Inspiring Vacation tours to Japan

No, but I’m looking at Inside Japan for a kinda my way type tour in April 2025

I am also working with Inside Japan. It is "independent" travel but they hold your hand.
My consultant is super. If you want her contact information, send me a private message.

I’ve been emailing with Luke at Inside Japan. Nothing concrete yet though. Will do more research and probably start being serious January 2024.

@valerie, hope you don't mind if I piggyback onto this thread. I'm also thinking of Japan but probably not until 2026.

Barbara and vandrabrud, thanks for the info on Inside Japan - I will check them out!

Our two long time friends went to Japan with Inspiring Vacation for 2 weeks in March/April this year. They found the tour on Travel Zoo. They had a great time. All was good. I don't know if it makes a difference if you book directly with Inspiring Vacation, but it sounds like the company is legitimate. I myself would prefer not to book through a third party like Travel Zoo, but it worked out fine with our friends!

This is probably not helpful to you, but Japan is quite easy to tour independently if you want to consider it.

English is widely and well spoken, especially in train stations and other tourist “haunts”. There are great apps for transit giving platforms and time info clearly. TripAdvisor has some very helpful and knowledgeable experts who can help with the smallest of details.

I suggest this because I returned a couple months ago from a first trip. None of the tours that I considered included the stops or time at stops that I wanted. I am returning in a few months!

What ORDtraveller is saying rings true with me.....However, a first trip to an Asian country can seem daunting.

I feel pretty comfortable now that I could arrange a successful trip to Japan on my own. If my budget was severely limited, that is what I would do. But, of course this is after I have been corresponding with my Inside Japan agent and studying other sources.
It is convenient to have easy access to full day guides at each stop, to have the transport card handled and to know that there will always be assistance at the other end of a phone call or email.

We are headed to Japan in Sept. making our own itinerary. There is a plethora and then some info readily available in books and the internet so I will not be asking for any itinerary help. We have three weeks and realize we will not see the entire country of Japan.

I can’t agree less with welovetravel.

For those who take the time to do a minimal amount of preparation, Japan is easy to travel. Stations are well marked in English as well as Japanese. Info desks and employees all were ready to help with clear English for my first visit earlier this year. Ticket machines with English options. I’m currently in Europe and each time I have stepped in a regional or distance train station, I have compared the situation unfavorably to Japan.

I wonder how experienced the travel vlogger was. Anyone who has traveled more than once or twice outside the US knows to bring a photo or address in local language to show to taxi drivers. Google translate works wonders as well. I would have trouble believing the advice of any so-called vlogger who can so quickly be reduced to tears!

Things happen and you have to deal with it. (Spoken as one whose flight home from Scandinavia was canceled with suggested re-route via Istanbul with overnight layover. No thanks.)

I have visited Japan several times for very short (3-4 days) personal and employer/business trips, and have found it incredibly easy to navigate. On your arrival, it may be helpful to take an organized day trip or two from Tokyo using one of the tour companies that your hotel can tell you about. It's fair to say that Japan is my favorite destination - wish I could get a job there for a year or so!

...Japan is quite easy to tour independently if you want to consider it.

I agree with this 100 percent. I have been to Japan a half dozen times, and I have never had any issues with a DIY independent itinerary.

If anything, it has become easier for English speakers to travel in Japan than when I first went 20 years ago when English in hotels and tourist sites was much less common than it is now, but it still wasn't a barrier to me back then.

Japan is incredibly easy to visit on your own. It's surprisingly affordable too.

I'll echo others and say Japan is pretty great to travel independently. My wife and I usually take tours when we go to Europe, but in Japan, we got along fine on our own - and we only knew a few Japanese phrases. If you're worried about the language, you can stay at a Western brand hotel, and the concierge can help answer questions, make reservations and give you directions. The public transit system is unparalleled, and the shinkansen (bullet train) makes it easy to travel long distances across the country.

If you do go independently, I recommend booking half-day or full-day tours from sites like Viator. We really enjoyed this hybrid of independent exploring and touring.

Folks, I just posted my trip report in the Trip Reports section. Hope you find it useful.