Shona Zhang

1. The standard of tour guides were very high, we were very pleased with all 3. They were very informative, flexible and made the most of the time given.
2. In Tokyo we visited the fish market (not in our plans, but suggested by our guide) it was amazing. We went early morning and saw the hustle & bustle of the market, while stopping at several to sample items for our breakfast. Maybe a good suggestion, if you didn’t already know about it.
3. As you know we had issues with the 1st pick up driver, but we also had similar issues with another driver who did pick up on our second to last day, when he picked us up from Tokyo station to take to the hotel. Again we were wondering around the station looking for him, while he sat in the car texting directions. Not ideal with 2 kids and 5 suitcases. Also my younger daughter had to sit on my knee in the car because the rear seat belt was faulty. His suggestion was that he would drive slow!! Stewart also questioned his driving skills. But noted all the other drivers were reliable and safe.
4. We liked all the hotels we stayed in, maybe the first one in Tokyo and the Kyoto one could have been a little closer to the centre, to save on taxis.

Thank you for your help and we look forward to book our next trip with you.

Hotel Reviews

Mitsui Garden Hotel Roppongi Tokyo Premier

Tokyo

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Blossom Kyoto

Kyoto

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo

Tokyo

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

One Day Miyajima Island and Hiroshima Tour

Japan

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Gion District and Nishiki Market

Japan

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tokyo City Tour with Tokyo Tower

Tokyo

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Mt. Fuji with Lake Kawaguchi with Oishi Park

Tokyo

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Kids-Friendly Samurai Ninja Museum and Kimono Tea Ceremony

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Kyoto City Tour with Fushimi Inari-Taisha

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and Monkey Park Tour

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I arrived in Japan after spending a week in China. My China trip was booked with another company and we had top notch service everyday. Our trip in Japan did not provide the same experience. We booked this trip with another couple, each of us arriving about 3 hours apart. I was told that it was important to provide our flight information so that our driver would not need to wait unnecessarily. Both of us did this, months before our trip began. My husband and I arrived first, and we expected to have to wait for the other couple for our driver to arrive. The driver was texting me as soon as we landed. Regrettably he then had to wait three hours for the other couple. We were then told we would need to pay an additional $10,000 yen because of this. Had Shona paid attention to both of the flight schedules this would not have happened.
Our biggest issue was communication with Shona. I would send her a message via the chat and when I got no response after a day, I called the contact number provided. I had to do this 5 times during the trip as Shona was not responding to my chats. It got so the person manning the contact phone, knew m y voice and would acknowledge me by name. Shon would then respond. The other couple and I sent her chats describing our frustration. Her communication improved but we still had issues. Her communications weren't always clear, a good example was the directions from the train station to our hotel in Osaka. She told us it was a 15 minute taxi ride or bus ride to the hotel, or we could walk it for 20 minutes. We exited the train station and walked quite a distance to the taxi stand and thankfully, our friend put it in our phone gps and we discovered if we had turned right out of the train station the hotel was about 2 minutes from us as it was literally part of the train complex. We shared this information with Shona and it was clear she didn't understand our feedback.

Our hotels all met our expectations. We had one issue when we checked in at our first Tokyo hotel. Our confirmation stated a king room and they said that was not the information the hotel had. We contact the number we were provided and Shona said she would take care of it. I took about 2 and a half hours to get it straightened out.
Our guides Yumi Takahashi, and Hector Julio Bozahelfers were outstanding.
Satomi our guide for the Himeji was a nice person but she didn't have the expertise the other guides had. W commented at the end of the day that she took more pictures than we did of the cherry blossoms and castle. It appeared to us she listened to the other tour groups and then provided us with information.

Our Yanka Historical Walking Tour was not what we expected. The description said lunch was included. Lunch was a glass of sake and three meatballs on a stick. We did three other Magical Trip excursions and they were all far superior to this one.

Our experience should have been stress free, but there were many days in the first two weeks where we were waiting on communication with Shona. I shouldn't have had to call the help line as often as I did. I believe she finally understood our frustration and did improve communication with us during the last of the trip.

Hotel Reviews

The Happo

The staff were terrific. Location was perfect in getting around to the ski lifts and restaurants. The restaurants, Geo's in the hotel was excellent.

Authenticity & Character

Charming ski hotel

Location

Centrally located near the lifts, bus station and restaurants.

Staff

Friendly, and very helpful with whatever we needed.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rooms are comfortable and clean.

Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel

Tokyo

Beautiful hotel with lots of extras.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Very close to lots of restaurants as shopping

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Drive to Hakone with Mt. Fuji Tour

Hakone

Yumi our guide did a great job with this experience as it was snowing! Great selection for lunch.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Sake Tasting & Snow Monkey Park Tour (Join-in)

Nagano

Warm day so we didn't see the monkeys in the springs. A little icy on the trails.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Yanaka Historical Walking Tour in Tokyo's Old Town

Tokyo

Not what we expected. Lunch was to be included and all we got was a drink and three meatballs o a stick

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Hiroshima Bar Hopping Food Tour

Hiroshima

This ended up being about food and the bars. Great choices by the guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Kimono Tea Ceremony at Kyoto Maikoya

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Tour of Arashiyama Bamboo Grove & Sagano Scenic Railway

Kyoto

Beautiful experience

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Hector was a great guide. Very knowledgeable and helpful

Transport

Miyajima Half-day Trip Historical Walking Tour

Hiroshima

Beautiful day on the island

Quality of Experience

Our guide was flexible as we wanted to walk and experience the island casually.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dress warm for the ferry

Full Day Kobe Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum and Himeji Castle Tour

Osaka

The castle and ground were beautiful with all the cherry blossoms

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The guide did not have a lot of information. Driver was fine.

Transport

Planning and booking went well, it was the execution and detail once we got there that was terrible. Every day we were in contact with Shona, or at least trying to get in contact with her, trying to get clarity on our itinerary. We needed to check on every transfer, do we have a driver or do we need to get a taxi.. when we took the bullet train the first time , it would have been nice to know you need your QR code ready when leaving the station. And you can only go through the one lane that accepts QR codes. I'm sure the signs in Japanese said this, but that's why we hired a travel agency and guides, we don't speak or read Japanese.
When we arrived in Hiroshima we were told we had 3 options to get to the Sheraton Hotel, Train, Taxi, or a short walk.
1, We were already at the closest train station , 2, The taxi stand was a longer walk than to the front desk of the Sheraton.
This was the final straw and we realized KimKim was a bad choice.
We were a small group of 4, and it was very unfair for the one person who had planned the trip to be burdened almost every day doing the work of the agency. Look for her review.

All good but it was difficult and time consuming communicating with Shona.

Hotel Review

Hakuba Tokyu Hotel

A little lodge like but the rooms are spacious and clean Very Reasonable priced Staff a little neurotic Restaurant only open for breakfast and Not dinner No bar and Wasn't disclosed to us

Authenticity & Character

Location

See above

Staff

See above

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Full Day Sake Tasting & Snow Monkey Park Tour (Join-in)

Nagano

Kerin and Sean were amazing! Loved everything about the tour

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Kimkim is a WinWin
Out arranged drivers and guides all showed up and did good jobs. May took us to Mt. Fuji; we had a lovely time with him. Aki took us to Mehajima Island and was great. Kimmie took us around Kyoto for a very fun day. Shonna contacted us daily to remind us who our guides/drivers would be for the next day. That was an asset. Also, KimKim provided us detailed instructions of how to get to places we were going on our own.

Hotel Review

THE KNOT HIROSHIMA

Hiroshima

The location was perfect. It had the best breakfasts.

Authenticity & Character

It was boutique-ish

Location

It is walkable to the Peace Memorial Park.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Tokyo: Sumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a Photo

Tokyo

It was a fun show with audience participation.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Miyajima Island Tour

Hiroshima

Kimkim should know that this tour needs more than 1/2 day. OR we should have started the day much earlier. We had to practically run to get back to the ferry and we are not runners. But your guide couldn’t have been more knowledgeable or sweeter.