cheekrene> wif the locals to be ur tour guides, you'll sure have a fufilling trip there!! =) you can take your time to enjoy and absorb what you see/experience there.. like i say, a tour package is kinda sheep herding experience..
yeah, understand.. the hotels are generally more expensive and taken up fast during that period, hope tat you'll find it worth it when you see the sakura etc.. if u dun mind, you can try taking a 3 star/lower grade hotel, as they are cheaper..
princess> went to see ctc webbie, the package i took up is still availiable..
http://www.ctc.com.sg/tour.php?tourcode=JJ7C
as for the service, the hotels we stayed quite alright.. the food we ate oso quite alright.. our local tour leader(i.e juz accompany us to jap frm sg) is bery nice, bery humourous and take good care of us.. he oso gave us alot of tips on what to see/get at some of the destination.
but i'm a little disappointed with the tour guide frm jap (i.e the tour guide who picked us up in jap), she din seem to do much homework or explain well on the places we went.. eg. someone in my tour group asked her questions abt why the rainbow bridge was named rainbow bridge, and she couldn't explain it. but again, mayb i'm juz suay to get such a "blur" tour guide. my colleague who went with ctc previously says that her tour guide is quite good.
overall-wise, i'm still quite satisfied wif ctc lah..