Hello! Since it was the very first time in Japan and we (3 people total) hardly know how to move there, what to see and where to go, we planned the trip through a travel agency. We choose a 14-days-package typical for a honeymoon trip, in the sense that everything was planned to be safe and comfortable.
We had to follow a precise program for some of ours transfers (the ones with the bus that were reserved by the agency), but for the majority of ours movements we chose when to leave. But obviously we had to follow the programmed bookings in the various hotels. For moving from a city to another one we used the Japan Rail Pass, this was extremely convenient, it covered the majority of train lines, some metro lines and a few bus lines in the whole Japan. We used this pass for almost of ours movements and a 14-days-pass costed 395€.
We both had free days and days organized with a tourist guide (two in total). We decided what to visit and where to go day by day following two different guidebooks (one provided by the agency and another one already in ours hands). Obviously the organized trips were already payed by the agency. One was Mount Fuji plus Hakone (I didn’t post photos of that trip because they are not worth it, the weather was total shit!) and the other one was Nara.
It was a 2900€ vacation package organized by a travel agency and I didn’t count the various extras, like food, public transport tickets, entrance to the various gardens/museums/buildings and so on. Going to Japan is expensive regardless. We chose a very comfortable accommodation, but not luxurious either. Also another important thing is that if we were 4 people we would have paid less for the various hotel reservations, because they only have double rooms (why???). So since we were 3, we had to reserve 2 double rooms in every hotel instead of 1 triple room because they don’t exist (why???). So we paid the hotels as if we were 4 people. Honestly, this is a thing that I still can’t understand. Only in Osaka we managed to have one single room and a double one, but we stayed only one night. So this is suggestion for everyone, go with a even number of people in Japan.
We contacted the agency about 6-7 months before the departure and we used Emirate Airlines, but I don’t know how much the plane ticket costed.
Obviously when I’ll plan another trip to Japan I’ll plan it myself, doing all the various reservations myself without an agency. So it would cost a lot less money without the agency support. I honestly hope one day to be able to go again, it was one of those nice trip that makes you say “I’m surely going back to this city one day!”. Probably for the Olympics in 2020, who knows..
I hope I managed to give you a complete answer. If anyone has questions about everything, feel free to ask!
The Yuri Side 