We hope to go to Japan for 10-12 days in June and wanted a guided tour. There appear to be very few guided tours. Anyone recommend one they've been on? Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and surrounding bits.

Are you kidding? Japan is the home of organised tours!I can't recommend any specific tours but contact the Japan Tourist Bureau ( the most helpful I have ever experienced) or Airlines or any decent travel agent.Others may be able to be more specific..I can't because we did it independently but I'm sure you will find something suitable. Have a great time!

There are many. You could arrange a group tour through your travel agent at home, or join day tours in Japan. http://www.jtb.co.jp/sunrisetour/ is a link to tours in English run by one of Japan's biggest travel agencies. Many other agencies also offer tours. Better hotels also offer tour booking service through the concierge or tour desk. You might want to just do a web search for "japan tour" and choose from there.

Kim

I can- Sunrise Tours. go to their website sunrisetours.com- and you'll get all the info. you need. Surprisingly, however, there aren't that many tour companies, it seems, that do Tokyo tours in English (at least, I didn't know of many), Sunrise is the oldest, or one of the oldes tour companies in Tokyo. Although I didn't end up taking one of their tours because of lack of time, I was all set with the info. to take one of their Tokyo night tours to a sumo match or to Kabuki-za. Check it out!

Thanks for the fast responses! I went to a travel agent and got 3 brochures (only ones available)and was astonished that many of the "tours" were do it yourself - they'll pick you up from Narita and drop you at the hotel and then everything else was "at your leisure" and validate your train pass and get yourself on the train and find your own way to cities! The Japanese are after all, the kings of organised tours in every other country in the world!!

Peteralan - you did it independently so was that easy - did you speak /read any Japanese? I can catch trains and whatever but I need some english signs to know where I'm going!

Is suitcase storage on trains a problem ( Tokyo - Kyoto-Nara)?

Suitcases on trains...maybe OK, maybe too big...depends on your suitcase. I assume you'd take shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto....they have a small baggage storage area in the end of each car, and and VERY small overhead bag storage for each (overhead, a day pack is a tight squeeze). You can also put bags at your feet if you don't mind that. It's possible to send bags from place to place very easily in Japan...your hotel can help you arrange this...it usually takes one day, but it is possible to send packages in the AM for afternoon delivery, so suitcases might also be possible. There is no need to arrange baggage delivery service in advance. You just need the address of your next hotel.

http://www.nta.co.jp/english/ also has tours. Since we live here, we don't use tours, but I see them advertised all the time. You will be able to book them at your hotel or in the travel agencies in the train station, too, so if you wanted to take a wait-and-see approach it would be fine.

Kim

Hi Amanda,

I was in Tokyo last December armed with a Fodors book. (Honest, all my pics had the gold covered book tucked under my arm)

The trains in Japan are a blessing for travellers. IMHO, I had a more enriching experience exploring on my own. Didn't have much of a problem with the language. Most of the large train stations had tourist booths with English speaking staff. Extremely helpful and patient. Their customer service is unparallelled.

The smaller station official didn't speak much English but were terribly sincere and as long as you know where you're heading, they would either point you in the right direction or even walk you to the exact platform. After a while, you're an expert where we're going.

Purchase a JR Pass which is a week's unlimited travel on the JR rails and some buses, even the fast trains - Shinkansen. But they're only sold outside Japan as they are for non-Japanese.

We stationed ourselves in Tokyo. Taking short trips out with less luggage to Hakone and Nikko. There was only major luggage movements between Tokyo and Osaka on the ShinKansen. A tip is to reserve seats on the train that are either in the extreme front row or back row of the cabin. There is this extra space between the seats and the cabin wall that can fit 2 large pieces of luggage.

We then took day trips out to Kyoto, Kobe and Nara.

The Fodors guide book had really detailed desciption of majority of the sights. I remember that I could literally guide my family around the temple in Nikko reading out little "tour guide" commentaries of each building. We even had other tourists evesdropping on us.... =p

I had a great trip without an organised tour, hope you do too.

Very helpful info, Tiger Lily, much appreciated (esp. the tip about the seats that have a bit of luggage storage). When you left your luggage behind, I suppose you left it at your Tokyo hotel that you were checking out of and checking back into?

My pleasure, Amanda. =)

Yup, left them with the Tokyo hotel. It really isn't worth ruining your short trips to lovely quaint towns like Hakone and Nikko dragging huge luggage bags.

And with just a duffle bag filled with 2 days' clothes, you can easily hop on the local buses or even leisurely walk past all the cool shops & restaurants they have.

When booking your Shinkansen journey, just take the time to explain your predicament and specifically ask to book those particular seats. If you happen to get a non-English speaking staff, no worries... They have these thick schedule books. Flip through the pages cos the first few pages have diagrams of the trains and their cabins. Just point at the general direction you want the seats.

Between the front and back, I'd rather book the back end ones so I don't have to share my leg room with my luggage. The space behind the back row was spacious enough for my bags and I still had space to recline the seat.

If you want to be super safe.... If it happens that your train's bookable cabins are fully booked. Just reach at the station early before the scheduled timing and queue up at the non-booking cabins. So ya can get first dibs at those seats.

Wonderful explanations - thanks very much everyone!
TigerLily - how late did you book those seats on the train - is the day before too late to book? And if the seats are booked, what do you mean about the non-booking cabins? Do you mean booths that sell tickets or carriages on the train?

My husband travels HEAVY - has to take a rubber pillow for sore neck problems while sleeping.

How warm/cool will it be in mid-June (13th to 23rd)? Days and nights - and is it rainy then?
So many questions - but I am getting more confident about doing this ourselves thanks to this site!
I'll check out those websites for tours because that would be good to pick a tour while we're there, instead of paying before we go. Can you recommend a tour of each city (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara) that we should do as an orientation on the first day, or is it pretty easy to look around and get around using buses/trains?

You can book train seats up to 30 days in advance, but not from outside of Japan as far as I know. If you had a definite plan, you could book them all upon arrival. It's possible to reserve train seats until just before departure, though often they are fully booked. If you are willing to sit seperately, you may have better luck. If you are willing to sit in a smoking car, you may also have a better chance of getting a reserved seat on a crowded train.

Trains are usually made up of 3 types of cars, each of which are divided into smoking and non-smoking . There is the Green car...which is like first class. Unless you pay the extra to ride in the green car, you can't (well, you can, but the conductor will ask you to pay on the train). The green car has bigger seats and generally more availability since not many people want or need the extra space. The reserved cars have only reserved seats and only someone with an assigned seat can sit in them. Then there are non-reserved cars, which are a free-for-all. You line up in the station in front of where the door will be and hope for the best. If you are getting on the train at its point of origin, you should be fine. If you are boarding mid-journey, you may find yourself wandering around looking for seats or standing in the aisle or between cars. Doing this with luggage is not fun.

As much as you can, limit your luggage for trains. Not only is there limited storage space, but moving it through the station can present a nice challenge as elevators and escalators are not the norm. There are stairs, and often a lot of them. There is often a pretty long distance to walk to even get in or out of the station. And crowds. It is possible to travel with big, heavy bags, of courrse...just neither particularly easy or fun.

Weather in June...a little unpredictable. Sometimes it's lovely for weeks on end. Sometimes it's rainy. It's not too hot or humid yet. You will need a light jacket for evenings.

As far as getting around cities on your own, how easy it is depends on you pretty much. If you do a little pre-trip studying of where you want to go and how to get there and know what to expect, it's not hard. Like I said before, tourist areas are pretty easy to navigate. But, if you are the type of person who hates being unsure or lost, then I'd say it might be difficult. Depends a lot on your style I think.

Kim

Amanda, Kim has given a great answer.

If you not on a budget trip, the green car would be a nice roomy alternative.

I usually book 4 days in advance. And most of the times, was able to get the tickets. And this was close to New Year's Day which is a big holiday in Japan as they take the opportunity to visit family in their hometowns. So the trains were very popular.

The train is made up of cabins whose seats can be reserved and cabins whose seats cannot be reserved and are for passengers who come on a first come first serve basis. For those that I wasn't able to get tickets on. I specifically wanted non-smoking cars. I just went to the station earlier and waited in line for those non-reserved cabins. Familiarise yourself with the symbols on the floors that would allow you to see if the line is for what type of cabin. The type of train can be seen on the boards at the platforms.

Btw, have you ever hear of the Tempur pillow? It's from Denmark and a little pricey but all the users I come across swear by it. So it could be worth it. Anyway, they have a travel version that can be rolled up very neatly and takes up little space.

Hi Amanda! We did not speak or read any Japanese and travelled quite extensively in Japan . We were surprised that it was much easier than we expected and there is English spoken on trains with English announcements as well as the Japanese.This was even in the local trains where they advised you in English the name of the station you had just left and the one you were approaching.We found the Japanese very polite and helpful and I am always raving about how helpful the Japanese Tourist office was.We did have a couple of moments on the Shinkansen when they thought the luggage might be a problem and reluctantly (though politely) allowed us to store it in what I took to be the conductors appartment!I recommend to avoid any problem that you don't take too much luggage on the Bullet train.Enjoy the trip!