[elliotg]

I thought I should let everyone know that I have now taken the suggestion I received here and rebooked with InsideJapan. This caused me bit of inconvenience (and expense) as I had to change my flight bookings to fit with the new tour. However, I am confident it will be worth it – the help I got from InsideJapan has been great. While I may have been able to convince my original operator to be more helpful, I would have felt they regarded me as something of a pest and this would not be a good start to a tour! I am now very much more relaxed.