I've been wanting to go to Japan for many years. I have a friend in Tokyo but, still, this destination never came to the top of my destination list. This summer, however, my college-age daughter had a summer abroad program in Tokyo so my husband and I decided the 3 of us would go a week early and check out Japan!
I'd always heard that cruises were not the best way to see Japan because so much of what you'd want to see is too far inland from the ports. I can't argue with that, but I can say that when we stayed for 2 weeks after the cruise and traveled on our own, it was quite challenging! Mainly because of so few English speakers, even in tourist areas. We've done a lot of traveling over the years and I normally opt for escorted tours when I think there will be language obstacles, but the tours I looked at for Japan were very expensive. We just did those two weeks on our own, with the help of my friend from Tokyo when we were in a pinch. With her help, we were able to see Kyoto and Nara and really enjoyed both.
Going on the cruise, though, is something I'd recommend as a great taste of Japan, at a reasonable price and you didn't have to worry about managing in a country that is so foreign to Americans.