Top Japan Car Tours - page 5

This was our best tour in Japan so far. Ryu was an excellent guide, providing great knowledge at all the top sites. He was also flexible with the places we saw, allowing us to add Nijo Castle and Ginkaku-ji Temple since we are staying in Gion. These sites really added to our experience. Having someone with local knowledge drive us around to all the sites really made the tour even better. I would highly recommend a tour with Ryu in general, but especially if you are visiting Kyoto.

After a bit of a mix-up over terminals, Christine picked us up and we drove to Kyoto from Kobe port in a very comfortable clean van. She had multiple photos on her iPad to show us where we would be visiting and described the importance of each spot. At age 25, Christine spoke as if she was an American with appropriate idioms, slang and no accent. We walked through crowded streets to view the bamboo forest and she took great photos of our group; at the Golden pagoda she facilitated help from security due the fact that I was using a walker to mobilize due to an injury; we saw old town Kyoto and finally the "Thousand Torii Gates and Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine. Instead of walking half mile or more up hill to visit this spot, we were parked right next to it. In between she took us to a neighbourhood ramen restaurant that is a favourite of her husband. It was delicious. If I had a critisim is that in her youth she did not realize that 70+year old Americans walked slower and need more time to look, rest, etc. We chose this tour because so many that were offered used public transportation and we knew we were not cabable of doing that. Plus having a driver saved us so much time and allowed us to see more.

If you’re thinking about the Tokyo Drift experience, just do it. For the price, you honestly get way more than you expect. We spent the night with Joji and he made the whole experience. His English is really good, super easy to understand, and he’s genuinely funny, which makes everything feel relaxed and fun, not like a typical tour. You get to see a real car meet, stop by a car shop with merch (which is actually worth checking out), and then drive through Shibuya and also visited Shibuya Tower It’s not just about cars, it’s the whole vibe, the culture, the night, everything. Definitely one of those experiences you’ll remember 🥹🇯🇵