I booked a basic ticket online for 9.30am (it opens at 9.30am as listed on Google). I arrived at 9.30am (since it was the open time advertised and realised it actually was already open).

In future, I would have booked perhaps the 10am or 11am, so this allowed me more time leading up to it to get settled. This is because I felt it to be quite rushed when I arrived and there were a mixture of people queuing up to buy tickets (maybe for a later time).

A second staff member arrived and asked who has prepaid and I showed mine, as well as another group, and another solo traveller. He instructed us to go upstairs.

The family, myself and the other solo traveller were instructed to put on armour and choose a helmet so we can have our photos taken.  I wasnt sure what to do, how to hold the sword, or to smile or not. I felt kind of rushed as there were people before and after me and I didn't want to hold up the line.

They also thought the other solo traveller and I were travelling together, so that might have contributed to the time...

It was helpful that they had staff taking photos for people, though. It might be helpful some more if there was some suggestions on how to hold the sword and different poses or stances to take?

I was then told to go upstairs now (there were some posters on walls on this floor that I was wanting to read), and the staff said I could come back later to read them. So I assumed I could backtrack for anything I missed.

Izu was the tour guide I had when I joined the group of visitors already seated (again, I did not know they were waiting already) - Izu was very knowledgeable, positive, animated and friendly. Thank you Izu!

However as I was caught up in the dressing up at the start and having photos taken, I missed the beginning of the guided tour part of introductions and was a bit overwhelmed. I didn't realise the guided tour had already started, given that I was told to do the costume wearing first...I felt a bit disappointed as I was keen to take in all the knowledge I could.

Getting over that, the tour itself was informative, and the ninja star throwing was engaging and some fun. When it's a large group, it's kind of hard to see everything and we moved on to the next place quite quickly, I felt.

After the tour was over, we were instructed to go downstairs for trying on armour and have our photos taken. So it seems armour could have waited until after the tour if timing was short. I think that would have suited me better.

I did ask another staff if I could quickly take photos of the rooms I was in during the tour. He said there was 5 mins before the next tour started so I could, thankfully. I quickly went upstairs to take photos of what I missed in the beginning, and tried to take it in a bit more in the short time.

Anyway, I can always refer to the photos already in other reviews here to remind me of the time and what I saw. There was a lot of staff so that helps with running the event.

Overall, I would have liked more time to take in each floor after the tour was over, at my own pace. The information shared each floor was comprehensive and it takes time for me to process it.

5 stars to the guide and overall activities and layout, -1 for the bit of timing/coordinating/communication issue at the start, and maybe the option of a slower/self-paced tour might be nice.