Yes, actually Pickle's story was quite useful to me, although I felt a bit appalled at first. I don't think my family is the kind that could behave itself on a very regimented tour schedule either. Took RichardinSF's advice too to "save money and have a better time if you do your homework" and we've come up with our own tour ideas which we're far more enthusiastic about. We were actually being a bit lazy...so RichardinSF hit the nail on the head on that one. I think we were daunted by the possibility of getting completely lost and everything being in japanese and not knowing directions or how to use transportation. The thing I've noticed when travelling with friends is that when something goes wrong it doesn't necessarily ruin the fun, we tend to laugh and panic our way through it. But when travelling with family, problems just tend to just lead to arguments. My family, anyway. But we're sorting ourselves out!