Tourist Japan Anmeldelser 

Horrible experience, will not use service again.

Felt like we were scammed after company did not provide services promised.

Our tour guide, Elena, was friendly, personable and accommodating. It was a very hot day and our guide often checked to make sure we were comfortable as we visited the sights in Tokyo. The tour included different parts of the city and history we would not have learned without a guide.

Elena was very friendly and knowledgeable about the different places and customs. She’ll make your tour one to remember

Mark was highly informative, engaging, and took time to really interact with us in a way that made it fun and challenging, especially with both of my teenagers, answering all of their inquisitive questions. Gives encouraging and positive reinforcements that kept their interest.

Victor was knowledgeable and if you're into fish markets, this is a good one! I will say for the vegetarians amongst us, the chef at the lunch very kindly made something special for us, which was very much appreciated.

THE KANZASHI TOKYO ASAKUSA

Reception service was excellent, even when we arrived at 1 am.
Overall Service was excellent
Room was clean and tidy with great facilities for travellers (kettle and bar fridge, table, chair, coat hangers, pyjamas, toiletries and hooks and clothes line) and was serviced well.
Close proximity to tourist areas
Close proximity to transport
Quiet environment in a very safe district
Roof top viewing area
Small room, but that is to be expected in Japan and it had sufficient space for all our needs.

Amazing tour guide Mary. This was our second day of touring with this outstanding anthropologist teacher. If you are interested in going beyond just getting the photo, if you are inquisitive about the Japanese culture, curious about the present day Japan within an historical context and eager to learn and share knowledge, then a tour with Mary is for you. It was another outstanding day of touring from which we walked away tired and inspired to learn more. Thank you Mary.

DO NOT USE TOURIST JAPAN! Avoid for your peace of mind!

We received numerous emails from numerous members of Tourist Japan staff, all asking us for the same information, with lots of automated messaged in between. We had to explicitly call customer service and request one agent assigned to us, so we had some continuity/competent customer service.

The communication via Whatsapp with Tourist Japan was virtually non-existent; we are not sure why they list Whatsapp as a communication method as we received virtually no answers to our enquiries and when we did it was often automated, or asking for repeat information. When we did receive helpful responses, it was after chasing them and often several hours after the message, or even a day or two later.

We received incorrect directions and incorrect tickets before arrival. On arrival in Japan, we found that our two parties (one travelling from Narita to Tokyo and one from Haneda to Tokyo) had been given tickets and instructions to travel to completely the wrong location. One party was given instructions to travel to a station she was told was a 10 minute walk from the hotel, but was in fact a 10 HOUR walk away from the location of the hotel. She was arriving alone and it was very distressing - it took her 3 hours to get from this destination to the hotel. The second party were confused by their tickets as they seemed wrong and when they asked the Information stand at the airport, the locals were baffled at the route we’d been given as it took twice as long and was much more expensive. Thankfully they were able to help us. When we complained to Yulia at Tourist Japan about the destination station being absolutely miles away from the hotel, Tourist Japan did not take accountability and Yulia said ‘it was true at the time on Google’. We noted that locations don’t change, so eventually got her to agree to a refund on the tickets for all parties on that day that were unusable. It seemed very clear the travel agents have not actually done or understood the journey - and have possibly never been to Japan.

There were some hidden costs. At our Kyoto hotel, we all had to pay a compulsory tax, which hadn’t been included in the price, or warned about. At no point was this mentioned in our interactions with Tourist Japan prior to the trip; in fact, Tourist Japan was explicitly asked whether there were any hidden costs and they said no. We were dismayed to find out that there were and that we were expected to foot those costs. In addition, we were assured by Tourist Japan that all tour costs were included, except getting to the designated meeting points, but during our trip to Osaka, we found out that this was not actually the case. The tickets provided by Tourist Japan the tour guide quickly told us weren’t suitable for that tour. He surprised at this error from Tourist Japan and very kindly his company covered the train tickets, but otherwise we would have had to pay yet more money and further hidden costs we were not informed about. Additionally, we were told to buy certain expensive travel tickets for a number of locations when a local Suica (travel) pass would have sufficed. For instance, one of these tickets cost Y2800, when it would have been simpler and easier to pay the Y500 it would have cost on the Suica card.

Key information was omitted - for example, when getting our tickets for one of the final tours, it transpired that we needed our passports to collect these. At no point did Tourist Japan highlight this, so it was stressful having to sort this out.

Upsettingly, the itinerary changed without notice. One of us had booked this specific trip precisely because of the Bamboo Forest - and this disappeared from the itinerary. Thankfully we checked it the night before and managed to squeeze in a night time visit in the limited spare time we had, but no one bothered to tell us. We managed to reach Tourist Japan and they noted ‘it must be very disappointing’ and apologised, but they really should have told us in advance when they made the change. If we hadn’t spotted it, we would never have been able to visit it as the tour was on our final day. We also got the strange comment from Tourist Japan that this item had been cut because our tour was “customised” - this makes no sense as (a) we chose the 9-day package specifically and (b) ‘customised’ actually means tailored to suit your needs, not edited in a way that disadvantages you? Once again, we were dismayed by the lack of accountability and consistency from Tourist Japan.

We had a lovely time in Japan, but that was in spite of Tourist Japan.

The tours were well organised with good tour guides. Most of the time with one exception the local tour guide got in touch through what’s app on the day before the tour to confirm the details and if any issue to be able to contact them. However the one area that I found challenging was meeting points especially in Tokyo for Mount Fuji trip. The instructions were not clear thus leading to a stressful time. If this can be improved you will have a perfect situation.
Our walking guide in Tokyo, Aki, and Scott, in Osaka were both very good and need to be utilised often by you.
Overall we enjoyed our 11 day tour.
Thanks

A lot of sightseeing and experiencing some main spots of Tokyo packed into 1 day! Our guide Hayato was amazing - personable, funny, thoughtful, knowledgeable and accommodating. The group size of 10 was perfect for this type of tour.

The tour was great!! They took us to a lake cruise in Lake Ashi, then we took the rope way to Owakudani to see the volcanic scenery and have lunch there. From there we continued some of us to the Gotempa outlet to shop for two hours and the others to an Onsen. Overall the tour was great and Vicky was a great tour leader.

Kaori took us along the stalls and shops of the Tsukiji market and showed to us what they were selling. We also walked along Ginza and went to the souvenir shop of the Kabuki theater. I really enjoyed the tour and Kaori was very nice

The staff at Hilton Garden Inn Kyoto were exceptional. The room was spacious and comfortable. The breakfast is the best I've ever had at a hotel and trust me I've had a lot of them.
My hotel staff helped me with a personal request for a gift for a friend.
Harini Suresh. Shiori Imai, and Ayano Tani were instrumental in making my stay at Hilton Garden extraordinary. Here is the story.

I wanted to have my friend's name made on paper in Japanese calligraphy as a gift. I asked my staff where I might get that done. They looked and it turns out no one is doing that. A few hours later when I came downstairs to the lobby, the staff supervisor said, "can I show you something". Of course, I said yes, and she brought out two parchment paper posters with my friend's name on them in calligraphic Japanese.
The hotel staff got together and got the paper and marker and one of the stall members knew calligraphy and made the posters.
Wow. To say they went above and beyond would be an understatement.

Daniel our day tour walking around place of interest was great.
He was very patient and at the end if tour guided us to the station for our return to hotel.

We stayed at the hotel for four nights. The room was very nice for the three of us. The toilet and the bathroom were in seperate rooms which suited us perfectly. The most important and surprising thing was the complimentary breakfast. They had toast and a drink machine in the lobby. We bought something (ham and cheese) each morning to put on the toast in the 7/11 shop just around the corner. For me personally the greatest surprise was the complimentary sake! The staff at the reception were super polite and helpful. The hotel is located just 400m from a subway and JR-line station, which made moving around extremely easy.

Everything was very well put together. The guides texted and told me their name as well as where to meet them. They were knowledgeable, entertaining, and caring. All went as planned with the tourist Japan group.

When I think of booking a group tour, I have in mind a guide meeting us at the airport or hotel, and it then usually involves walking out of the hotel on to a bus with a group of other travellers to go off and experience the country.
If this is your idea as well, steer clear of Tourist Japan.
When looking at the reviews for this company it seems most of the 5 star reviews are for the individual tours (Hungry Osaka Tours :-) ). Scroll down to the 1 star reviews and these are the ones that are actually reviewing Tourist Japan's service.
Because of the customs, language, and complexities of the transport system we decided to book a guided tour in Japan. This was so we could fully enjoy the country and didn't spend 75% of our time interpreting Google Maps on our phone.
Instead of providing a group tour, they provided us with nothing more than a booking service.
We paid them a substantial amount of money and in return they booked 4 Hotels (none of which we would have picked ourselves), 7 day tours from independent day tour companies, and 4 bullet train tickets (2 of which were an absolute nightmare to exchange for actual tickets, despite having up to 6 station staff assisting us).
We could have performed their role on a Sunday afternoon on the lounge at home.
To get to and from hotels, tours, and train stations you are completely on your own, which leads to your day starting off with a degree of stress, not to mention the cost of trains, taxis, etc.
As for their 'Emergency Contact' for support, we tried on multiple times to get through via phone when the QR code they provided to access train tickets did not work, with no success, and their email response would take hours. One other traveller we spoke to actually missed his nominated bullet train and had to buy another ticket to travel from Tokyo to Kanazawa because of the difficulties.
If you want a travel agent to purely make some bookings for you, get in contact with them. If you want a guided tour, look elsewhere.

We loved the whole experience of the hotel. They provided excellent service, delicious variety for breakfast, and a home ambiance. They are located within walking distance of many restaurants.

Our tour guide, Yuki, was helpful and was accommodating to our family and the rest of the group. He provided local insights for the touristy parts of Tokyo. Prepare for long walks and navigating the subway system.