Destination Japan – Breaking the Common Preconception of “Tours”

Many of us have, at some point or another, thought about how awesome it would be to go to Japan. Sitting there in a sushi restaurant laughing with friends, someone would pause and say, “I’d love to actually go to Japan someday.” The unabashedly optimistic one in the group would pipe up: “Why don’t we all go?” Some of us would let out a laugh, rolling our eyes and sharing the same yeah, right look on our faces. “What? I’m serious! Let’s take a tour or something!”

At that moment, everyone is thinking the same thing. A “tour” is boring. Who wants to go all the way out to such an amazing, exciting country as Japan, and spend the whole time being carted around on a bus while a tour guide drones on for hours about population growth? I can’t imagine you want to, and I can tell you for sure that I don’t. But that’s why I’m writing this to you, because I know of a way to go to Japan and still experience it with a degree of control that you would never find on a traditional tour. The answer is with a new tour service called Destination Japan (http://www.destination-japan.com).

I can hear what you’re saying. A tour is a tour. How is a tour service to Japan going to be any different from other companies with tours that cart groups of cliché tourists around on buses day in and day out? Think first about what kind of limits you have on a normal tour.

You have to stick with the group, for one. This is probably one of the biggest annoyances on a traditional tour. Let’s say your tour group arrives at one of the shopping hotspots you’ve been hearing about. Naturally, you feel the urge to run off on your own and browse through stores for the latest goods, or snap some shots of the stunning scenery surrounding you, but you’ve already been told several times that you can’t part from the group or else you’ll be holding up the tour. With Destination Japan, rather than be anchored down by the group’s sluggish pace, you have the freedom to roam. At each site Destination Japan takes you to, you’ll get a brief explanation of the area, a short stroll to get you acquainted with the shops and sites to check out, and then you’re turned loose! Bi-lingual, experienced guides are there to give you suggestions on where to shop and what to see, and all you need to worry about is the meeting time to move on to the next area! Destination Japan knows you want to roam free and explore on your own. They don’t want to hold your hand all the way through your trip, but rather guide your hand to the right spots and then let you feel around for yourself.

Another thing you would find yourself grappling with on traditional tours is the other tour goers. Most tours you see ads for are non-stop scenery, just as easily viewable from a bus as up close. There’s no experience. There’s no excitement. Those are the kind of tours that will draw a crowd that are seeking an enchanting, snail’s-pace vacation to unwind and relax. Destination Japan’s tours feature activities that highlight the modern, exciting Japan as well as traditional/historical Japan. Each tour has activities that appeal to modern Japanese pop culture phenomenon like anime, manga, games, martial arts, and music, while still providing a suitable helping of traditional sightseeing at temples, shrines, castles, etc. What this means for you, is that you’ll be taking tours with people who, more likely than not, share a great number of interests with you. If you were already going on the tour with one friend, you may find by the end that you’ve made quite a few more.

Hopefully you’re starting to grasp that Destination Japan’s tours are much more like guiding services, rather than the rigid, boring tours where you spend your time separated from Japan by the glass window of a bus. That’s the image that people have when they hear the word “tour”, and that’s exactly the preconception that Destination Japan is working hard to break.

Destination Japan knows, though, that there are plenty of people in both camps. Some want that sense of adventure, that thrill of exploration, unabated by a group that’s too slow to keep up with their ravenous hunger for new experiences. Others want to sit back, relax, and let a guide set the pace, while they happily traipse along taking in the sights and sounds. That’s why Destination Japan will offer tours with light itineraries, tailored to accommodate the most intrepid of travelers, and tours with much more extensive itineraries that give travelers the full experience, guided along comfortably and professionally.

H.I.S. Forms Destination Japan
Destination Japan is the brainchild of H.I.S. International Tours (http://www.his-la.com), the leader in USA-Japan travel. H.I.S. had noticed a general buzz in the community asking for more out of tours already on the market. With increasingly frequent calls from customers looking for tours with more pop culture-oriented themes like games and anime, H.I.S. decided to give life to a service that could respond to the overwhelmingly clear demand.
Knowing that travelers to Japan wanted a mix of traditional tour offerings, as well as the freedom to explore the enigmatic country, H.I.S. has set out to make Destination Japan a brand recognized for its accessibility, its professionalism, and diverse array of experiences offered on its tours. Ranging the gamut of Japanese pop culture –anime, games, manga, music, martial arts, food, tradition, and history – Destination Japan stands poised, ready to give would-be travelers to Japan the kind of experiences they won’t ever forget.

For more information on Destination Japan, visit their website (http://www.destination-japan.com) or contact them at (877) 385-2726.


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