Most Inspirational Moment
The Hiroshima display was moving. The Silver pavilion in Kyoto, its makes you realise a garden does not have to be just lawn, so beautiful and peacefull But I come back to the Japanese people, I dropped my watch at a Station and some young person ran after me to hand back the watch to me and didnt even wait for me to say thank you
Thoughts on Group Leader
Ayaka Tsukamoto Clearly in the top 3 of tour leaders i have had with Exodus (around 20 trips) the effort she put in to make sure the trip was wonderful was amazing. On our days off - she spent time making sure we could see everything we wanted and the best way to achieve it i mentioned, just in passing, whether there was an english language Japanese paper - next day there was one at my hotel door we where given guides for each city and in each guide, by hand, each page was circled with things of interest and what would be covered in the tour and where we could go on our days off Ayaka is a very lovely person and was laughing all the time - we were very very lucky to have her Channa
Advice for Potential Travellers
In Toyko there is two underground companies (Metro/ Toel) and i recommend instead of I/c Pass that you purchase from the ticket office , a metro/toel pass (800 yen- if you have your passport, 900 yen otherwise). Though you can get unused money back from I/C card for 200 yen fee - i found that i kept hopping on and off the tube (easiest way to navigate the city) and would have saved money with the pass Bring an umbrella and good waterproof for the daybag - when it rains it rains heavy all day - there is a reason why Japan is so lush and green