Japan Travel Review: Honshu, Hokkaido, Japanese Alps, KAI Matsumoto Ryokan, Private Tours

As a business traveler, I was highly skeptical of using a travel agent to plan a trip for me, but given that this was meant to be the trip of a lifetime, I wanted to at least explore the possibility. I was absolutely blown away by the trip that our Japan tour operator put together for us. Some of our favorite parts of the trip, I would have never come to on my own. They really do know their way around: what to do, where to stay, where to eat. The trip was totally customized to my needs in terms of allowing us to be self-directed while still providing a few hours of private tours in the larger cities. Our travel company also worked with me on the price while still providing a great trip whereas other companies were pushing numerous group tours to keep the costs down.