As a first-time visitor, the trip was well paced, with memorable highlights. The hotels that we stayed at were luxurious and had amazing, wonderful meals with buffet, traditional show stopping sit down dinners and street food crawl. We were exposed to cultural events like meeting and watching a performance by a geisha in training, hearing a special performance by an expert master champion play a traditional guitar like instrument, sushi making and a tea ceremony. Riding the bullet trains was a definite unforgettable highlight. The Japanese people are so courteous, friendly and disciplined. Every place was so clean with no graffiti or trash abandoned all over the place. The sights of Mount Fuji, shrines, temples castles and sky towers were awesome. We loved the visit to the Sake factory, enjoyed the tasting and their generosity in giving us a bottle of sake and sake cup blew us away. We did have time for souvenir shopping but wished for more.
The best part of the trip was meeting and being in the company of Ms Natsuko Ide our guide. She was the most hardworking, conscientious, patient, knowledgeable and understanding lady. We loved her daily handwritten itineraries with plans and descriptions of the day ahead. We were impressed with her beautiful communication skills and excellent English. She taught us a few words of Japanese daily that I hope to remember always. She led us through several short cuts and back doors in the stations and parks. She made sure to check the buses so nothing was accidently left behind. She was there to make sure that the earliest guest leaving at 3am was put safely into their transport to the airport and continued till the last one left, many hours later.
