on. Very interesting and brilliant fun.

Suggestions

No.

Most Inspirational Moment

The people, culture, efficiency of the transportation system and the food. We organised a trip ourselves to see the Sumo which was excellent and a major highlight. We adored Kyoto and the geishas, the little old streets and the Noku hotel was our favourite of the trip. We loved the alps and the scenery too. Our favourite temple of the trip was a slightly weird one on Miyajimi island which our guide recommended- excellent.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Absolutely brilliant. Very friendly, organised, great sense of humour, always made sure everyone was OK and knew how to get to things they wanted to do in their spare time. She was hilarious, great fun and showed us many thinfs we would never have seen on our own. Would have liked to have known a bit more about Japanese peopke’s lives and how things work e.g. health service but it’s very difficult when using public transport. It’s not like being on a bus for hours with the whole group when such information coud be shared with everyone at the same time. Ayaka was always happy to answer our individual questions.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Do the Hakone trip. We didn’t and regretted it. I think it should be part of the itinerary rather than an option. Trip notes need updating. Easy to obtain cash from Seven Eleven stores so you don’t need to being loads of cash. We used cards quite easily for meals etc, just not small purchases. We spent a lot less than expected. Wifi was excellent in all types of lodgings. Tip! Use the hotel’s mobile phone in Tokyo and fiwnload the Tokyo metro and google maps. Brilliant! Saved us a lot of time. Tip! Buy a 2 or 3 day metro/subway card. It aaves a lot of money and makes moving around a lot eadier. You need your passport to purchase one though. Book Sumo tickets if it’s on. Very interesting and brilliant fun.

Suggestions

No.

Most Inspirational Moment

The people, culture, efficiency of the transportation system and the food. We organised a trip ourselves to see the Sumo which was excellent and a major highlight. We adored Kyoto and the geishas, the little old streets and the Noku hotel was our favourite of the trip. We loved the alps and the scenery too. Our favourite temple of the trip was a slightly weird one on Miyajimi island which our guide recommended- excellent.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Absolutely brilliant. Very friendly, organised, great sense of humour, always made sure everyone was OK and knew how to get to things they wanted to do in their spare time. She was hilarious, great fun and showed us many thinfs we would never have seen on our own. Would have liked to have known a bit more about Japanese peopke’s lives and how things work e.g. health service but it’s very difficult when using public transport. It’s not like being on a bus for hours with the whole group when such information coud be shared with everyone at the same time. Ayaka was always happy to answer our individual questions.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Do the Hakone trip. We didn’t and regretted it. I think it should be part of the itinerary rather than an option. Trip notes need updating. Easy to obtain cash from Seven Eleven stores so you don’t need to being loads of cash. We used cards quite easily for meals etc, just not small purchases. We spent a lot less than expected. Wifi was excellent in all types of lodgings. Tip! Use the hotel’s mobile phone in Tokyo and fiwnload the Tokyo metro and google maps. Brilliant! Saved us a lot of time. Tip! Buy a 2 or 3 day metro/subway card. It aaves a lot of money and makes moving around a lot eadier. You need your passport to purchase one though. Book Sumo tickets if it’s on. Very interesting and brilliant fun.

Suggestions

No.

Most Inspirational Moment

The temples in Kyoto, particularly the Golden Temple. Loved walking in the Alps which was so beautiful in peach blossom season. Takayama and staying in the ryokan was interesting. Hakone with it's views of Mt Fuji was a great day trip from Tokyo. The markets and shops were fascinating with everything so beautifully packaged and presented.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ayaka was incredibly enthusiastic and friendly and went the extra mile to ensure we all individually got the most out of our trip. She marked up my Tokyo map with good cafes so I could enjoy my daily dose of caffeine and ensured we tried every type of Japanese food! She even accompanied some of us on free days which saved us so much time trying to work out which trains to catch. Her infectious laugh kept us all smiling all the way!

Advice for Potential Travellers

Found everyone extremely helpful and polite and willing to point you in the right direction so it's hard to get lost. The toilets are amazingly clean but lots have no handtowels as locals bring heir own. Bring cash as cards not widely used. Our luggage transfers all worked very smoothly for the few days we had a day bag only and cases were ready and waiting for us when we got to the hotels.

Suggestions

I went with British Airways from Heathrow and the flight timings were much better than the group flights and the same price.

Most Inspirational Moment

We enjoyed the great variety of sights , food and culture. Probably the most memorable feature was the general high level of cleanliness and efficiency of the transport systems.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ayaka is an exceptionally able guide. She is knowledgeable, kind, efficient and she has an admirable command of the English language. The whole trip ran 'like clockwork' because Ayaka had clearly worked very hard behind the scenes purchasing tickets, organising itineraries, arranging additional trips at the request of members of the group, and ensuring that each individual's needs were accommodated. At all times Ayaka was polite and humerous and her infectious laugh and enthusiasm is a great attribute. She managed to impart a lot of information to us at all of the historic sites and she explained so many features about culture and food. We feel that Ayaka has a very bright future in the tourism industry and that she is one of the nicest and best guides that we have ever met. Please convey our thanks and appreciation to Ayaka.

Advice for Potential Travellers

1. Bring fewer clothes as it is easy to get laundry done 2. Do not bring an umbrella as all the hotels lend them to visitors. 3. Enjoy all of the food because it is all lovely. 4. Relax and explore the cities which feel very safe and clean. 5. Although the railway maps appear daunting, it is very easy to use the metros to explore the cities.

Suggestions

An excellent trip that at first glance of the Trip Notes appears expensive. However, there is a lot of expensive rail travel and high quality hotels included in the itinerary. And, once in Japan, variety of food is excellent and eating does not have to be expensive. We didn't think that this would be a good trip for Vegans!