I'm in Chiang Mai and I'm trying to plan a trip to Japan for the Thai wife and myself. We are planning for the end of March to the middle of April next year. We want to see the cherry blossom displays, visit Mt. Fuji and Kyoto as well as spend some time in Tokyo. If anybody has done a trip like this do you have any advice for us? Are there any good Thai travel agents / tour companies that have tours like this? Has anybody booked from one of the International companies on the Internet? We're looking for a mostly guided tour - rather than being left to get around on our own.

Thanks

We did this 6 years ago or so. Absolutely fantastic. But expensive and not real easy. Very little English is spoken and if you get out of the big towns a bit, pretty much none. Including signs, etc.

Timing the cherry blossoms is tough. The later you wait to buy the ticket, the better off you are.

If you stick to what you've listed, it's easy to set things up yourself. Bullet train to Kyoto is easy (though we got stuck in the smoking car...ugh). We had difficulties when we were way out in the sticks. But it wasn't too bad. Part of the fun of travel.

Get a guide book and it's easy. Then again, they do have some interesting tours available. But you're stuck with their itinerary...and others in the group who may be good or may not be good. LOL

Lots of tours listed in the local papers and the Bangkok Post.

We did this 6 years ago or so. Absolutely fantastic. But expensive and not real easy. Very little English is spoken and if you get out of the big towns a bit, pretty much none. Including signs, etc.

Timing the cherry blossoms is tough. The later you wait to buy the ticket, the better off you are.

If you stick to what you've listed, it's easy to set things up yourself. Bullet train to Kyoto is easy (though we got stuck in the smoking car...ugh). We had difficulties when we were way out in the sticks. But it wasn't too bad. Part of the fun of travel.

Get a guide book and it's easy. Then again, they do have some interesting tours available. But you're stuck with their itinerary...and others in the group who may be good or may not be good. LOL

Lots of tours listed in the local papers and the Bangkok Post.

Thanks for the info. My wife is nervous about making our own way - she wants a fully guided group tour. This is the Thai culture I think! I would prefer a bit more independence, but I think I will be nagged to death if we go it alone I want to try and book early to try and get some good prices - AirAsia has some good discounts if we book early.

HIS Tours heavily advertises Japan tours. Don't know if they have CM office.

HIS Tours heavily advertises Japan tours. Don't know if they have CM office.

Thanks dddave, HIS does have an office in Chiang Mai. We checked with them already - they don't have tours for next year yet. They said we could book flights and hotels from them and make our own way around Japan. The wife wasn't happy with that! I don't want to wait until the last minute for them to them to put up their organised tours for next year. I suppose this is the way Thais like to do do things.

These guys have some tours:

http://www.jnto.go.jp/

Interesting info:

http://www.japan-guide.com/

More trips:

http://www.intrepidtravel.com/japan (very good company)

https://www.insidejapantours.com/self-guided-japan-holidays/

Tripadvisor would have some good info also:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294232-i525-k6302791-Best_tour_companies_for_travel_in_Japan-Japan.html

More info:

http://www.jtb-sunrisetours.jp/

If you book with a Thai agency, your group will be all Thai folk. Good and bad with that. Especially as a lot of the discussion will probably be in Thai.

It's really not that hard to do the trip on your own. A bit of planning, which I find fun, book your hotels, connecting transport, and off you go! Japan is super safe and in the bigger cities, very easy to get around. Yes, you'll probably have a few issues here and there, but that's part of the fun of travel. IMHO, better than being led around in a large group via bus from one site to another. And small group tours are expensive.