Japan Vacation Review: Tokyo, Osaka, Miyajima Islands, Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Imperial Palace, River Cruise, Cherry Blossoms

The hotels were excellent and we were very happy with the guides we had for two days of our trip.  However, we were disappointed with the overall planning of the sightseeing part of the trip.  We had limited time and a hectic schedule; this was not the time to leave us on our own to find our way to our destinations.  It was difficult to navigate the complexities of Shinjuku station; we were late for the river cruise.  The itinerary for guided sightseeing was not planned properly. Instead of walking on the street where teenage girls shop in Tokyo and wasting precious time, we would have liked to see important places like the Imperial Palace grounds, Sensoji temple, etc.  I asked our guide to change the itinerary and take us to the Imperial Palace grounds.  The time allocated for Miyajima Island was too much and the time set aside for the Bomb Dome and Peace Museum was woefully inadequate. Overall, we felt that we would have been better served if we had made the hotel reservations and train reservations ourselves and relied on Fodors gulde to Japan (~$10) and local guides arranged through the hotels rather than pay this travel agency.  We have had excellent experiences with previous travel arranged through Zicasso in Brazil and Italy but this trip left us unimpressed.