Thank you Saizen! We had a wonderful tour of Japan. Saizen offered us some experiences we had never enjoyed before such as a farmstay in Miyama and a trip to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama. The farmstay was a fantastic opportunity for our students to see firsthand what life in the Japanese countryside is like. Not only did they get the chance to do farming, tie dying and traditional cooking but they also were able to further improve their Japanese conversational skills. Arashiyama was an amazing place and we all loved the natural spectacle as well as the history of the area. It was a trip that all of the students and teachers will never forget. 

Travelling to Japan with 19 students is onerous on teachers. While I attempt to be organised, it doesn’t always happen.  This year, for the first time, we tried something new with the group and did the Hozu River Boat cruise.  Rondell had told me all about it and it sounded like the perfect addition to our Japan Tour given that the year 11 students must study “Ecotourism” as  apart of the new units in the year 11 ATAR course.  After catching train lines I’d never been on before, walking about 1km to the boat departure docks and ensuring I hadn’t lost anyone, I was terrified to realise I didn’t have the correct prepaid coupon when at the registration desk.  We called Saizen and the matter was sorted immediately.  We boarded the boat without issue and Saizen spoke to the tour operator to ensure we travelled safely.  That evening, Saizen worked around the clock to send me photos of the coupons and help me to locate the documents.  Being in Japan with so many students can be stressful but when you know you have 24 hours a day support from your agent, you know that nothing is insurmountable.  Saizen never miss your calls when in Japan and their connections with local operators means that everything runs smoothly even if the teachers are first-timers.  I truly believe that the travel experience with any other company wouldn’t be as stress-free.

Thank you SO much for your care and attention to all requests and details. Having the support of Saizen Tours was a huge weight off my shoulders in preparing for our trip and ensuring that everything went smoothly whilst in Japan. We loved receiving all the documents & other goodies in the box before our departure. The red string bags were handy จC we used them as overnight bags on our first night (and left our suitcases in overnight storage at the airport). We will definitely be asking for your help for our next study tour and will happily recommend you to others.

Thank you Saizen for your assistance and guidance with organising our tour! The accommodation, rail pass, transport and activity bookings, and flights all went really smoothly. I especially appreciated having the extra eyes over our itinerary plans, Simone did a great job checking the train times were feasible, which saved stress changing trains at busy train stations with such a large group. The attention to detail with the Trip Booklet was fantastic.  

Saizen Tours was able to source the perfect accommodation for us In Hiroshima.  We wanted to see the Peace Park early in the morning and they found us a ryokan where we only had to walk for 10 minutes and could comfortably see the crane displays, Sadako’s Statue, the Peace Bell and the Atomic Bomb Dome all before breakfast.  When facing an equally busy schedule upon arrival at Kyoto, Rondell gave us the name of a luggage transfer service so we could spend our sightseeing time with day packs rather than our large tour bags. This made travel easier and was cheaper than using the lockers.  Their knowledge ensured our trip ran smoothly.

Saizen Tours organised everything for our 19 person tour. We would not have been able to do as much if it was not for Simone and her team of dedicated and experienced staff.  Everything was planned and set out in such a way that I, as the tour guide, felt comfortable and completely at ease.  They are simply amazing!  All their planning lead to a hassle free two week tour of Japan. 

Thank you so much for all the work you put into organising out wonderful trip!

All the students had a very valuable experience and had a lot of fun. 

ANA flights were very smooth nothing was a miss and the staff were professional and friendly.

Accommodation was brilliantly located and convenient. 

The most valuable experience for the students was the opportunity to spend time with the university students in Hiroshima, I would love tho include this in every future school trip to Japan. A close second would be tea with the Geiko in Gion. 

All meals were absolutely delicious! Plenty of food and the student's particularly enjoyed the buffet in Osaka and the Hiroshimayaki in Okonomiyaki mura, Hiroshima. 

I will definitely continue to use Saizen in the future and recommend your company to other teachers.

The little red tour book that Simone from Saizen Tours prepared for us was the most valuable piece of luggage we took with us. It included highlighted maps, suggested train timetables and platform numbers, suggested sightseeing spots and so much more. It was in our day pack or hands at all times and made our trip stress and hassle free. The accommodation was exactly what we were looking for - affordable, private and close to amenities. The highlights of our tour were the hike up Mt Misen from the top of the ropeway on Miyajima (pictured) and our private guided tour of Himeji Castle. Thank you Simone and Saizen!

Although I have taken many school trips to Japan in the past, this was the first school trip for students from Hunter Sports High and my first time to use Saizen Tours.  Rondell is amazing. Her planning and documentation was meticulous. She was always so helpful and supportive throughout the process.

My students had a wonderful time in Japan. They enjoyed the many planned activities with one of the highlights being the Maiko experience at Gion we booked through Rondell.

I highly recommend Saizen Tours, and we will definitely be using Saizen Tours next time we travel to Japan!

We had a wonderful time. A massive experience for our kids, I just cannot replicate that in the classroom. There are alot more motivated kids from this experience. Thank you for all your help I am already cotemplating our next trip.

The tour you organised for us was a great success, thank you! 

The visit to Mt Koya was cited as the highlight of the trip by more than half the group. We were running a bit late and were met on arrival by our walking-tour guide. She was easy to get along with and was very informative and interesting, as she took us on a walk through the cemetery to the temple. We were fortunate to see the monks making their afternoon visit to the monk Kukai’s mausoleum, and join in with the meditation with the monks at the shukubo temple lodgings we stayed at. The food at the temple was amazing (I would say that, I’m vegetarian!) and an eye-opening (still enjoyable!) experience for some of our students.

The highlight, however, was definitely the class we participated in after dinner: bead making. The monk and our guide helped us in stringing and sanding the beads, and taught us what each bead represented. It was a highly personal, reflective and yet still fun activity, and at the end of it we had beautiful prayer beads to keep. We all wore our prayer beads for the remainder of the trip, and it was lovely to see students still wearing them to school in Term 4. 

Thank you for all the work you did in organising and supporting us on the trip, from all the Ipswich State High School participants.

Our school has now been on 6 School excursions to Japan. 5 of these were booked through Rondell at Saizen Tours. The first trip I did I organised the whole thing myself. Since finding Saizen I would never go back to that and would not recommend it! Saizen Tours has been fabulous and I have never been able to fault them. I have travelled a lot in Japan and feel I know it very well; however, booking through Saizen took the stress out of the organising before the trip and the excursion itself. Rondell is always more than happy to chat to me about anything and is a wealth of information. I have learnt so much from her over the years and she is a pleasure to work with. The detail in the teachers/students books, fabulous student worksheets and all the other extras from Saizen  I could not have done without. It certainly helped every trip to run smoothly. Rondell also has some great ideas of places to visit off the beaten track. Every one of those places we have been to, I would love to revisit.  Thank you to the fabulous team at Saizen. 

We found Saizen Tours to be very helpful and knowledgeable regarding everything we needed to know about travelling in Japan. They helped us plan our trip right down to details and were quick to answer emails and get back to me on the phone and were always pleasant. They could give valuable advice about the pros and cons of various options. A pleasant surprise was the very helpful guide book and teachers worksheets that they put together to help me lead our group on my first school visit to Japan as a teacher. Our dinner on the first night at an airport Hotel and at Sweets of Ninja restaurants were very good. I certainly would recommend using Saizen Tours.

Saizen - you've done it again! We had an absolutely amazing experience in meeting a Maiko-San in Kyoto today!!! This is the highlight of our trip so far! Thank you so much from Whitsunday Anglican School.

Yet another fantastic school study tour this year, made all the more enjoyable thanks to the great work of Saizen Tours.  Bookings and reservations all handled smoothly and without error making my job that much easier.  We really enjoyed our accommodation at the Morikawa Ryokan in Tokyo and the Shin-Osaka Youth Hostel.  Thank you to Rondell and the team at Saizen for all of your efforts in making this year's trip a memorable one.

We had the trip of a lifetime! Highlights included the Sumo wrestling tournament, Kyoto bicycle tour and Utano Elementary school visit. The boys enjoyed embracing traditional Japanese culture in Kyoto and Hiroshima, as well as soaking up the fast-paced life in Tokyo and Osaka. The hostels we stayed in were comfortable, the staff were very helpful and the facilities were great.

Rondell at Saizen did an amazing job at organising our trip and it was reassuring to know I could call her at any time if I had a query. Thank you for the excellent advice and preparation.

We had a fabulous stress free trip away with our students, thanks to Kellie and Saizen Tours. They were so helpful at tailoring an itinerary specifically to suit us and I asked hundreds of questions which never seemed too much trouble to Kellie. I would recommend Saizen Tours to any group that wants a fabulous trip away without any hassles!

The reason why I keep going back to Saizen Tours whenever I take student groups to Japan, is for their thorough and specific knowledge of Japan, something you can’t get with other travel agents. Simone accommodated all of our requests to tailor the trip to our specific needs and the very detailed, handy tips provided in our teacher’s booklet made the trip run very smoothly. Looking forward to our next trip!