Japan Tours

I was just curious if any one here has tried one of those "Japan group tour's" that are advertised all over the internet. A few of my friend's and I wanna go to Japan, but we are not really sure if we want to join a tour group, or just go to Japan and travel around. I tried to look up this question but got only advertisement's for the Japan tour's so Im sorry if it has been answered already and I just missed it. If you have gone on a tour Im just curious if it was worth it, or do you regret it and wish you would have just gone and explored. Thank's in advance.

From what I've seen, if you have limited time and don't want the hassles of figuring out trains and hotels, the tour might be OK. I've run into several that looked like some pretty young travelers with a guide who basically shepherded them from place to place (Tokyo-Nikko-Kyoto-Hiroshima). The first group I saw was surprising because I didn't expect younger people to travel in an organized group. Talking to the guide, I found that once everyone got to their destination and hotel, they were pretty much on their own for exploring and eating. It seemed to be a "semi-guided" kind of affair, which would be appealing to some who were worried about getting around on their own, but liked the freedom to go out on their own after arrival. I don't know the names of the tour group company but the guides were British.

Many people on this site (myself included) don't speak Japanese, or barely, and aren't even necessarily young,yet they visit Japan on their own. It isn't difficult at all and not that expensive either.
The one benefit of a tour is that the flight plus hotels may be cheaper than if one does the booking on one's own. the main drawback is that most tours don't cater to individual tastes and often force one to waste to much time visiting stores and factories that aren't interesting at all and they also often take customers to restaurants that aren't always a good value (I am trying to be nice!!!).
I prefer to save money on hotels and food and pay whatever I have to pay for transportation (I do take trips off season) in order to be free and flexible. This is very much a personal choice and it also depends on how experienced ons is about travelling to foreign places

My take would be to go free and easy and then to sign up for those day tours offered by agencies such as Sunrise, JTB etc.

For example, if you're going to just Tokyo, you can sign up for 1 day Mt Fuji or Nikko tour and have other days to explore Tokyo.

Or if you are planning to visit whole of Japan, you can also just book accomodation in Tokyo then book a 2 nights tour to Osaka offered by JTB.

That way you get the best of both worlds, free and easy time and also get to see the major attractions, if that's what you're going for.

Thank's for the info. I didnt think I would get any answer's so fast, so that's really cool. I really appreciate it.

I'm planning on going through a japan tour but I'm booking everything through a travel agency. They are fully guided and are generally cheaper than the advertisements you see on this website. I'm staying behind an extra couple of days after the tour so I can see the things that aren't included with the tours. Going to a new place for the first time, I want to sure I get the full japanese effect, so I go through tours.

Thats a really good idea. I'll run that past my friends as well and see what they wanna do. It's obviously going to be a group decision, but I figured I would try to do some research and get some info. Thank's.