A great tour, which we both enjoyed tremendously. A wide variety of interesting sites to visit and different modes of transport to experience. Being able to visit Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Takayama, Matsumoto, Yudanka and Tokyo was just superb and everything went exceedingly smoothly with all the trains, buses, subways, trams, and PIRATE ships! The group was 18 in number and we always were able to travel together and experience all the sights. Hotels were good and offered restful nights and hot spring water baths at one. Meals were usually together and fish eaters were well catered for alongside the meat eaters. The two luggage transfers were great and suitcases were whisked off to be reunited a couple of days later. The trip schedule meant that most days we had several sights to visit and even on 'free-days' our guide, Ayaka, skilfully put together individual packages depending on our needs. The variety of experiences across the main island of Japan was wonderful.
Our Backroads of Japan walking trip was fabulous. Our guide Akemi was excellent with her knowledge and help for the tour group. However, in places where the walking was quite difficult we feel that Akemi could have had an assistant so that there would be one at the front and one at the back for safety reasons.
A great introduction to Japan , covering several major cities and lots of shrines/ temples . Fortunately still caught some of the cherry blossom which arrived early ( 2018 ) .