Reviews

Very interesting holiday busy itinerary.
Saw lots excellent guide.

First class from start to finish.
Attention to detail superb from pickup to the return home.
Our tour guide was exceptional, from history lessons ,to her attention to detail, nothing escaped her! She really was great, had a great sense of humour, even though at times it must have felt like she was herding cats!!,,
Would not hesitate to use Wendy Wu tours in future.

Very helpful and checked around to find best flights. Changed name to correct one immediately when informed it was incorrect.

Excellent and interesting holiday.
The itinerary starts at Kyushu island in the south, through the main island of Honshu, up to Hokkaido, the largest island in the north.
Many first class sites are visited: including temples, shrines, castles, gardens and a beauty spot- some of the best examples in Japan.
The hotels are all good, with a couple of them really first class, the one in Tokyo being 5 star rated.
All meals are included, being a mixture of Japanese and western style - I enjoyed them all. You need to like rice, fish, and seafood as these feature in Japanese cuisine :-) ... but various other meats are frequently met, as well as protein dishes including tofu and mushrooms / fungus.
The transport is by both trains and (very good) coaches, and all travel arrangements went smoothly.
Highly recommended, especially for those who have not visited Japan before.

I really enjoyed the tour. I traveled as a solo person so there are some concerns over how good a deal it was financially. It was an expensive holiday overall Our guide Miyuki was fabulous However I was aware that some in our group were wanting more details/information on some days. But I have nothing to compare the experience with and was happy to enjoy what was presented.
Flights were booked by WW through Heathrow, which I ran with as I wasn’t aware of options. In hindsight Gatwick would have been better as Guernsey flights don’t go to Heathrow. As a result this incurred additional expense travelling across London. And hassle too!
I was happy with the level of exercise required but several in the group were critical of expectations. This held things up at times as some were less able which was unfortunate.
A huge positive was the actual group as we got on and everyone interacted very well. So this was a great relief but a concern prior to the trip. in reality you have to run with this.
I thought the Japanese were very kind and helpful and I felt very safe during the visit. And I’m now not eating my breakfast with chopsticks
The question now is where to go next. And what good deals are available with WW or possibly other organisations. But I did enjoy paying for the whole trip in one go!!

Our guide Kumiko was excellent. Vert knowledgeable, very friendly and great fun. The schedule was a bit hectic but we saw so much of Japan.the lovely countryside and gardens, the castles, temples and shrines as well as the cities. Kumi helped to bring the history alive.
We also went to a miss brewery., a was wasabi farm, a paper making factory and watched a tea ceremony and made and drank our own macha tea! We travelled on the bullet train and also had several boat trips. There are so many marvellous memories. Our group of 28 got on very well aided by the lively Australians.
It was my first experience of Japanese food which I thoroughly enjoyed. Everyone was so friendly and courteous and everywhere was so clean. My granddaughter didn't want to leave and wants to return to Japan in the future.

Our guide was lovely and helpful. Tour was very full on but we got to see so much in a relatively short space of time.

The tour guide Mariko handled this mixed group of 26 from three different countries extremely well.

Setting up a WhatsApp group from Day 1 with names and photos of all participants worked really well. It enabled the group to ‘gel’ quickly and gave a clear outline of times, activities etc.

The days were action packed, which meant that we were able to see and experience life in Japan as it really is. The downside was that little time was available in the evenings to enjoy the excellent hotels and facilities.

Of outstanding value was Grand Nico in Tokyo where we were all upgraded.

We were pleased to learn when we booked the holiday that all meals would be provided. We wouldn’t want to change this. However, there was a downside. Most restaurants (mid day and evening) provided basically the same food. Hence by the second week our diet was much the same, with a lot of raw fish (not to everyone’s taste)! We only had one buffet meal and that was in the evening. So a greater choice of food would have suited us better.

This full-on tour visited many of the main tourist points in Japan during October 2024. There were early starts and some long journeys across three of the islands visited - Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido. The group comprised 28 people, plus the tour guide, and was too big for the guide to keep together, especially when travelling on trains in the peak hours.
As lunchtimes varied according to the visit programme, and could be anytime between 1100 and 1330, it would have been helpful if the group had been advised the previous evening of the next day's planned time of lunch. This would have helped us organise our food intake at breakfast to match an early or late lunch as appropriate.
A lovely boat cruise of Tokyo Bay with evening meal was arranged on our last night in the Capital, which left us late(ish) back to our hotel. On arrival back, we had to pack our cases for despatch by road to avoid the Shinkansen restrictions and then to prepare an overnight bag for a two night stay, all whilst having to be up for a 6 am start the following morning.
There was a farewell dinner arranged for the last night of the tour that was held in a very large cook-it-yourself type restaurant. The air was thick with the smoke of meat being cooked on the griddles at the numerous tables, which left our clothes impregnated with the smell of the experience. These were the clothes in which we would be travelling home from Japan the following day.
The horrors of the A Bomb were seen at the museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which portray graphically the events to the full, and really test one's emotions. Our guide was so moved, even though she must have seen the material many times, that she took to a quiet corner away from the displays to recover her composure.
The tour visited a number of gardens, Temples and Shrines, many crowded with tourists. At Matsumoto Castle, the stairs to reach the upper floors are very narrow and steep, with people ascending having to compete with the large numbers descending. Some of our group could not make the ascent. Due to the long hot summer, we were told that autumn in Japan had been delayed, with little sign of trees changing their colours in the two south islands.
The tour included hands-on experience of making Momiji-Manju (a type of maple leaf shaped cake), sushi, a sake drinking cup, fan painting, and a calligraphy lesson. These were lighter moments much liked by the group. We also enjoyed a tea ceremony and the art of Zen meditation conducted by a Monk. The tour itinerary was followed to the letter apart from one departure, when we were unable to ride the Komagatake cable car at Lake Ashi, closed due to poor visibility.
Overall, the tour was enjoyed very much by my wife and I, but it would have been more practical to have a smaller tour group. This would have made it easier for the guide to negotiate the busy places we visited and to keep the group together. Over the 21 days of the tour, we had three separate tour guides, all of whom were well prepared, and provided information on the venues to be visited and gave us other interesting facts.
The Japanese culture is much to be enjoyed. The people are unbelievably polite (less so in Tokyo, perhaps) and appear to behave within a set of unwritten rules, to which they all comply. In short, they work as a team and have a country that is devoid of litter, graffiti and, interestingly, dirty road vehicles. The trains do run on time, well almost, as we saw a sign for cancellations on one line. But, all across Japan we saw evidence of the effort and dedication being applied by workers, many in white gloves, who seem totally enthused by their individual roles, however basic. Well done Japan and its people, I would love to visit you again.

Well organised guide was fantastic and the group of 24 got along famously
Only downside an 18/20 hour journey to get there and back

Very helpful person on phone. Answered all my questions and sorted out the best business class offer. Very satisfied..

Brilliant tour guide . Evening meals and breakfast great .
Lunch meals too many and not worth having . Not enough time spent at sites, no free time. Lunches should be cut in 1/2 or scrapped and vouchers given .

Sapporo not worth going to . Time could have been better spent in Tokyo and Osaka .

Too much time on coaches , faster transport was available .

What we did see was very good , simply not enough time to explore.

I’m recommending it because it covers so much of Japan. However it is a full on holiday with little or no time to explore yourself independently. There are early starts and times you will be without your luggage and need to pack for one or two days. You are also reliant on a good guide. Ours was Japanese so gave us some insights into the country but had little or no personal skills. Hotels are good. Meals mainly Japanese which can get a bit boring if not totally into the culture.