Great Trip to Japan
Japan
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Jun 9 - Jun 20, 2026
We had a great time in Japan. I love the Kimkim app. Everything is well organized and it was very easy to get the day-by-day details. It is convenient that you can add attachments like the Shinkansen tickets. I wasn’t sure how that was going to work, especially since it was our first time taking the bullet train.
Eleanor did a great job putting our itinerary together. It was very easy to communicate through kimkim to work on the itinerary. It was easy to communicate with Eleanor during our trip.
The tour guides were fantastic. Yumi, Asuka and Yukiko were all very knowledgeable and communicated well. They each had notebooks with more details during our tours.
I researched about how much the hotels and tours would cost before I connected with kimkim. So when Eleanor asked about the budget, I was able to give her the budget. She stayed within our budget.
The only thing that I would do differently is to add a couple of days to our itinerary. I would add at least one day of “rest” after three days of touring or maybe even after each day of touring. But the itinerary was built on what our planned stay already was.
Overall, I am very pleased with how this trip worked out. Our itinerary went as planned. It was a great trip and experience. I will definitely use Kimkim again.
Hotel Reviews
The rooms were comfortable. It was great having a washer/dryer in the room. I didn’t have to pack as much since I knew that we coul wash our clothes. The breakfast was very good with lots of selection. I was disappointed that the restaurant was booked out for a private event our first two nights there. Usually we like to eat at the hotel on our first day if arrivals.
Very nice location. It is close to the Shinkansen station so we were able easily walk to the hotel. The cafe had great breakfast with lots of selections.
This kind of an unusual location in the middle of the Dotonburi. We didn’t realize that we couldn’t take a car right up to the hotel. Our driver dropped us off on a street as close to the hotel ad possible. The hotel is a bit obscure. The lobby is on the third floor. We quickly figured it all out.
Nice hotel in the middle if Ginza. Very nice breakfast. The hotel has three washer and dryers for the entire hotel, This hotel was the last one we stayed in on our trip. So I wanted to do some laundry, but the washer/dryers were in continuous usage late at night and even early in the morning. I gave up in doing the laundry! Fortunately, we had enough clean clothes to finish out our trip. If we really need to do laundry, I would have/ could have used the hotel’s laundry service.
Activity Reviews
Himeji castle tour was amazing. We learned a lot. Yuki-san did a great job explaining the history of the castle and Japan. We then had lunch nearby. Afterwards we toured the Kokoen garden. Then we proceeded to the Herb garden in Kobe. We were late getting to the garden and didn’t have time to walk down through the garden.
We really enjoyed the tour of Hakone. The ropeway to Owakudani, and boat ride on lake Ashi and ropeway to mount Komagatake. Yumi-san was very knowledgeable.
We learned a lot about Japan’s history. Nijo castle was very interesting. The singing floors were a special experience. At first, we thought there were birds nearby. Asuka-san is very knowledgeable. She had a book containing a lot of information that she used to explain the history. The Arashiyama bamboo forest was amazing.
We started to tour in Nara-machi. We visited two old homes, We visited Nara Park. Our first activity at Nara Park was to feed the deer! Then we walked to Todaji temple and saw the great buddha daibutsu. Daibutsu-san was awe inspiring. The Kasuga shrine area is beautiful.