Super holiday but quite a lot of travelling between places.
Plenty of highlights though.
Snow Monkeys, Mount Fuji, Castles and even bowing deer!!!.
A good tour which finished with a fine dining river cruise.

A very full fabulous holiday. Comfortable hotels. Great experiences. Our leader ( Hirto ) was an absolute gem of a lady. Very caring she made you feel safe. A holiday full of memoirs I will never forget.
On our last evening meal we had a good 30minutes walk to the restaurant. By this time we were all exhausted. This put a damper on my holiday. Feel you should have taken us by taxi.

Although I would recommend this holiday there are a number of areas in which it could be improved. Firstly the quality of the hotels was mixed with some being very good but one or two were average at best . Secondly the trips included visiting too many temples and shrines - I'm sure there are many other things to experience in Japan. Finally, although it seemed good to have all meals included with the holiday, the Japanese cuisine had little variety with all meals basically containing basically the same dishes, most of which seemed bland to my palate. Some thought needs to be given as to how to improve the dining experience - possibly including some non-Japanese meals.

A very well organised holiday. It was very full on with early starts most days but we did visit at least 2 interesting places every day. First class coaches were very comfortable and very clean as were the hotels but some rooms were on the small side

I've not been on my trip yet so this is a bit early to give a review but I found the website easy to use and it had all the details I wanted to see: the temperature, the rainfall and full details of the trips and how it works. I've paid the deposit and had an acknowledgement sent to be straight away. It is ATOL protected, so I feel like I'm in safe hands.

I'm really looking forward to my trip in November.

An excellent holiday. All meals were inclusive, the hotel rooms were of a high standard and the tour itself took us to as many places as possible within the timeframe without being too exerting. This trip covers Fuji, Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, Snow Monkeys, Bamboo forests, boat trips, Bullet trains, Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo plus other sights. Our guide was very helpful and knowledgeable and we found Japan to be clean and picturesque, the people are generally very friendly. I would definitely recommend this trip or Japan in general and would certainly go back again.

There was a lot of time spent on average coaches with no toilets and a lot of walking. Despite a few terrific experiences there was not enough time to see the real Japan by walking around towns or cities. It was all shrines, castles, temples and gardens and the group size of 28 was too big. The food was extremely boring and on a number of occasions not very good. There was too much Western food which you can get anytime at home and the Japanese food was the same every time. We did not see a noodle the whole trip. On a positive front, the bullet train, snow monkeys, Mount Fuji and the drive through the Japanese alps were terrific. Our guide Coco was also splendid once you got used to her English. She was very dedicated, caring and helpful.

Well organised journey with wide ranging itinerary covering natural, traditional, cultural and modern sites. Guides were great and handled mishaps like weather cancellations well. Accommodation was faultless, but there could have been more diversity in food. Japan is not really set up for vegetarians or people who don't like sashimi. Will travel Wendy Wu again... maybe China with George!

We really enjoyed this holiday as an introduction to Japan. We were met at the airport and was escorted throughout our stay. We were even seen off at 4am by our rep. Would definitely go back. The only downside if you can call it that, was sometimes it felt a bit rushed.

Jewels of Japan is an action packed trip to Japan, taking in most of the iconic sites.
Our guide Madoka was amazing, with a good sense of humour and was very informative about the places we visited.
The hotels were all very good quality as were the coaches used to transport us around.
I liked the fact that the tour introduced us to all the different foods eaten in Japan and the various ways the dishes are served and presented.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience

This was an extremely expensive holiday for what we got. We paid over £16,000 for 2 people for 15 days. Accommodation in Japan is not expensive and although the hotels were 3-4 stars and very nice, they did not have a bar or social lounge to relax in for us and chat to the others on our trip that we had met. None of the hotels were located in the centre of the towns that you could walk to a bar or explore either. Therefore we were off to our rooms at 8pm because the hotel restaurant would close at 8 or 9pm. In particular, the Hotel in Tokyo was badly located, very disappointing when we had 3 nights here and a free day! We chose Wendy Wu as we travelled with them in 2010 to China and had a fantastic trip and they were the only tour company that covered ALL meals. Not knowing the language we didn't want to try finding restaurants to eat and try to work out what the local food was. Having been to all the main towns many places are written in an English version or you can use a translater app. Having 3 meals a day was too much. The food was very similar, raw fish, 1 tempura prawn 2 veg tempura, rice, not many noodle dishes Ramen style. miso soup, some beef in a hot pot you cooked yourself. We wanted to experience Japanese meals, but 30 meals was just too much! If they cut out the lunch meal it would have been perfect as most of us left a lot of it, this would then allow more time at the temples, shrines, shops etc. Most of us just fancied a coffee and cake for lunch or even a burger!
Our guide was trully lovely, Chiyami, she was fun, knowledgeable and looked after our every need. If you have a food allergy you will struggle, not many restaurants cater. So a tour with less meals would be your option. We all thought the cherry blossom was a disappointment after all the hype in advertising. We were there in the height of blossom but the tours do not take you to the famous sights and most of it is white blossom. The UK have far more blossom!
Japan is a wonderful, safe country and the people have to be the nicest nation in the world. So care free, relaxed and all so friendly and helpful, despite the issues above we enjoyed the sights and the people we met.

The guide that was with us was excellent. Some of the temples, shrines and castles were similar just in a different location which became a little repetitious at times. Perhaps a visit to a Saki brewery and Sumo bout or training would improve the experience. Some of the hotels were excellent some could have been better. Food was sometimes excellent other times poor as some days the meals at lunchtime and evening were the same no variety

Japan Uncovered – Review : Departure 29 March 2025

This was my third group tour with Wendy Wu. I’ve previously travelled to Vietnam and India and had an excellent experience in all respects both times which is why I came back for a group tour to Japan. I have dipped into various Japanese cities briefly a few times as ports on cruises. I liked what I saw and wanted to come back for a more in depth experience which is why I booked the trip for its comprehensive and varied looking itinerary.

1) I used Wendy Wu to book my international flights and upgraded to Premium Economy. The airline used was ANA which I found to be prompt and punctual on all flights. I flew to Tokyo Haneda then an internal flight to Osaka. My only niggle is that the timing of the flights meant I got to the hotel at 11.30pm well after every other member of the group so missed all the usual introductions and hellos. The flight home from Tokyo was excellent as I had a free seat next to me and effectively had the space and leg room that the business class seats had to myself. Pick up and drop off at airport was very good by luxury minivan ... as I was last to arrive and one of first to depart. Generally the rest of the group were just given tickets to the general airport bus ...not good and smacks of penny pinching.

2) Overall I found the tour to be good in terms of content and the itinerary – a balance mix of big cities and smaller areas. Id give it 1 3.5/5 overall - it would have be 4/5 but the Tokyo experience brought it down for me. There were however a few niggles which did impact my overall experience which I’ll come to shortly.

3) Group size of 26 – mixture of UK and Aussies/NZ. The UK numbers bigger than Aussies this time. A very pleasant group to travel with, however I think I would have preferred a smaller group of 15-20 as many of the areas visited were very crowded which can make it difficult at times. We had earphone/receivers but the sound was often very crackly.

4) I don’t think Level 1 is at all accurate for this tour – there are very many steps and inclines at a lot of the sites visited and also there are times where you're walking 10 mins from car parks to the entrance of a site and then walking even more. The pace felt quite relentless in the first 5 days and the bottoms of my feet felt very sore for a few days – sticking them in an ice bucket every night helped! Level 2 is probably more accurate. The pace slacked off a little as the tour progressed which was a relief! It is after all a holiday not a Boot Camp march. I walked around 85 km in total over the whole tour and didnt do some areas so the total walking if you did everything was in excess of that.

5) Guide Chiyomi (Chi) Nakata was excellent throughout – enthusiastic, friendly, informative and well organised. Guiding 26 people around often very crowded areas with no hiccups and no losses is no mean feat! She did a great job.
Drivers – all excellent safe drivers.

6) Hotels – generally of a decent quality and location but I had issues with 2 of them. Hotel Kanazawa in Kanazawa … my room was clean but felt dingy and depressing. The pillows were heavy and uncomfortable ..no idea what the filling was but I don’t think feathers or hollowfibre!.. the AC didn’t work meaning I had to open the window and keep it open all night ..very noisy since hotel was opposite the rail station.. and then there was the high step to the bathroom which I tripped on twice. It felt like being in a very basic student study bedroom. The initial response I got from Wendy Wu on this was that they were surprised as "never had negative feedback" on it before ..I don’t believe that one ..and that a team member had stayed recently and found it “basic but comfortable”. Well given that Wendy Wu is a big source of ££ to the hotel I suspect the room they had was far better than my cell.

The hotel in Tokyo was extremely disappointing. The hotel itself .. optimistically named “Sunshine Prince” is old, dated and in real need of a refurb immediately. The beds are rock hard, the décor is Travelodge 80’s era with scuffed walls and carpets and the AC barely functions – fortunately it wasn’t that warm in Tokyo, 20C tops - and then another high step to the bathroom. The lifts were extremely slow at all times other than early morning or late night. The location – for me – was terrible. The only positive I can think of is the convenience store on the ground floor. We were in Ikebukuro area which was quite a distance to the north of the city centre areas like Shibuya or Shinjuka. To get to the centre took around 40mins by bus or cab and similar on subway .. and subway can be very confusing if youre not used to it .. many lines, many exits and yes crowded. The only thing to wander around was the attached shopping centre. It felt a bit like booking a weekend in London and anticipating a West end hotel but actually finding out you're in Borehamwood. I much prefer a central location as that gives me the ability to wander round the surrounding area and get to attractions faster – couldn’t do that at this hotel which I have to say very negatively affected my stay in Tokyo. I’ve previously stayed closer to Shinjuka on previous pre-cruise nights and this was a much better experience. The tours in Tokyo were essentially all places I’ve seen before so I would have preferred the option to explore independently. The tours were practically identical to tours I've done from a cruise ship. Friends on another Wendy Wu Tour a week ahead of mine said that their Tokyo hotel was very good and much closer to downtown. I paid a LOT of money for this trip – no2 in my all time spending behind Antarctica .. where I got incredible bang for my buck.. - and with this Tokyo hotel I honestly felt ripped off, annoyed and feel that a big chunk of my time in the city was wasted and I seriously question why Wendy Wu uses this hotel... well I can guess ... ££ .. Wendy Wu dropped the ball big time here – why shoot yourself in the foot like that? If there was the option of cutting short stay here and heading home early I would have honestly done so.

7) Food – The Japanese food was consistently good but it did get quite repetitive after a while with a lot of it being bento and hotpot cook it yourself style. Western style was ok. On some occasions if I didn’t eat all the bits in the bento – eg cold veg isn’t my thing and neither is the slippery jelly kinds of tofu - I was hungry again only a few short hours later and searching for a convenience store. Quality of hotel breakfasts a bit hit n miss, luke warm always. Some restaurants for lunches better than others – the Italian restaurant in Tokyo for example where we were shoved into a corner near the entrance on high stools in the bar area where the actual restaurant itself … which you walked through enroute to the toilet was nice, spacious and NOT full. The food was OK but essentially looked like a plate of "everything on the menu". I would have liked more variety like simple but filling bowls of ramen or udon, some gyoza, teppanyaki, yakisoba etc. I'm certainly not convinced we had the best experience Japan had to offer food wise. Don’t think I’ll ever knowingly touch tofu again. Maybe an obvious thing to say here but if you dont like Japanese food that much then you probably will struggle.

8) Other. As to be expected there was lots of Shrines, Temples, Castles and Gardens... which do kind of blur into one after a while. There were some cultural bits such as Tea ceremony, Miso brewery, Sake brewery, paper making and a brief walk round a wasabi farm but they all felt very brief I would have preferred more like maybe how to do bonsai, meeting a local family, meeting Geisha and Maiko, making gold leaf, sushi making, Kabuki, Sumo or food tour round local food markets.

9) Overall – good varied itinerary, an excellent guide, very pleasant group of travellers but given the points raised above I cannot honestly say this represented good value for money and this is very different to my previous view of the Wendy Wu trips I’ve taken before where all aspects were completely outstanding. Knowing what I now know I'd advise a shorter trip and dont necessarily feel you have to go to Japan at the - most expensive - and busiest time of Cherry Blossom. You may well enjoy it more when its less crowded.

The holiday was action packed and the tours were well planned. Restaurants we visited were varied and excellent quality. All hotels were top quality with Hotel Clad near Mount Fuji being exceptional. I particularly enjoyed the onsen there.