Review

This was a great itinerary for a first-time visit to Japan. The optional day trips to Naoshima and Nara were excellent. Please keep them as options or (better yet) add them to the regular itinerary. There was confusion about last-minute booking for several folks to Naoshima and the process for that booking should be made clearer in the pre-tour materials. It would have been cool to spend the night on Miyajima Island, so I urge Samurai to find new lodging there. We appreciated arriving several days early for the tour to recover from jet-lag and have a chance to explore Tokyo more in depth. We booked a private guide for those days through Samurai (Charlie!) and that was a very good decision. The optional visit to the Tokyo outer market was disappointing - there was nothing for the guide to do besides walk us through the area as he wasn\'t allowed to stop the group inside the market or speak to us as we walked.

We felt that all accommodations were clean, well-located, and comfortable. The rooms were often small but manageable. This was not a luxury tour, nor was that expected. Loved the many facilities that also had onsens and laundry facilities!

We like that many meals were included (a plus!) and were very good - some were extraordinary. We appreciated that all breakfasts were included and that they provided diverse options.

Using local guides is brilliant and we appreciated their deep knowledge.

We appreciated the 2014 handbook\'s level of detail about Japanese customs and etiquette. However, it is now seriously out of date and needs a complete overhaul. Also, see comments above about recommending more clarity for advance booking the Naoshima Island optional tour. We appreciated the travel insurance inclusion in the tour package.

The tour was very well organized - guides, itinerary, transportation, etc. The transition from guide to guide went very smoothly.

Using public transport was great! Once we got used to the luggage transfer process, it worked well. I STRONGLY recommend that folks use a backpack as an overnight bag. There are escalators and elevators in most transit stations, but where they weren\'t available it was sometimes a challenge for some members of our group to carry rolling bags up/down stairs.