We met our travel guide on the evening of the 2nd. First thing we observed was her very poor English skills. We thought we might be in trouble and we were right. We spent one full day in Osaka, staying at the Imperial Hotel. While the hotel was quite nice, the location was not. Other than the hotel dining options and the local convenience stores, our dining options were limited. We also did not see any shopping opportunities nearby. We next traveled to Hiroshima where we toured the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. A delightful woman who survived the atomic bombing lectured for an hour with interpreting. It was difficult to follow. On our way to lunch lost half our group. She had to double back to find them. is quite short and we asked her numerous times to keep the flag that we were following higher in the air but that request was unsuccessful. The delay in getting to the lunch venue resulted in half of our meals sitting waiting for us. The food was supposed to be warm but it wasn’t. It was quite good in any case. That same day we traveled again up to Kyoto. Quite a few of us were disappointed we spent only one day in Kyoto. We had very little time to shop during the day. We thought the choice of the hotel, The Thousand Kyoto was marvelous. A great location next to the awesome train station so after checking in, a few of us explored the train station shopping and dining areas. The following day we again traveled to the area around Mount Fuji. We had a so-so lunch at a hotel. Afterward, two in our group opted to see the kimono museum while the rest of us took in the views on a cable car. This resulted in dropping off the couple first and then the bus took us on to the cable car. There was confusion on when we all were to meet back at the bus because instructions were not clear. As a result, the bus had to go back to pick up the couple at the kimono museum. We went back with the bus ( stayed with the larger group at the cable car) and upon arriving my husband got off the bus to go look for them. The bus driver got off too but didn’t know who they were and he walked past them 3 times. We got them back on the bus and then the bus came back to pick up the rest of the group. Then we were off to a 3 hour bus trip into Tokyo. The hotel in Tokyo was in a good location but the service in the breakfast restaurant was terrible. We could not get our own coffee and after asking at least 3 times, we eventually got our coffee but it was after our meal was done. The tour of the National Museum was postponed until the Friday when we were supposed to return to Tokyo. The museum is closed on Monday’s, which you would think they would have known about. Instead we enjoyed the Askusa neighborhoods and was able to get in some good shopping. Several of us chose to learn the art of sushi making for lunch which was great fun. After spending one full day in Tokyo, we took a 3 hour train ride north to Sendai. When we arrived we then took a 1 hour bus ride to the Matsushima Bay area to a local inn. So after traveling 4 hours, we found the inn to be quite run down and very shabby looking. The vinyl tablecloths were old and torn. Our lunch was plated and waiting for us when we arrived. Who knows how long the raw fish had been sitting there. The food wasn’t very good. After lunch, we boarded the bus again and went to the bay to get on a very old motorboat. It wasn’t in very good shape and as we motored around the bay for about 45 minutes looking at small islands with trees on them, several men in our group decided they should figure out where the life preservers were! We made it back to the dock to walk to an area where the local high school kids performed the tea ceremony. At the end of all of this, the consensus was that it all was a waste of time. Generally, everyone wished that we could have had an opportunity to experience a tea ceremony in Kyoto. The hotel in Sendai was quite nice though. The next day we again traveled by bus to one of the original castles where we walked around the grounds. We would have very much liked to have gone into the castle but we were told there was no time for that as had other things planned. Afterword we traveled to a Saki brewery where we toured with the president. It was quite nice. The last day in Sendai we traveled by bus to a whisky factory which was fun. The grounds were beautiful. The dinner that night at a local restaurant was quite tourist-y and the food again was so-so. I think a lot of us were ready to not have sushi and sashimi at every meal! Three nights in Sendai was too much. We returned the next day to Tokyo again by train and this time we toured the National Museum. We had a final dinner that night with everyone at a local restaurant which again was so-so.
The logistics of moving our suitcases from one city to another went very well. Each time we checked into a new hotel, our luggage was waiting for us. Overall, our opinion is that this tour was not worth the money we paid and we paid a lot! Our guide was terrible having a poor grasp of English. Her directions were often confusing and when she was speaking on the bus tours or when we were walking around, most of us tuned her out. She would say things like “Oh, look at that!” We would have no idea what she was looking at since she seldom said for us to look to the right or look to the left. Because she often walked so fast, as mentioned above, she lost half of the group. She seldom held up her flag high enough for us to follow. As a matter of fact, the group told me that I had to continue to wear my bright pink raincoat so they could follow me! Also one of the tour members would proudly wear bright shirts and we told him that he had to continue that practice so we could follow him! One morning a gentleman was late joining the group in the lobby because she had told us several different times to meet. I personally got in the habit of asking loudly for clarification for the evening’s events or the timeline for the following morning before departing the bus so we all could be on the same page. Most of the people on this tour were world travelers and had experienced excellent tour guides. Two of the couples who often travel together told us that it was their intention to not tip Noriko at all to express their displeasure. We tipped her but not what was the recommended amount.
I hope this feedback helps.
Kindly &
