Thanks all for the recommendations so far, and do keep them coming! I'll have a look through them in a couple of days to find the right one for me.
Originally Posted by
Gradfly
For restaurant reservations, do you have places already in mind or going with whatever the agency recommends? Be aware that there is a trend of some restaurants (skewing more towards very popular, hard to book places) refusing bookings through third parties and requiring customers to contact them directly.
No places in mind - part of why I'm looking for a travel agency which has experience in Japan is so that they can make decent recommendations. I'm not looking for Michelin three-star restaurants, but if left to my own devices, I would likely find a fast food chain rather than anything particularly Japanese (I hear KFC in Japan is something special, but probably not somewhere I want to go for every meal...)
Originally Posted by
LapLap
Most Travel Agents work with corporate organisations such as these linked below and don’t themselves tailor the trips.
It looks like these are B2B agencies servicing travel agents rather than B2C agencies - or am I misunderstanding?
Do you have an idea of what you would like to do in Japan, where you want to go and how long you want to spend there?
Only in a very loose sense - I'd like to spend about a week based in Tokyo and Kyoto each, but beyond that, nothing particular in mind (though I will grab a guidebook at some point)