Traditional and Tropical Japan

Customer Reviews

• Tatiana

  · January 7th, 2025
  Gardens and Galleries of Japan - 20/11/2024 - 03/12/2024 David B ..........From our arrival in Tokyo to our departure 15 days later, our OOMI guides were charming, thoughtful and informative. We seven travellers fitted well together, all being genuinely interested in all we saw, heard about, and ate. The hotels were outstandingly hospitable and the incredible kindness and enthusiasm of our guides, led by the incomparable Mika added much to our travels. In a fascinating and faultless itinerary OOMI exposed us to gardens, museums, precincts and architecture. I am an artist and made sketches and six watercolours along the way. I also took over 1000 photographs which, once ruthlessly edited, I intend to self-publish in a book. To be accompanied by the more developed paintings based on a theme of water being developed here in my Devonport Studio, New Zealand. Tanya B I would like to add my own impressions of our magical fourteen days tour, accompanied by five delightful travelling companions and led by the charming Mika and her team of guides. We appreciated the flexibility shown by the guides. They were able to monitor the size of the crowd at a designated site. If it was very busy then there was always for us an equally beautiful temple, garden or shrine where we were not overcrowded. As I read my daily pencilled notes I wonder at the remarkable variety of Temples, Shrines and Galleries we saw. We appreciated learning the mind-stilling rituals associated with the Zen Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. We particularly liked tracing a Sutra before entering the ravishing moss garden of the Saihoji Temple in Kyoto. Thanks to the well planned transportation and hospitality, we found that everything was in place to make things as easy as possible for us, thus allowing us to concentrate on the fascinating history and culture of Japan. What a beautiful country Japan is with It's magnificent forests, coastline and islands. Even a huge city such as Tokyo was astonishingly quiet, and clean, with pools of peace in the many gardens found between tall and often handsome tower blocks - this was especially noticeable for me, having lived in New York and London. Our hotels were well chosen. We loved the contrast between the Park Tower, the ultra modern Benesse House, the traditional Matsue Ryokan and finally the exquisite garden of the Chinzanso.The variety of meals from formal Japanese, Italian/French/Japanese Fusion tasting menus to the mashed potato of Matsue's Irish pub were sensational feasts. The gracious and handsome people of Japan were a revelation, so respectful, thoughtful, considerate and generous. We delighted in their gentle humour. We consider that we have made some much valued friends. We recommend a small group OOMI tour to ensure that no time is wasted trying to plan the logistics of moving around in an unfamiliar spoken and written language. To effortlessly learn about Japan's history and culture, and experience the best hospitality we unreservedly recommend OOMI Travel. With our sincere thanks to everyone for making it such a splendidly memorable experience for us all. Happy New Year for 2025.
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• Maggie

  · November 25th, 2024
  A good variety of experiences Fortunately a terrific group to travel with Almost no complaints
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• ROBERT

  · September 24th, 2024
  Fabulous tour. Stunning scenery. Terrific english-speaking tour guides. 5star hotels. Excellent food. Included everything we wanted to see.
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