Japan In Depth - Footsteps of the Shogun

Really enjoyed the tour. It covered the main cities whilst also taking us off the busy tourist trail. The culture and lifestyle was brought to life by our excellent tour guide Zi who explained in depth the Japanese way of life. She made the tour. I highly recommend the trip especially if Zi is the guide. Can’t praise her enough.

This was a great trip which we would thoroughly recommend, made all the better by our exceptional tour leader Zi (Zilola). As well as the expected itinerary we also visited other sites and benefited from additional activities arranged by Zi. The many gardens (we hit peak cherry blossom time), the clear view of Mount Fuji, the many beautiful temples and the countryside in the far south were all highlights. The bullet trains were a new experience and the luggage forwarding worked well (the last one to Fukuoka is no longer necessary). We booked 3 nights in Tokyo before the tour began, which I would recommend as it allowed us to largely recover from jet lag and see a lot more of Tokyo. Changeable weather and quite a lot of walking so come prepared!

Given the number of days we had, this was an imaginative introduction to Japan, that took in several major cities but also some of the outlying islands in the south-west of the country. The pace (for me) was perfect. The accommodation, which included a traditional ryokan by way of contrast with the more standard hotels, was good, and our tour leader - David - first class. He introduced the sites succinctly, and took us to a variety of restaurants to sample Japanese food, from conveyor-belt sushi to okonomoyaki, a kind of omelette typical of Hiroshima. And once, when I stupidly lost my smartphone, David was outstanding, efficiently tracking it down and getting it returned to me in another city. He's definitely a star!

Excellent tour of Japan with tour guide David Lam. We liked that the tour had nice chunks of free time including a full day in Kyoto, used public transport including the bullet trains, and used simple but we'll located accommodations. Our total group was 11 - a great size.