Olivia Luang

We had a wonderful time in Japan, would credit its success as a result of careful planning (mostly started with my wife and my later addition) and working with Olivia during the planning process, booking, and even during the trip for the most up-to-date and timely intervention/support. I'd emphasize this timely and supporting communication with Olivia as the most satisfying experience.

As for accommodations, those in Tokyo and Kyoto met, even exceeded my expectation in terms of location, facility and amenities. I suspect at time of booking, there was some shortages of hotels in Osaka, the selected hotel was not at par with the previous two. Thus the contrast exacerbated the differences, as we expected the same caliber as before. However, the Osaka location, not sure if being a smaller city, is walking distance to all attractions in this wonderful cultural city, e.g. Kuromon market, Dontobori street. By chance we met an Aussie couple during the Foodie Tour, that we learned about the Free Osaka Walking Tour, which we took on our free time on the last day of our trip. It can be hit and miss, but Masaaki as the Guide who used to live in Florida for 25 years really impressed us with his communication skills, that we learned and appreciated Osaka culture and history, but I digress ;)!

There are many fond memories and great impressions we had from this trip. I now recover from jet lag of this trip, so it many not be a complete review at this time. That said, I was very impressed with the food we had, possibly thanks to the Foodie Tour we had in Tokyo and Osaka, and on our own in Kobe, having an experience with Kobe Sukiyaki beef. But I am most impressed especially with the buffet breakfast at Mitsui Garden Premier and Vischio hotel. In addition to the standard "meaty" (American) breakfast -which even includes roast chicken and pork, the complete traditional Japanese breakfast was served, from Miso and variant (Corn) soup with all delicate ingredients, to a full sushi palette with eels, topped up with deserts like individually made Yatsuhashi and whole wheat Gallete (pancake). Matt even found out something new about Shirasu, a tiny, translucent, silvery-white baby fish in his Japanese breakfast, what a find and an experience! A big breakfast was much needed for our daily walk, typically 15-20K steps, or 10 miles, more than enough for a daily cardio exercise, so we made full use of it! Fudou Houtou - Yamanashi, a veg flat udon noodles is honorably mentioned when our Guide brought us to a restaurant going to Hakone, was an interesting and unique experience. The whole bowl made of cast iron, was individually cooked for each person, as I could see the process from the door of the kitchen. It is noteworthy that the provided Guide recommended good restaurants for lunch during our daily tour, which is very important to make efficient use of time. More can be written on food, but it is sufficient for this purpose.

There are more than just food, but it will take time for me to systematically recall to review, and this would need going back to all the photos and videos I took, so that would be my own report, perhaps for future trips back. Perhaps I should focus on what could be improved, or lessons on my own part. First would be to review and priority the attractions to visit, as we all have limited time and budget. Now that I've been to one, a different list of attractions can be revised to complement what I have visited. Given the number of temples (Bhudist and Shintos), perhaps we could reduce one or two, and add a Geisha experience in Gion, Kyoto in lieu. Given only a day or less in Hakone, we could have booked 2 nights for a better experience, especially to allow more time to enjoy the outdoor onsen. In addition, some flexibility in events booking in Tokyo could have been reserved as an option, in order to prepare for weather changes. E.g. when we first landed in Tokyo, the next day was to enjoy Ueno Park especially during Sakura Blossom time. However, the weather was not cooperated, it was lightly rained and cold, we managed to enjoy and capture precious moment anyway. However, as I checked the weather forecast at the time, found that the next day (after Ueno Park) was scheduled for TeamLabs Planets, that it was going to be sunny! I thought about a possible swap, but all arrangements were done, possibly not easy to change, so I went with the plan! Another note is about the Tour Guide, as they are fine doing their job, however I kind of wish some minor improvements can be considered. I suppose for a small walking group, the need for individual electronic listening devices (earbuds) could be used, as we all could listen to the Guide, and we were usually immersed in a sea of people walking to an attraction. Such use of earbuds can help. In addition, and this may depend on the Guide him/herself, whether they can add some story telling, some interesting and unique info on where we are going can be added. But this is like an enhancement, not strictly necessary.

That said, I really appreciate the change offered by the Tour on the first day to Kyoto, as Olivia added a private driver! In hindsight, as we had to wander Kyoto a couple hours before checking in at 3PM, we may not be able to go to the Tea Ceremony scheduled at 5PM by local public transit. ( We used this time to check out the nearby UEON chained shopping mall ). So the Driver came in very helpful to make it to the Tea Ceremony timely.

Another point of local transit, we were happy with the additional transfer when needed, but the local going from point A to point B in a new city using public transit would assume the travelers to be well-versed with Google Map, and an understanding of the local transit (subway, train, bus), which can be a challenge for certain activity, such as the meeting place for the Tokyo/Shinjuku and Osaka Foodie Tour. This would require some knowledge of using the subway and especially exiting at the right exit. I could have managed on my own, however not an easy task for me. Thankfully, travelling with my adult sons, using Google map, translate, and perhaps when walking with the Tour Guide on a previous day in Tokyo, they learn quickly how to navigate the local transit, which was a good experience to learn, still a challenge for first timers in general.

As mentioned, there are lots to recall and review. And no trip, regardless of planning would be perfect, weather cooperation always an potential issue . Thankfully, we are more than compensated watching Sakura blossom season throughout the trip, in Tokyo and surprising in Osaka after all. Overall, myself had a wonderful time in Japan, and really appreciate working with Olivia to timely work out some minor issues, making the trip a very pleasurable memory!

We had an amazing family trip. We were very happy with Ben in helping us plan and make decisions for our family. We also appreciated the accommodations that he provided when things went differently (unexpectedly) than originally planned. We are thankful for the small gifts and showing of gratitude that he provided during our trip as well (an extra private transport, engraving for our souvenir chopsticks). We also thought our guide Yoko was wonderful and we felt that we were in very good hands with her. We appreciated her flexibility to change/adjust plans when needed for our family, and trusted her advice along the way. We believe she had our best interests in mind.

While our experience was very positive, we do have feedback on some areas of improvement. I think better details regarding the schedule/timing of the day would have been helpful BEFORE the trip. The itinerary for some days was overly ambitious and we had to adjust (cut back) based on dwindling energy levels of everyone. We could have used better judgment/advice regarding that in advance, and built in some down time for everyone to just relax and enjoy the moment.

Another note -- I traveled with other family members who also used KimKim, and they had a very questionable (arguably negative) experience with KimKim. The travel agent Olivia was not responsive, provided inaccurate or incomplete information, and not particularly apologetic or accommodating for major mistakes/errors in the trip. Even though that was not my personal experience, I witnessed it firsthand with my other family members, and as a result, I do have concerns about KimKim and wonder if the service is inconsistent across travel agents. That is something I think about.

We overall had a great 10 day trip in Japan. The locations and experiences were exactly what we were looking for, you can't go wrong with all the wonderful things to see in the country. We did have issues with our particular tour specialist. We felt that she provided a 'copy and paste' itinerary from other trip plans and was not individualized based on our questions and feedback. While planning other Kimkim trips, it was more of a back and forth looking for feedback, but any questions or comments we had would automatically result in a new trip plan - there wasn't the specialized communication that I had experienced with other trip guides. I was particularly disappointed with the restaurant reservations. I asked 6 weeks in advance of our trip for recommendations and help making reservations and our guide said she would get back to us and never did. Only after prompting, she provided a list of top 10 restaurants in Tokyo - something we easily could have found ourselves. Given how packed Japan is and personal food sensitivities, finding restaurants for dinner was very frustrating and a problem that could have been avoided. I do love Kimkim and have recommended them many times, but I do say it is dependent on the knowledge and the willingness to help by your assigned guide.

Activity Reviews

Full Day Mt. Fuji and Lake Ashi Tour

Hakone

Sam was a great guide - I wish we could have started our trip with him in Tokyo. He was super informative about history, religion, and customary practices at temples. We learned so much from him at the very end of our trip that we wish we had known from the start. I do think a guide isn't really necessary for what we did on this particular day, we only really needed a driver but we were happy to spend the day with Leon nonetheless.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Nara City Tour, Overnight in Osaka

Kyoto

Leon was an incredible driver and guide. We were expecting him to just drive us around, but he walked around with us providing information and taking pictures for us. When it started to rain, he volunteered to run back to the car and come pick us up so we didn't get wet. He even brought us to an additional park that wasn't on the itinerary - he was great!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Kyoto City Tour with Fushimi Inari-Taisha

Kyoto

Zumi is a fabulous tour guide and super responsive to whatever we were interested in or any particular requests we had. We loved everything we saw this day and Zumi went out of his way to provide us an excellent experience.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Tokyo City Tour with Tokyo Tower

Tokyo

Our guide, Keiko, had difficulties navigating the subway - she got confused multiple times resulting in delays. She was very personable and friendly, but we didn't feel that she knew the city too well other than the major tourist areas we were visiting.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The guide didn't seem to know how to navigate Tokyo subways well. She was informative when we asked questions, but we were expecting for her to provide more information on overall history and culture of Tokyo/Japan.