Archive for May, 2010

Gold Coast Theme Parks

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Hi,

Thanks for organising our Gold Coast Theme Parks passes. We had a lovely time in the Gold Coast and at all the theme parks with the kids. We will be sure to book through JTB again!

Thanks

Tim & Sarah

Off course we can support your travel to Japan AND Beyond

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Dear Clem

Thank you for your assistance with my trip. I have returned and I just wanted to say thanks, it all worked out fine.

Italy was absolutely FREEZING but wonderful. Both Venice and Florence are special places. I once spent 6 weeks in Florence and would have happily done that again, just walking around and going to look at all the art. We found a couple of lovely places to eat there to. We also got to go to the Chianti wine region and to one of the wineries, which was special.

Osenkaku Ryokan was special and Michael loved it, as of course did I. He was a bit doubtful until we got there, complaining of the travelling, but then he got in the water and he was sold! The staff were wonderful too, as was the food. More of the staff speak a few words of English now than before, and I think it was a deliberate move on their behalf.

I think Michael now has the travel bug, so we have to pay for this holiday so that we can travel again. Certainly, I plan to go back to Japan later this year! I have to start planning it. That is the only way I can cope with being back after a holiday, to plan the next one!

Best wishes and thank you for taking an interest

Judith

Our excellent service here in Australia and in Japan while you are travelling

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Dear Rie

Belated Happy New Year to you.
I meant to email you soon after we returned but time has got away from me!
Our trip was fantastic and we would like to thank you for all your assistance in organising the trip for us and providing us with very useful information and tips. The JTB people we met were excellent and all very keen to help.
Thankyou so much. We will be recommending you to all our friends and colleagues looking to travel to Japan.
Japan is such an amazing place and the people so interesting and so helpful. What a wonderful culture.
Thankyou again.
Kindest regards and Family
Janette Tavelli

Onsen Experience

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Hi Clem

Well, I’m back!! Japan was fantastic!!

All the accommodation was great. Good to be back to a soft bed now though, that’s for sure. They were all in really good locations – even the Tokyu Hotel in Kyoto was only a 10 min walk from the station so we only caught a taxi once when we arrived.

Takayama Ryokan was amazing. Hubby loved it, and was mega scared to try the onsen, but after much encouragement he attempted it and then I couldn’t get him to stop raving about it. He was first to go back the next morning (may have had something to do with the fact we were the only ones in there both times in each of ours, which made it easier).

The only thing that was a bit crappy was My Fuji. We left Takayama at 9.30am (you had suggested 10.30), and caught the train back to Odawara via Nagoya, but by the time we got there it was 3.30pm even though we caught the bullet trains where possible and all the trains connected perfectly (love the rail over there!!). By the time we transferred to the little train to Gora, cable car etc, it was quite late and we had the basically race through everything, and literally run from train-cable car-ropeway-pirate ship to make the last departure at 5pm.

The weather was really crappy that day, and we didn’t see anything (no Fuji-san), and it was really cold and overcast, so we just got on the train straight away back for Tokyo. We were gonna skip it altogether, but decided at the last minute to go for it, but was kinda a waste of money, then we couldn’t be bothered going back and doing it all the next day again even though the weather was perfect (of course).

So, of course not blaming you for that, but just a handy bit of feedback for next time that it takes much longer to get there, so prob wouldn’t advise people do it in one day as you don’t have time to see anything.

Other than that one day of craziness, we had great weather. The cherry blossoms were amazing, and it was so great to get back after 10 years (can’t believe I could still speak & understand some Japanese). Thanks for planning everything!!

Cheers
Sal.

Lucky Trip for Cherry blossoms

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Hi Kathy,

Thanks for your email.
The trip was amazing! Everything went to plan and ran so smoothly – we kept calling it the lucky trip.
Our luck finally ran out at the airport though – as our flight was delayed 5 hours! We didn’t end up departing until 2:20am!! The kids were incredible though – no whinging at all!
The weather was also great – 20 degrees in Hiroshima – we all wore t-shirts at Miyajima!
Cherry blossoms were in full bloom and we actually got to see Mt Fuji!!
The school visit was a huge success too – we are now officially sister schools! Yeah!!

Thanks so much for all your hard work too – things went well due to your organisational skills and attention to detail. We all very much appreciate your professionalism and genuine love for your job

The Monterey was a beautiful hotel – great breakfasts. Quite good location – we walked everywhere from there, and the staff were very helpful. The Starbucks across the road certainly benefited from us being there!

One student hurt her knee while we were there and we had to take her to the Doctor. Not sure what the problem is but I think she will be claiming insurance for physio back here in Australia.

A friend of mine stayed at an inn in Kyoto and hired a maiko to come and entertain the group. She also agreed to answer questions at the end. They said it was a real highlight and as the Inn was near Kawaramachi it was very handy. I think we’ll look into that accommodation for our next trip – which will be in September 2012.

The bags were good – a very good size, but the front pockets fell apart when kids put things in there – the mesh parts came away from the zip area. We saw another group with the same bags the day we went to Miyajima!! I thought of you that day : )

So happy to be home with my babies – who are now TWO! I missed them heaps, but I also appreciated having time just for myself too!

Thanks again Kathy. I’ll certainly be in touch before our next trip as we will definitely go through you again.

Cheers,
Leanne