Travel Review: Japan Vacation, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Takayama, Kameoka, Okayama, Tokyo, Ikebana Lesson, Archery, Gardens

Japan is beautiful, the people are friendly and helpful and polite.  Their public transport system must be the envy of the world, from the Shinkansen bullet train down to local intracity buses.  We asked our travel agency to craft a highly custom trip that emphasized culture and gardens.  Our travel specialist worked all our requests into an itinerary that took us through Okayama, Kurashiki, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kameoka, Kanazawa, and Takayama with very little time in Tokyo.  This was a tour of great ancient cities.  Two days in Takayama coincided with the annual Spring float festival, and it was crowded, but not unpleasantly so.