Bastien Desonneville

We loved this traditional hotel and onsen. We highly recommend it.

Our final tour was to Himeji Castle with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. The castle tour and gardens were amazing. We finished up with the ropeway to Mount Shosha, another of my must see destinations. It was amazing.

On Day 7 we were met by our guide Naoko who was wonderful. We enjoyed her very much. We spent the day in Nara, so fascinating.

We went to the Kinkakuji and Nijo Castle Tour which was fascinating. We had a very full day visiting shrines and ending up at Fushiminari. Fascinating!

We took the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Our first excursion was to the Tea Ceremony Experience. We dressed in Kimonos and were shown the intricacies of the tea ceremony. it was fantastic. After that we went to the Samurai and Ninja Musem. This was one of my special choices and it did not disappoint.

Yasuhiro, called Moshi. He is an English professor and spoke perfect English and also Spanish, as does my wife Norma. He took us to Hakone, and unfortunately it rained all day so we did not get to see Mt. Fuji. He took us up the Hakone Ropeway to the top where we had lunch and toured the shop. When we came down we took a tour boat around the lake. He dropped us at our Honten for the evening. We really enjoyed the traditional accommodations, including the private natural hot spring onsen.

Our guide for the first excursion in Tokyo was Haiyan. She was very helpful and knowledgeable. We saw the Imperial Palace, as close as we could get, since entry was not allowed. The we went to the Senso-ji temple, very impressive. She also helped us get to a location that I wanted to see, The Samurai Store. We never would have found it if it was not for Haiyan.

The hotel in Kyoto was great for our four-night stay. Both Tokyo and Kyoto hotels had fantastic breakfast buffets offering both continental and Japanese options.

The room was fine with a little garden. Initially, the front entrance was hard to find due to a lack of signage. Once inside, the hotel was nice. Louise prefers bathtubs and this hotel lacked one, but it was manageable for two nights.

We selected this hotel on recommendation s from a friend and it did not disappoint. The rooms were spacious and clean the private outdoor and indoor bathing areas were wonderful and made for a special experience.

Great hotel with comfortable rooms. The breakfast buffet is excellent with western as well as Japanese food available. All fresh. On a clear morning we could even see Mt Fuji from our table. It is an easy walk to catch a local train or the subway

We did enjoy the Hidden Gardens experience. Our guide, we called him Kay, was great, and we enjoyed the interaction with him.

This was our first temple visit in Japan. Very interesting!

I loved this tour. Osaka Castle is beautiful and has a lot of history. Well set up to see

This was fun but a little hairy riding through traffic for part of it. Going to see the monkeys (macaques) was a bit of a hike up.

We did the half day tour and it was not even that long, maybe 2 hours, not including the wait.

I wish I was a better artist, not having done this before but the class was fun anyway. You have a choice between an ink painting on a board or coasters

The gardens are beautiful especially with the fall colors.

As Mt Fuji was covered in clouds, our guide for the two days suggested we wait until the next day do the Ropeway and boat cruise the next day and we were rewarded with beautiful sunny skies. Instead the guide took use to the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum and it was amazing

This was not part of KimKim’s original plan but they provided a driver and a great guide which made it extra special

Very poor experience at 500 Rai Floating Resort. One a scale of 1:10, with 1 representing a "flea bag motel" and 10 representing a "luxury resort", I would rate it as a 2. The staff was very nice (Thai people are exceptionally lovely and kind people, in general, and the staff at the resort was no different), but the quality of the resort just sucks. We stayed in "Deluxe Family villa," which was dirty and rickety, as well as detached from the rest of the resort, which meant we needed to call a barge every time we wanted to leave. There was no refrigeration or ice in the room, so no cold water, no basic amenities (such as a hair dryer), there was one kayak assigned to the room (even though there were four of us staying, including 2 x teenage boys). The beds were old and lumpy. The shower was broken (for the first hour, we had a tech in the room fixing a showerhead that we spraying water straight upward). It was lousy. Biggest annoyance: The resort allows for one hour/day of complimentary wi-fi for each guest. While I appreciate that the resort fancies itself on being a nature-focused getaway, the remoteness of the area results in significant downtime.....for which, naturally, guests would like an opportunity to research the web, upload photos, email friends, etc. Of course, the resort offered an "all day" package....for $45 USD per person. For a family of 4 (including 2 x teenagers), we would have been charged $200/day for our family to have access to WifI. You simply don't expect this kind of blatant, cheap upsell tactic from a high-end resort. The food at the resort was also atrocious. Thai cuisine is famously good (and we enjoyed tremendous meals in everywhere else in Thailand), but the food at 500 Rai was cafeteria-caliber slop. They obviously struggle with getting ingredients to the resort (given the remote location, I'm sure) but, again, for high-priced accommodation, you expect decent chow. For breakfast, I ordered a "croissant with fresh fruit plate" - I received a cold croissant (straight from the fridge) with no side of butter (or jam), along with 2 x cubed fruit pieces (literally a chunk of watermelon and a bit of pear). It was laughably bad.....yet very indicative of the standard of 500 Rai. The resort is obviously capitalizing on the nature beauty of the park. It only exists because of it. But they are taking advantage of it, assuming that guest will be so dazzled by the natural surrounding that they will overlook the substandard quality of the resort. But, candidly, the shoddy standard of the resort detracted from the overall experience. I left feeling that they are the ones who are taking the beautiful park for granted. Do not waste your time or money on 500 Rai.