Japan ideas and recommendations

[ihatethecold]

I’d like to go in January 2024 for my significant birthday,
flying Into Tokyo for a few days and then travel round a bit.
id love to see the snow monkeys and experience staying in some more traditional places.

Can you tell me any companies or places that are a must.

im hoping to be there for 2 weeks to make the most of flying that far.

just starting my planning (and saving)

@CrepuscularCritter , thank you, so helpful! I am off to Google images of roadworks protected by cute squirrels holding cones!

Thos is the first time I've tried to attach a pic, vut hopefully this is a service squirrel assisting with roadwork barricades.

We had a fabulous holiday with our teen in Japan a few years ago. We went for 3 weeks but 2 of those was spent on a cruise. That was was good as we were exhausted after the first leg! We went in August which I wouldn’t recommend - it was steaming hot.

Our Tokyo highlight was probably a food tour, really tasty and interesting too. We stayed near Shimbasi station which enabled us to get around easily (once we got the hang of it). We went to a Sumo match too which was fascinating and memorable. So many minor bonkers things like we did such as kitkat flavour spotting (they have a huge range) and a restaurant where we were all in closed booths with bells, a scrumptious sushi restaurant where we ordered on an iPad, so many fun memories. Would love to go back, there is a lot more we could’ve done.

You've had so many great suggestions - I'll add a couple. We were in Japan for the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

My absolute stand out was Kyoto, where we stayed in Gion. Did the Lanes and Lanterns evening walking tour - so atmospheric - and were lucky enough to see a Geisha and her Maiko walking to an appointment. Had a day tour with Mr. Nobu, who took us to the notable temples in the area, together with a few off the beaten track. An amazing part of the trip.

We took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima - very moving - and then took the ferry over to Mayajima for the afternoon.

An amazing service offered in Japan, which we found very helpful, is luggage transfer from one hotel to another. So we had luggage collected from the hotel in Gion and taken to Oita (where we stayed later), and just took backpacks for our overnight in Hiroshima.

Whenever you decide to go, have fun!

@CrepuscularCritter , my six-year-old is absolutely thrilled by the ninja squirrels; forget all the other fantastic suggestions on here, I think we could spend a fortnight in Japan touring road works and it would be her best holiday ever.

Okay, so I have kicked off our trip planning by contacting Inside Japan today and I’m also going to check out Explore Travel which has also been mentioned and recommended a couple of times. Any more specialist tour company recommendations?

Following, placemarking