Private Tour: Chartered Car to Mt. Fuji and Hakone Lake Ashi

I cannot begin to explain what a wonderful time my family had on this private tour! We were so fortunate to have had such a wonderful tour guide, Tom Harada, for this excursion. The morning started out with him arriving early to our hotel to talk about what we would like to do that day. He cared enough to want to get to know us a little so that he could better plan the day to suit our desires. We were able to fit so much into the tour, however we never felt rushed or stressed. For a ten hour tour, it was such a relaxing and pleasant day. We had many stops, he took time to take photos of our family for us, enjoyed a Japanese lunch together with the sweetest ladies from the restaurant! He talked with us about other things we wanted to do while in Japan, and even gave us more suggestions and instructions on how to get to those places. He emailed us that evening with very detailed instructions for taking the train and how to get around! Because of him we were able to enjoy other activities on other days that we probably would not have tried without his help! Tom was very knowledgeable about Japan and we learned so much. I wish we could take Tom on all our tours!

We had the immense pleasure to have Mr Tom Harada as our guide for this Mt Fuji and Hakone Lake Ashi prive tour. What an experience! You are a true gentleman! Tom, you really made our day. You gave us a lot of information about Japan and the places we visited without making it boring. It was lively and your sense of humour was well appreciated.The entire family enjoyed every minute of your company. We had the impression to be with a friend during this tour. THANK YOU. We are travelling a lot and you are in the top of our list of our favorite guides.
At the end of the tour, you took us to Matsuya depatment store to buy some nice Japanese whisky I'm having a glass right now. Then you took the time to come with us to the pharmacy to buy otc medicine for my wife. The tour was already over but nevertheless you helped us.
It was the first time we visited Japan but thanks to you it will certainly not be the last one. I can and will recommend you to my friends without hesitation.

We did a private chartered tour to Mount Fuji and Hakone lake area. Our tour guide was Taiji san - who did an excellent job showing us around and took our interest into consideration as well. During the day he also made recommendations too and made the whole experience very special. Thank you Taiji san for this wonderful experience!

Our guide Harada San Tom, his driver and assistant guide provided us with the BEST Sunday day trip to Mt Fuji and Lake Ashi. Harada San was extremely professional from his reconfirmation the night before our tour and right throughout our tour with the planning and personalisation of the tour to what interested us and what we wanted to get out of the day - nothing was too much trouble for him or his team and we were not rushed at any of the stops - our day trip felt more like a day trip with friends then with a tour operator. His knowledge of the history and sites was excellent as was his proficiency in English and mention must be made of our driver who was excellent too. If you are looking for a private tour look no further! We relish the opportunity of meeting up with Harada San in the near future when our holiday plans take us to Japan again and would recommend him and this tour to anyone.
p.s. it has taken me 3 months to post this review as a week after we returned home from our trip my mother suffered a stroke so I haven't had the time to complete the review sooner.

This is a tour you do no want to miss out on. And it can only be done with Tom Harada as your guide! Tom was truly such a warm and generous soul! We were so honored to have had him as our guide on this tour and for us he is The Number One Tour Guide!! He went above and beyond every step of the way. Thank you for making our trip to Mt Fuji so memorable. We were able to do so many things. Thankfully we were able to get a clearing in the clouds and see the mountain peak. Lunch at Tsujiya restaurant was delicious with an at home feel and the food was so fresh and delicious. Next we headed to Iyashi-no-sato village and enjoyed the Kimono and Samurai experience, this was such a fun and interactive experience and great photo opportunities. We also managed to visit the Ice Caves. As we got back to Tokyo, Tom was so kind to go with us to the train station to help us purchase our bullet train tickets that we needed for the next leg of our trip. Finally he took us back to our hotel and helped us to review and plot out our next destinations in Japan. As an extra bonus Tom is an excellent photographer.
Many thanks and superb tour!

Excellent tour, and our tour guide Taiji was superb. He was accommodating and we were able to visit locations that we would never experience if we had done this on our own. I would highly recommend this tour, especially his services to all, and look forward to our next visit to Japan, and we will surely call on them again.

We were very fortunate to have Tom Harada as our guide! He was an excellent source of historical and cultural information about Japan, and made excellent suggestions as to where we should visit on our tour. He also took photos of our group at each stop, and emailed them to us to add to our collection. He went above and beyond his responsibilities as a guide by offering his contact information if we needed assistance during our stay in Japan. One of the members of our group was looking for kimono patches to make quilts, and he provided us with the name of a store and detailed instructions on how to get there. He even offered to meet us at the train station! He is truly an excellent guide, and we would highly recommend him! Harada-san: Domo arigato gozaimashita!

This was a great tour and Tom is a great guide. Tom's goal is to be the number one English language guide in Japan and he has already attained that in our opinion! Tom was very knowledgeable and modified the tour to meet our needs. This tour is highly recommended by our family, as is Tom as the tour guide a must do in Tokyo! The tour is an excellent value for the price!

There are many options for viewing the area, but I opted for this private tour as my mum would have difficulties keeping up with a general tour group. I definitely got the door-to-door flexibility and convenience that I hoped for, with Tom Harada our guide and Higashi our driver taking care of all the needs our family of four. Tom was attentive and knowledgeable, and tailored his sharing of the info to our different interests. Speaking of, there were many opportunities to customize the tour we interacted over email/whatsapp prior to the trip, and during the drive out of the city, Tom discussed multiple options before settling on a few targets and being a private tour, we also made changes along the way. In our particular case, we decided to spend our time in the stretch from Arakurayama to Lake Kawaguchi to Fuji Shiba-sakura festival with several stops along the way. Tom also makes recommendations shops, snacks etc along the way - definitely follow-up on his ice-cream recommendation :

Lastly, we had the amazing fortune of having clear views of Mt Fuji throughout the entire day!

An excellent tour and many thanks to our guide Taiji-Endo! The private day tour by private van started at our hotel at 8.30 and we returned to our hotel about 18.00! The itinerary was packed with some program stops as per original schedule plus some special stops as per our requirements. Taiji San was a professional, friendly and knowalgable guide with a super personality. His knlowlage was also impressive regarding Japanese History and his English was outstanding! We 2 of us can highly recommend this private tour by Star Agency Tokyo and we certainly will again call upon their service for our next Japan trip. We stopped doing organized group tours with many participants a long time ago and there is absolutely no doubt that an exclusive private tour is the very best way of sightseeing and enjoyment with maximum flexibility to our personal needs! Thanks again to Star Agency and Taiji-Endo! Cheers Mike and Joe