July, 2023
We wanted to tell you how great our trip was. It truly could not have gone better and often exceeded our Our family of 6 (mom, dad, and four 20 something kids) recently got home from a 16 day trip in Japan created by Jason Gilman of JapanQuest Journeys. Jason helped us shape a trip that worked well for our family and really took into account our interests and preferences. We went through many iterations of our itinerary until the pacing and the sites made us all happy.
We started in Tokyo with our guide Narumi who stayed with us for the whole trip. Our guide met us the first day and suggested we go “off itinerary” for a special local event – the Kanda Myojin Shrine Parade – and we watched hundreds of people from many neighborhoods celebrate and dance with their shrines. We also saw all the major sites and also had a few special and memorable experiences – our favorites in and near Tokyo were a cooking class at the home of a chef with an amazing history, visiting a sword maker, and a sake (actually nihon shu) tasting class. For the rest of our trip, we had fun finding and ordering sakes of different types.
We next visited Kanazawa to see several UNESCO world heritage sites that were beautiful and interesting and stayed in a fantastic onsen ryokan that gave us a taste of hot spring bathing and provided more of a Japanese feeling than traditional western hotels.
In Kyoto, we visited temples – some with amazing views, a bamboo forest, a building housing 1000 Buddha statues from the 1200’s, and some terrific shrines. We had a Taiko drum class – a real hoot for the whole family – and had a moving and relaxing Zen Buddhism experience. We saw many gorgeous meditative gardens where we could have spent hours. Our daughter also found a “Pig Café” (think “Cat Café” but with little pigs) which was…different and fun.
En route to Kyoto, one of our kids left a phone on the train and our guide did a great job of working the (impressive) Japanese systems for finding and reclaiming lost items – far, far different than it would have been in the US. And yes, we got it back three days later before leaving the area.
The deer in Nara are really cute (but carefully, one bit me in the butt- no damage done) and we spoke with a group of school children that wanted to practice their English.
We specifically requested a stop in Hiroshima which we found particularly moving and profound and such a testament to the evil of nuclear weapons and resilience of the Japanese people. A local specialty, an Okonomiyaki dinner, was a real treat – never had anything like it.
Another favorite location was Naoshima which was completely Jason’s suggestion. We’d never heard of it. We’ve told several friends about “the art islands” since we’ve been back. We could have easily spent an extra day or two, and the art and experience was truly memorable.
Jason created a logical circuit for us to follow and included bonus stops along the way to make our longer travel days easier. He was very helpful at identifying “must see” sites and helped us fill, but not over fill, our days. Narumi our guide was knowledgeable and lovely. She was our private tour guide and kept track of the details and managed our time such that the trains, planes, automobiles, restaurants, activities, reservations, tickets, etc. were nearly invisible to us. Even with all we had scheduled, she sometimes suggested a change in a daily itinerary if there was a special local event, weather concerns, or a newly discovered activity we wanted to add.
Thank you to Narumi, Jason, and JapanQuest Journeys for a wonderful Japan trip!
