Final Thoughts

Trailfinders / EXO Travel

When I called Trailfinders to discuss possible holidays to Japan I had already consulted AI as to the best time to visit for cherry blossom, and a potential itinerary. It had suggested starting in the south and working northwards, so I had in mind a possible route, starting in Fukuoka, going to Kyoto, followed by Kanazawa and finally Tokyo.  My contact at Trailfinders (Charlie Goodstone) more or less agreed and I then left it to him to work out the details regarding flights, hotels, etc. At some point I became aware that 'overlarge' suitcases on Shinkansen could result in an instant fine, and that by going 'Green Class' this could largely be avoided. I discussed this with Trailfinders and one thing led to another and before I knew it we had decided not only to go 'Green Class' on the Shinkansen, but also Business Class on the flights!

What I hadn't really appreciated, but certainly do now, is that as well as the flights, hotels, rail fares, etc. Trailfinders had put together a complete tour for us. I think this turned what would have been an interesting holiday into a truly great one. There was about one 'excursion' day per hotel stop. This was just right, giving us time to explore by ourselves, but with the bonus of guided tours where we discovered things we would have never found for ourselves.

EXO Travel was responsible for rail and some bus tickets in Japan and their organisation was faultless. The timings of the tickets was spot-on, the seat allocation also spot-on, and our detailed schedule as given and explained by the representative in Fukuoka airport, also flawless.

In a word I was very impressed. Absolutely nothing went wrong.

Business Class

In a couple of words "Very expensive"! On the other hand one is treated as a valued customer rather than someone that needs herding to and from their seat as efficiently as possible.

We didn't get to do as much 'queue jumping' at check-in as I expected, mainly because we had allowed ourselves plenty of time. Fast-track through security is a bonus, but it doesn't eliminate the need for this painful process - just makes the queue shorter.

The Business Class Lounge, though is a different matter - almost worth the extra cost just for this. At Heathrow on our way I think there was something we wanted to buy (insoles for Jo's new shoes?) and we therefore did a tour of the departures lounge looking for a shoe shop. Needless to say we didn't find one, but it provided the contrast we needed when we arrived at Cathy Pacific's Lounge. A haven of peace and quiet, with buffet breakfast of almost anything one could have wanted; not to mention the coffee, Champagne and all manner of other drinks on tap.

The Cathay Pacific Lounges at Hong Kong and Tokyo were equally impressive, although I was a bit annoyed we didn't have time in Hong Kong to use the lounge on our way home (because the flight was late and the awful organisation of 'Transfers' at Hong Kong).

Overall, I liked the Business Class Lounge.

For most departures we were in 'Group 2' which meant we could get on the aircraft after Group 1 (First Class, screaming children and invalids). It probably isn't mentioned much, but one small advantage of Business Class is that there is plenty of overhead locker room - a whole locker per passenger. This saves a bit of fighting to get one's fair share of room!

We were also offered a 'welcome drink' and hot towel. The drinks offered were Champagne, orange juice or water. I think we were then asked about our menu choices. On all flights there was a 'main' meal, sometimes described as lunch, dinner or supper, but basically the same format of 'starters', 'mains', 'dessert', 'cheese' and coffee/tea. If I'm honest all the food was good quality, but not exceptional. And one had proper cutlery, napkins and table cloths.  On a couple of legs we were also offered breakfast - I chose a western style breakfast of muesli and pastries. Of course there was also plenty of opportunity to drink wine and spirits.

On a couple of overnight legs the single biggest advantage of Business Class as far as seating is concerned, comes into it's own - the completely flat bed, complete with mattress and duvet. I can normally fall asleep anywhere, but for those of us who can't this is a revelation.

One disadvantage of this seating arrangement is that there is a huge distance between Jo and me, taken up by lockers, shelves, etc. This makes communication very difficult, particularly when Jo is trying to talk to the stewards/stewardesses. However, the staff are charming and try everything they can to help.

There is no doubt, long haul flights are painful, but Business Class provides some blunting to this trauma.

Lastly, and unexpectedly, one's luggage is marked 'Priority' and is unloaded first. Providing one also takes advantage of getting off the plane first and one isn't 'distracted by loos', or coping with facial recognition failure, one can get to the baggage carousel quickly and meet one's luggage more or less as it arrives.

So, the question is, "Would I fly Business Class again?". The simple answer is that I don't know...  Watch this space!

Photography

Japan is hugely photogenic.  I deliberately did not take my Sony digital camera, mainly because it's getting a bit long in the tooth now, but also because of its weight and bulk. The photos taken on this trip were all taken on either my iPhone 15 or Jo's. In practice I think the majority of the photos were taken by Jo.  It has been a terribly difficult job to reduce the number to something vaguely manageable, but I don't think I could have taken better ones with my Sony. Perhaps if one went on a 'photographic holiday' where the purpose was to take stunning photos, a better camera than an iPhone 15 might be a good idea!

Japan and the Japanese

Japan takes a bit of getting used to.  There are three main barriers for a western person such as myself: the language, the food, chopsticks.

But before I get onto the barriers, the very good points. The Japanese are unfailingly polite and welcoming, from the small gifts we were given by the EXO travel representative and hotel reception in Fukuoka, to the constant bowing by everyone we met. A truly delightful people.

The Japanese are also fastidious about litter - there is none (OK, we did see a little in waterways - but you can't sweep brooks).  On one of the Shinkansen a guard came through the carriage collecting litter a couple of times, and on another where we found it odd there was no litter collection, when we got off there was a guard with a bin bag at every carriage door.

The state of their public lavatories is also a revelation. On the Shinkansen they were spotless. As they were in other public places such as the Sushi bar we visited with Michi in Kyoto. Jo will miss the heated seats!

The Japanese are also, on the whole, well dressed and tidy, although I may have spotted some ripped jeans in Tokyo. The women, in particular, are proud of their kimonos, and look stunning when wearing them in public, as we saw in Kanazawa.

There are probably lots of other qualities that I have omitted, but, in a nutshell I liked the Japanese and how Japan operates. (Did I mention that every train and bus was absolutely punctual?)

The bits I found challenging

• The language. Being English one expects the rest of the world to understand us and to reply in English.  This hasn't quite reached the more distant parts of Japan yet!  However, Google Translate does a fair job (as far as I could tell), but it isn't very fast, being most accurate with text rather than speech. Restaurants are the most obvious problem in this respect.
• Food. Luckily for me, the Japanese like beef, particularly wagyu, so this was my default get out.  But they also like fish, and whilst I could sort of cope with Sushi, I wouldn't want to live on it. The real problem were the vegetables and small cooked fishy looking things they serve at breakfast; thank heavens for All Bran!
• Chopsticks. The food problem is made 100 times worse by having to eat with chopsticks (apart from All Bran!)

Cherry Blossom

The Japanese go bonkers for cherry blossom, and I can quite see why. With warmer days, it makes you realise that spring has arrived. In the end we saw a fair amount of cherry blossom, although the prospects weren't looking good in Fukuoka, but after a couple of days in Kyoto it looked as if we had timed it just right - in Kyoto at least. I read that the Japanese were putting up barriers to prevent huge crowds flocking to cherry blossom hot spots - there really is no need, cherry blossom is everywhere. Just looking out of the train on the way to the airport there were 'orchards' of cherry blossom all over the place.

How long to go for?

Our trip was about 10 days, basically 3 centres for 3 days each. This felt just about right, giving us just enough time at each major city to see the most important sights without getting overwhelmed. After a time one shrine begins to look a lot like all the others!  Kyoto was probably the place where we could have benefitted from an additional day - we had two organised tours here, one around Kyoto itself and one to Nara; this didn't really give us the opportunity of wandering around by ourselves. The time at Fukuoka and Kanazawa were just about right.

I didn't feel we had missed out on Tokyo, just staying there overnight.

Weather

We were amazingly lucky with the weather. It rained, but only on our travel days where we spent most of the time on trains. As the photos show, it was shirtsleeve weather most of the time with some lovely sunny periods. Looking back at the photos, the sun came out mostly in the afternoons. My guess is that most afternoons were around 20C.

Apps

Google Maps

The most useful app, by a mile, was Google Maps. Not just for getting the route from point A to point B for walking, but also for getting around using public transport, subways, trains and buses. Really, really useful.

Suica Mobile

We used this extensively in Fukuoka, and to a lesser extent elsewhere. It was so convenient just to get on or off buses and subways just presenting one's mobile phone. There is a setting that allows simple presentation of one's phone without the need to show one's face and double-click. Somehow I managed to get this working which made using Suica Mobile particularly easy.

Go Taxi

I downloaded this app, but never used it. Hotels and restaurants were always more than willing to book a taxi for us. However, under different circumstances it could have proved useful. In many cases the taxis booked for us were Go Taxi; as part of Go Taxi I believe there is a payment system linked to one's Go Taxi account (if one has one). Payment was never a problem using Apple Pay, or cash, but it might have been even easier with the Go Taxi payment link.

eSim (Ubigi)

 Another app I installed but never used.  The main reason for this was the portable wi-fi hub provided by Trailfinders/EXO Travel was so good. But I did wake up one night and realised that we would have to hand this back at the last hotel, and then how would we use Google Maps to get to the airport! In practice, that wasn't a problem, so I didn't need to activate Ubigi.

Trailfinders Self Guide

This was provided by Trailfinders and was extremely useful as a point of reference of train times, etc. The Self-Guide was more detailed than the standard ViewTrail app but did duplicate some information - my only criticism was that occasionally I couldn't find the information I was looking for because it was in the other app.

Google Translate

I don't think I used this as extensively as I should have. As well as text conversion a really clever feature is to take a photo and use Google Lens to do the translation. We mainly seemed to use this in restaurants to confirm whether something might be edible!

One last thought

What a great holiday!