Reviews

Most Inspirational Moment

We loved the day trip to Hiroshima. The museum was a moment of personal reflection for us and a privilege to sign the petition to abolish nuclear weapons around the world.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Chiko Hansen was our guide and the best without doubt that we have ever had the pleasure to travel with. There was no request too large for Chiko and with a group of 18 people to keep tabs of in the busiest most populous city in the world she never once lost any of us. Chico's knowledge and information was faultless and her love of guiding tourists in her country was evident and infectious in the way the whole group rallied to her every word or direction. Don't know when she managed to sleep what with organising the recovery of forgotten cardigans and iPads, Pokemon shopping trips, birthday presents, wedding anniversary presents, dinner reservations, Karaoke bookings, tickets to the theatre, trips to Fuji and Niko, sumo practice and some of these on free days. When we discussed the trip over dinner on the last night is was apparent that everyone in the group took from the trip a feeling of having had special treatment from Chiko in one way or another which is an incredible skill. Most of all though Chiko was courteous, polite, respectful, attentive and a thoroughly nice lady who felt as much part of the group as a group leader.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Pack economically if possible as there will be so much you want to bring home. If you are considering Japan as a destination then make a list of what you would like to see in both Kyoto and Tokyo before you go as there is so much to see you don't want to waste time when there.

Suggestions

We enjoy travelling and look for new cultures and experiences each time but Japan is a place we would love to go back to. Just have to figure out how we can make it happen. Perhaps a stop over on the way to somewhere else!

Most Inspirational Moment

The visit to Hiroshima. It made me think a great deal about politics and war. The shrines and temples were inspirational in a very different, and beautiful way.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Chiko was really great. She went above and beyond to ensure we all had a great experience.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Go. And enjoy!

Most Inspirational Moment

I enjoyed all of it.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Excellent - well organised, caring and helpful at all times.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Different from other Exodus trips I have been on in that travelled on public transport, but be ready for plenty of walking.

Suggestions

Minor criticism - could have had more input on Japanese culture, language & way of life.

Most Inspirational Moment

Hard to say - there were so many great moments! I loved being there in spring and loved the variety of the different places we visited from the contrasting cities of Kyoto and Tokyo to the days in the mountain towns with the outdoor pool at the Onsen a special highlight.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Akemi was great - nothing was too much trouble and she organised everything very efficiently. She took us to a variety of places to eat so that we could experience different local foods and her spreadsheet to cope with all the different pricing and cash involved was amazing. She has a wonderful smile and an excellent personality for this demanding position.

Advice for Potential Travellers

I would recommend some reading in advance of the tour as because the trip is all on public transport there is not a lot of opportunity to ask questions that are other than fairly superficial

Most Inspirational Moment

The group leader was perhaps the most inspirational part of the trip (which is high praise because it was such a great tour) because of her professionalism. She is a young woman who put her utmost into ensuring we all had a great time.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Akemi was the best group leader i have had on a tour. She was clear and informative, very generous with her time, extremely well organised, and went out of her way to deal with any problem or answer any question. She created an excellent atmosphere in the group.

Advice for Potential Travellers

There is quite a bit of walking, so a reasonable level of fitness is required. Having a light bag is very helpful.

Suggestions

I, like most of the others on the tour, are now very keen to return to Japan and explore more.

Most Inspirational Moment

It's impossible to single out a single moment; the whole trip was amazing, but the incredible cherry blossom and the pleasure it gives the Japanese is something we shall never forget.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Akemi Nozawa was a fantastic tour leader. She was friendly, helpful, had a good sense of humour and was incredibly organised in a way that was unobtrusive and appeared effortless. She really put in a lot of extra time and effort to make sure we all enjoyed the trip, e.g. helping group members with train times to/from the five lakes (to see Mt Fuji) on one of our free days and helping with tickets for the Kabuki theatre. At the start of our trip she gave us all a printed itinerary for the trip that included several optional activities she offered on our free days such as visiting the Tokyo fish market and other places that were not included on the standard trip itinerary, which was brilliant as it covered lots of things that we'd planned to do ourselves. We've been on a lot of trips with different companies and Akemi stands out as one of the best tour leaders we've ever had.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Do it all: the food, the onsens, the trains – go with an open mind and try everything! If this will be your first visit to Japan we recommend this trip. Not only does it offer a wide range of experiences, but on first acquaintance Japan, and in particular the Japanese railway system, is quite confusing and we were grateful to be in a guided group, but you soon get the hang of it and by the time we reached Tokyo all our group were zooming about very confidently. Take comfortable walking shoes – you will need them. Be warned, the weather in Japan is as variable and fickle as it is in Britain. We visited during the first two weeks of April and the weather on our trip varied from shirtsleeves warm to snow! Take layers and expect chilly evenings and the possibility of some wet days (if it's wet you can borrow wellington boots at the Takayama ryokan). There is quite a bit of free time on this trip and to make the best of it we recommend browsing through a few guidebooks before you go (the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet are both good). Think about the things you'd like to do on your free days (shopping, sightseeing, etc.) and plan ahead. We are particularly interested in Japanese folk crafts and traditional buildings so on our free days we visited Kawai Kanjiro's house in Kyoto and the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo (both highly recommended if you like that sort of thing). The Hida Takayama Museum of Art is a hidden treasure, it's only a five minute walk from the ryokan and has a London bus, an amazing collection of glassware, and a (pricey) café furnished like Glasgow's Willow Tea Rooms, in Charles Rennie Mackintosh style. The Lonely Planet guidebook has some useful walks: in Kyoto we enjoyed the Southern Higashiyama walk and in Tokyo the walk around Yanaka (combine it with a visit to the National Museum). We would strongly recommend visiting during Sakura (cherry blossom time) the blossom is amazing and it's a pleasure to see all the locals out admiring the blossom. It adds an extra dimension to your visit.

Suggestions

Japan is a very safe, very polite country and the locals are very friendly (one man got off a metro train at our stop and guided us round to our platform on another line, before returning to continue his journey). Japan is unlike any other Asian country we've visited. We loved it and would love to return, perhaps to see the autumn colours another year.

Most Inspirational Moment

Hiroshima Memorial Park, and seeing Mt Fuji fully exposed from the train.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Yuri was so organised! I loved that she'd say 'we'll meet in the lobby at 830, the train is at 838....' Japanese efficiency has to be seen to be believed as the trains mostly run to the second, and stop exactly where expected on the platform, awesome. We even synchronised watches at the start of the trip, which gave us all an indication of just how serious she viewed lateness!

Advice for Potential Travellers

Save up before you go! With almost no meals included it feels expensive out there - I'd looked at the Exodus budget, thought we shouldn't need that much per day, but had spent a lot more first couple of days. There's loads of shopping opportunities if you want to go crazy, but people watching more fun for me as 'anything goes' out there. Take loads of layers of clothes too - temperature can vary wildly during a day during Spring - am sure it was nearly 20c at 3 pm, and 4c by 8 with a biting wind as well.

Suggestions

We joked that Exodus should be renamed 'exhausting' - there's plenty free time, but in such a far away place we couldn't help ourselves packing in as much as possible every minute of everyday

Most Inspirational Moment

Really loved Matsumoto. Quite place to stay, beautiful cherry blossom and the black tower was amazing.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Ryoko was a fantastic group leader. She got the balance right with her information - the key points were clearly stated (and illustrated) without her droning on. She listened to the group and took on board what they wanted - for such a large group she kept us together, informed and safe brilliantly.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be prepared for a lot of walking everyday. If you do not like spending a lot of time on your feet then do not book this trip. However, the walking is a great way to fully experience this fantastic country.

Suggestions

A great intense way to sample the best of Japan.

Most Inspirational Moment

I can't pick one so maybe three, the Inari shrine in the early hours of the morning, it was so quiet and tranquil. The peace park in Hiroshima, it was quite harrowing but inspirational at the same time. The cherry blossoms, I've seen cherry blossoms before but there is something about the Japanese attitude towards the blossoming of the trees that was truly amazing.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Absolutely excellent. I couldn't imagine someone doing a better job. Yuri was friendly, efficient and helpful. She had an incredible amount of knowledge about the areas we visited and Japan in general meaning that she was able to answer pretty much all the questions we posed. She made excellent recommendations for places to visit during our free time and usually purchased train tickets for us to get where we wanted to go so that we wouldn't have to figure the system out. She also arranged meals every night which was a huge help since my boyfriend is vegetarian and as such ensuring there was something he could eat was a bit difficult at times. The food she picked out was always amazing, I'm very glad that we had her advice as otherwise I wouldn't have tried half of the food that I did. All in all I really can't sing Yuri's praises enough.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Just go for it, it's worth having someone to guide you around, there is so much we would have missed without someone who had experienced it all before and knew how to get everywhere easily. Also take comfortable shoes (better yet ones that you can get on and off easily) and something warm and waterproof, it could get a bit cold at times, particularly in the mountains and although it only rained once on our trip we got soaked. When it comes to the public baths just have a go, there were a few members of our group who weren't sure but honestly it's something that you absolutely shouldn't miss.

Suggestions

The group size seems like it may be a bit large, Yuri was very capable when it came to managing everyone and ensuring that the slowest members of the group were always accounted for but 18 people is quite a lot and it would probably make things easier if the groups were a little smaller.

Most Inspirational Moment

There have been so many wonderful moments. Real highlights were the balloon trip over Bagan, the trip on Inle Lake and the U Bein bridge at sunrise. These stand alongside some magnificent temples, stupas and pagodas; walks into villages which showed the local people at daily work.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Joseph, our leader, was a star. His organisation of every aspect of the trip was great; he was really helpful with advice about what we could do with our free time and where we might eat. Everything was as he said it would be. Above all he was really informative in telling us about every aspect of our trip - history, life in the country, the shifting political context, people and traditions in the country. We have travelled a lot with Exodus and always enjoyed our leaders - Joseph was something special.

Advice for Potential Travellers

The guidance on how much money to take was for us generous - it is cheap to eat out in Myanmar. Dollars need to be crisp and new! Even currency with slight marks on were rejected by the money changers. Changing money into local currency is not a problem and there were suitable places at every stop although ATMs are occasionally erratic. Mosquito spray etc is really important. We used local laundry services on a couple of occasions...good rapid service