Japan was a trip of a lifetime!
Japan
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Nov 22 - Nov 29, 2025
Japan was a trip of a lifetime! The Japanese sure know how to cook, loved all the food we tried! We especially appreciated how smooth our guides made the trip- Hal was a great historian in Kyoto to explain the history of Japan during the rule of the Sho-Gun. Safi was especially helpful explaining how the trains work in Tokyo and navigated us around Tokyo seamlessly and gave us a great recommendation for ramen in Harajuku. Tomi was very knowledgeable about the Toyota company foundings and provided a great recommendation for hitsumabushi in Nagoya. If we had a do-over, we probably would want to spend more time in Nagoya after having visited, it’s a lovely city and we appreciated the smaller size compared to Tokyo.
Hotel Reviews
Very nice hotel, they had a cool train display for the holidays in the lobby! Staff were friendly and the breakfast was very good! We were only here one night and enjoyed our brief stay.
Loved the closeness to the Shibuya station for exploring around Tokyo. The staff were all extremely helpful when we had questions about setting up a cab or shipping our luggage to Kyoto. The bar on the 40th floor made really good cocktails and the Japanese breakfast was so yummy.
The lobby smelled nice when you enter, of lavender! We spent two nights here, loved the proximity to the train station. There is a very nice ramen restaurant that we found near the hotel to enjoy our thanksgiving dinner at. The hotel breakfasts, both Japanese and western style were yummy.
Activity Reviews
Loved trying the food- only thing I wish we would have done is to have had a smaller breakfast. We were both pretty full by the time we started exploring the fish market but were able to enjoy some really nice matcha and crab. I especially enjoyed the deep fried sweet potatoes in the market from Asakusa.
Even though the weather was not the most cooperative, we had a good time. It was impressive to see how a 12,000 foot mountain can be completely hidden with what I’m assuming is snow clouds. Enjoyed the 400 stair walk to the pagoda that overlooks the Mt Fuji valley and learning about its construction during WW2 for missing and injured Japanese soldiers (was nice to get a Japanese perspective on events in the pacific theater). We bought some cool souvenirs and tried pizza with sweet potatoes as a topping!
My husband loved this! He was like a kid in a candy shop at the automobiles museum. It was very cool learning about how Toyota originally started as a textile company and then became an automobile maker- especially enjoyed how the Industries museum noted different events occurring in the world as they became a car maker company.