Japan Guided Tours

We recently returned from a truly wonderful tour of Japan. Eleanor at KimKim was the primary reason it felt so effortless. From the very beginning, she was incredibly thorough, managing every small detail and keeping us perfectly posted with updates and reminders exactly when we needed them. She managed to hit that elusive sweet spot between guided and self-guided time, selecting fantastic guides while still leaving us enough room to breathe and explore on our own. Eleanor was easy to work with and made changes when we thought of them.

One of the best decisions we made was following her advice to spend three days staying on Miyajima instead of staying over on the Hiroshima side. It was a highlight of the trip, though we do have one funny "pro-tip" for anyone else heading there: once the day-tourists catch the ferry back, almost every restaurant on the island shuts down by 6:00 PM. It left only a few spots open outside of the hotels, which we turned into a bit of an adventure, though others might find it a bit of a shock if they aren't prepared!

If we were to tweak anything in the itinerary, there were really only two minor exceptions in Kyoto—the boat ride and the tourist train. Only one person in our group enjoyed them. But in the grand scheme of such a well-planned trip, those were very small notes. Eleanor’s planning was top-tier, and while KimKim provided a great backend for the whole process, it was her personal touch that made the experience what it was. We would highly recommend her to anyone planning to travel to Japan.

The highlight of the trip was the 1,000 photos I captured along the way. I resonate with the Japanese style and their conscious use of space, line, and form in almost everything they create.
The gardens were especially relevant to me. Each one had a similarity but also its own unique elements, which made looking through my lens truly exciting. In fact, they have inspired me to revisit my own gardens, not trying to mimic a Japanese garden, but to take the time to think about, look a little longer and deeper, and try to incorporate these elements into mine.
My favorite was Miyajima - I loved the Island, the cable cars, and the Tori Bridge. It is a beautiful island. I especially love the Miyajima Hotel Villa. They had free snacks (and ice cream!) and the room was very comfortable with a lovely water view. The deer roam freely and are so friendly to the tourists.
I will contact Eleanor when we decide to return to Japan. I will use KimKim to plan travel to other countries.

Shona was excellent and always there ! Most of the guides were great -Toya, Hal meho, Mai were also very good but Akira in Osaka was terrible-very little information , little English and poor planning -we had to wait to enter the hemeji palace and then were rushed at the end . I would say overall that the focus could have been more varied -we saw lots of temples and shrines . The bike ride was great and the food tour excellent -udo was our guide and he was the best on the tour. Toya helped us when we realized we had left our passports in Tokyo and arranged to have them delivered to Hakone and that went well -the private bath there was also excellent.Hal helped us retrieve a bag we left in Kyoto as well . Of course the language barrier took a while to adjust to . We had no museums which would have been nice -overall I would say very good tour . Thank you

Our guides were mostly good with the exception of one young man in Osaka and Kobe whose English was horrible and he seemed generally disinterested in his job.

Activity Review

Osaka Local Foodie Tour in Dotonbori and Shinsekai

Japan