This trip wasn't exactly what I thought I'd booked. I had expected an English speaking guide to take us round the various cherry blossom sights in Osaka - 5 stops in all. There was no contact regarding pick up times and the afternoon before the trip I messaged the tour operator in the US to query this. I received a reply telling me someone would be in touch before the pick up time - which we still didn't know. Shortly afterwards I had a message from the driver asking what time we wanted to be picked up and it was fine after that. The car was very comfortable but there wasn't a guide and the driver didn't speak any English. We communicated well using the voice translator on his phone. We visited two of the sites on the itinerary and saw lots of lovely cherry blossom. The driver suggested that as the remaining 3 sites were very similar to what we had seen we might like to go elsewhere. He recommended a jinja shrine, a pagoda temple and the iconic radio tower. We decided to do this and really enjoyed seeing all three. So a different experience to what we expected but very enjoyable. The driver was really helpful and interested in ensuring we enjoyed our trip and we managed to communicate despite the language barrier.











