The trip to Mt. Fuji should be eliminated: a road trip that takes 6 hours out of a visit is a bad choice, and the worst part is, we didn't see anything! We spent 20 minutes each in two different tourist stops, but the "mountain" was covered in clouds. There's no point to it. Our tour guide told us, it's that way 80% of the year. On a limited tour, it's costly to lose one day to a pointless excursion.
Generally, there was very little that interested me: we saw one "palace"--but from outside, so we walked quite a distance to see nothing more than the tops of some buildings covered by shrubbery! This was our first outing in Tokyo; a very disappointing start. Other than the temples, which appear to be as ubiquitous as Starbucks, "Classic Japan" seems to be sterile modernity. Other than Kyoto, where there were some art museums near our hotel, the cities didn't seem to have much culture. The two "optional" excursions were very disappointing: I didn't do the tea ceremony--that sounded terribly uninteresting. I did the garden tour, which was not at all interesting, and much too hot for a relaxing stroll.
The museum in Hiroshima was a highlight. Accommodations were terrific.
The heat was brutal every day, in all 4 cities which, according to our guide, is normal for that time of year. That's not within Trafalgar's control, but it compounded my disappointment.
My experience with Trafalgar tours have always been positive. This Japan tour was by no means terrible. It was, however, my least satisfying, and not one I'd recommend.
