Nikko Mountain temples, Japan
1. From Australia, we booked a day tour from Tokyo to Nikko, Japan with Trip.com. We booked (and used our home email address) and paid 6 weeks beforehand, as we were on a cruise for 3 weeks before arriving in Japan. Our ship arrived into Yokohama and we stayed in Tokyo the night before the bus tour to Nikko. My (Sakura) esim card for my mobile phone connected to Japan the night we arrived in Tokyo and I checked texts, messages, WhatsApp, Social media and my personal email etc. (But didn't check our home email in Australia). Thankfully, the next morning of the bus tour, my husband and I were organised to arrive at the meeting place a good 1/2 hour early, (concerned about Tokyo peak hour trains), when the tour guide phoned my WhatsApp number and said "where are you?" Apparently, the tour starting time had been changed from 7:50am to 6:50am. They had sent an email to our home computer a day before, where we originally booked. We frantically begged them to wait, but they WhatsApp texted that we would have to meet them at the second pick up location, (another 30 minutes away by train - we had no idea where it was). As we had never been to Tokyo before, my husband said no, we would arrive at the first meeting place in 5 minutes. We (60 yo) ran frantically, but had held up the tour 25 minutes and felt embarrassed the whole day. 2. Before the bus arrived in Nikko, the tour guide explained we would need cash to get into the temples and for the waterfall. We knew we needed some cash for lunch and souvenirs etc, but assumed we would be able to tap our travel card to pay for admission to the temple. This was not the case. Again, embarrassingly, the tour guide said we could not go into the temple area, as we did not bring enough cash. All 30 passengers followed the guide into the temple area, while my husband and I were left outside and told to meet them back at the bus in 3 hours. Thankfully, we decided to google banks and ATM's and found there was one about a mile away. My husband and I walked there, got cash out. Walked back to the temple entrance, paid for our tickets and walked through the temples ourselves. We explained this to Lee the tour guide, when we returned to the bus 3 hours later, and he was happy and relieved. We are NOT angry, there were issues on both sides. But just wanting to explain to help future passengers. My suggestion would be to get confirmation that the passengers know that the tour time has changed. Had a WhatsApp text also been sent to my phone, would have been good. Also, on the documentation, please state clearly that the admission price into the temple is $$$ per person and into the waterfall is $$$ per person and that cash is the only form of payment available. On a happier note, the tour was quite good and I would recommend it. The guide Lee was quite impressive, speaking English, Japanese and Chinese. The bus driver did a great job on difficult roads. The bus was very comfortable. (Note: 3 hours each way, with no toilet).