It was a very enjoyable trip. Thenight in Obanazawa was good. The food was good.

We actually like to hotel in Zao better. Inside only. Outside is a bit inconvenient because of the location. The rooms in Zao was good was better than the ones in Obanazawa. That’s ouropinion. The only problem with both hotels are they do not have shower in therooms. So for guests who are shy to go for onsen, then it is a bitinconvenient.

Hi Emma! I just wanted you to know we are having a wonderful time. We especially wanted to thank you for the special arrangements you made for my mom's birthday. My mother loved the cake! It was a pleasant surprise after a great day at Borobudur. THANK YOU!! 

Here we are at Borobudur. Our guide Mr. Imam takes great pics!

An amazing time in Japan

Melody crafted a well balanced itinerary for the family for a 10 days trip to Japan covering three cities - Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. We had walking tours, tour via SUV and free and easy days. It gave us a chance to explore the places we visited on our own. Everything was taken care of, smooth and we were transported with good quality vehicles.

The English speaking guides and drivers were all fantastic !! Couldn’t ask for more. Flexible and accommodative. Took us to cool places for our meals.
* Tokyo - Nao - totally enjoyed showing us around Tokyo.
* Tokyo to Odawara-Station - Katsu - had a great time and got us to the station on time.
* Kyoto - Masaaki Tanaka - fantastic guide, lots of stories on the places we visited, castles. We got to see Kyoto like a Japanese- the history, the people and culture.

Thank you to everyone and especially Melody who made this family holiday a very memorable one. And Melody was always available and that we could reach out to her even during our time in Japan. Well done and awesome work, Melody.

I highly recommend Novaland Tours. This is my second time using their service and it has been consistently very good. It’s worth every penny spent.

Hi Emma,

Sorry to get back to you late. But, Ididn’t forget about you. Came home with a bad cold and oh boy, it took me morethan a good week to recover. Still recovering…yet catching up the work at thesame time.

Trip to Japan was great! We had a some issues here and there, but overall, it wasmemorable. I’m not sure if I will return any soon though…!

Please read my replies below as usual.

Have a wonderful holidays!

Thanks,

Jenny  

I am sure youmust have taken many nice pictures in travel. In order to keep your happymemories, we will make them into the photo flash free of charge. It canbe played on TV, so that you can share with others. So could you sendsome of your pictures via email to me? For good resolution shown in TV, width of photos with at least 1200pixel would be better. We will finish and send it to you within 3 working days.Our designer suggest that it would have much better effect ifyou could send from 20 to 40 pictures to us. – No need, we had a professional photographer with us.Photos and video from GoPro Camera is already done and distributed. Thanks,anyway!

By the way, you couldalso pick one of your favorite songs as the background music.Is there any song you want to add in your photo flash? Let me know. Otherwise,our designer will personally pick one of classic soft songs as the backgroundmusic.

Undoubtedly, your nicepictures are parts of the most precious memories, but to us, your satisfactoryto our services is always our top priorities. There are always improvements forus to get better and better. Would you do me a favor to fill in theform and give marks?

1=poor,2=fair,3=good, 4=very good5=excellent

You already know the guide names at each destination. So,I’m going to skip names.

1.    Tokyo – The driver was okay, could be friendlier. Theguide was not so friendly on 1^st day and didn’t explain much. Ihad to mention it to him that he needs to speak out more and explain detailsand answer the questions. He improved after mentioning. Also, I had an incidentwhere one of the guests left his storebought gifts (worth more than $200) in the bus First day in Tokyo.Mentioned it to the guide next morning, 2nd day (different bus came in), he didnothing to find it nor mentioned about it. He said he will make the phone calllater. Complaint came in from the guest that the guide should do his best tolocate the lost item and bringing next day or at least by the last day 29^th.I know it’s not guide fault left personal stuff behind, but, at least reportback to the guest with the result. He wasn’t an experienced guide for sure.Reputation for the Japan, went down with this incident. It should have beeneasy to locate! Two guests from day 2& 3 didn’t make it. Took a day’s rest. Entrance tickets and meal should have been saved by the guide.

2.    Toba, the guide and driver was nice! She didn’t speakEnglish that well. But, she was polite and kind. That made everyone feel betterto understand her that she learned her English in Japan which was acceptable.The weather didn’t cooperate, and we had to deal with heavy rain and windy.But, it was okay. Not guide fault.   

3.    Osaka/Kyoto – Guidewasn’t kind, nor knowledgeable. He talked so soft, we couldn’t understandwhat he was saying. He just did his job, I guess. He spends more time talkingto the bus driver than talking/presenting it to our group. Also, we didn’t get to see Sagano Bamboo Grove atall. We were on the bus 2 hours to get there, and 2 hours to turn aroundand get back to the cruise port. If he or driver knew this was going to happen,he should of recommending or plan for something else. 4 ½ hours totally wasted!I really wanted to see this Bamboo Grove, do you recall?  This stop wasthe only reason expanded the tour time to 8:00pm. Wasted whole afternoon!!

4.    Kochi – Guidedidn’t speak English that well. We couldn’t understand her much. I know shedid her best. But, the day here in Kochi wasn’t the best. Needs improvement!

5.    Kagoshima – Guide was EXCELLENT! She knew her stuff fromthe beginning to the end. Hope we had guide more like her!! Everything went sowell with happy travelers.

6.    Busan – This port was just the bus service. The bus wasin great shape like a new. Good driver, but, due to Asia G20 meeting (?) inBusan, we weren’t able to see much (not allow to go in many directions, blockedby the policeman). Did what we could do.

7.    Nagasake –Guidedidn’t speak English that well. Had a hard time understanding herpresentation. But, she was kind and seemed nice. She did her best of what shecan.

8.    Last day in Tokyo – He didn’t know what he was doing thismorning. He came to pick us up. Took us to Odaiba, man made island front of themall (didn’t know it was a mall), arrived 9:30am, Mall didn’t open till10:00am. It was a bit cold, we stayed out looking around to get in around10:00am. We thought it was something tosee. Didn’t need to see a shopping mall (big disappointment). He said hewill come around 1:00pm to pick us up again in front of this entrance. Well,shopping for 3 hours?? So, I went to the service desk to see what else we coulddo. I found out there is a Science Museum nearby (walking 10 minutes). So, weall went by foot, but, by the time I found this out after wasting time insidethe mall, we had only 30 minutes to do this. We paid an entrance fee of $5 eachand stayed there for about 10 minutes to get back in time. What a waste ofcomplete day!! Unhappy guests that I had to deal with. They didn’t complainbecause I was there to guide them around. But, paid guide for this day wasabsolutely a waste with no help.  I’m not a guide and I don’t know theplace around either. Max did help to lead the guests needed to go to the HanedaAirport. It should have been a just a transportation day.   

Over all, guides in Japan didn’t meet the expectation,except Kagoshima & Toba. Two out of all, that’s too slim. I paid tips forall guides and drivers regardless of their performance to show my appreciationanyway. Hope they learned something from it.

Okay, that’s it. My remarks!

Jenny Chun