Also chiming in to say you can do this yourself.

There is a good amount of signage in English and the maps app and google translate on your phone will help you navigate any situations you need a little extra help.

People are generally very happy to help you out and it's not hard to find good places to eat (or where to go).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:japan travel bureau is your friend
the rail passes are amazing

fav things to do in tokyo
kaiten sushi
boat ride on sumida
latenight shinjuku

Ooooh tell me where to go! Grandparents can babysit so we will sneak out...

They did. Shinjuku is a place.

The 1st Arrondissement is a place. There you7 are. Enjoy Paris!

Part of the joy of travrl is sharing fun places to see, special meals or drinks shesh!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you just want to show up? Totally fine to do that on your own. But if you are planning to go and see specific things in a month or so, my recommendation is to plan to go in July and research things you want to do asap. Then decide if you want an agent to help you with planning.

Tickets for many things are sold in advance, and things sell out quickly. For example, we stalked Ghibli Museum tickets online and by the time we finished checking out they were all sold out.

I was online 10 minutes before the moment Studio Ghibli tickets went on sale for the month and I was number 30,000 in the queue. It’s like trying to get tickets to the Eras tour.

Ha! We did this. Honestly, I thought it was very overrated and hard to get to. But my daughter loves it so we went.

We did this trip as a family when our daughter was in high school. Honestly, we found the planning really interesting and fun and I think if we’d hired someone else or gone on a tour we would have ended up not seeing a lot of cool things we found mostly by looking at YouTube and TikTok. People don’t speak much English there…it varies…but they will at all the western hotels. And the transit system has English.

Anonymous wrote:They will be fine without agent—I’ve been many times. Only thing that can get confusing is navigating train and metro stations but I’ve always figured it out and people are incredibly nice and will help if they get too lost. And maybe some restaurant reservations. Just stay in hotels with enough service support to book for you any specific tours or restaurant experiences. If you have help making reservations you will be fine.

Yes to all of this. Google maps helpful too. Even tells you when to change trains. Some restaurants turned us away as English only speakers, but these were exceptions. Everything you are likely to visit in a two week trip is navigable.

One can fly in/out of either Osaka (KIX) or Tokyo (HND or NRT). I probably would do whichever is lowest cost.

Kyoto is the former capital and has many cultural sites (castle, imperial palace) and is directly on the bullet train line between Tokyo and Osaka. Near Kyoto is Nara, which also has historic/cultural sites (e.g., temples). Maybe 2 nights/3 days to cover Kyoto and Nara.

Near Tokyo is Kamakura, also with cultural/historic aspects. Kamakura makes a nice day trip from Tokyo. Lots to see in metro Tokyo, of course.

I do not see any need for a guide or huge amounts of pre-planning other than reservations for hotels and for flights to/from Japan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:japan travel bureau is your friend
the rail passes are amazing

fav things to do in tokyo
kaiten sushi
boat ride on sumida
latenight shinjuku

Ooooh tell me where to go! Grandparents can babysit so we will sneak out...

They did. Shinjuku is a place.

Anonymous wrote:japan travel bureau is your friend
the rail passes are amazing

fav things to do in tokyo
kaiten sushi
boat ride on sumida
latenight shinjuku

Ooooh tell me where to go! Grandparents can babysit so we will sneak out...

japan travel bureau is your friend
the rail passes are amazing

fav things to do in tokyo
kaiten sushi
boat ride on sumida
latenight shinjuku

I was online 10 minutes before the moment Studio Ghibli tickets went on sale for the month and I was number 30,000 in the queue. It’s like trying to get tickets to the Eras tour.

That’s why you use google and find out that you can get someone from Fiverr to buy the tix and mail to you….

Thank you all for taking the time to answer. Truly appreciate your suggestions. Very helpful.

Don’t think an agent is necessary. I went with absolutely no background in language or even the country and did fine.

We stayed at hotels that had English speaking concierges. They got us rail tickets, reservations, etc. You need to fax yes fax the credit card authorization they email you.

OP I don't think a travel agent is needed unless you simply don't have the time or inclination to look up everything yourself. There are a million guides and blogs and tiktoks and subreddits for traveling in Japan. They could just grab a few recommendations and run with them. It's not hard, it's just time consuming.

Google maps is great for the subway in Tokyo. Add a Suica card to your phone and just tap for your fare.