Thank you for choosing our tours at Asakusa and Ueno Park in Tokyo on December 22. We welcomed 16 visitors from UK, Canada, America, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand. It was cloudy and cold. Nevertheless, I hope all of you enjoyed our tours and shared with us an interesting conversation of history and culture for a few hours. As promised, the group photos and snapshots are herewith attached. Your feedback is important to us. If you enjoyed our tour, could you consider reviewing our tours? We would appreciate to see your comment about our tours on google/facebook/tripAdvisor etc. If you’ve already done it, that’s great. Once again, thank you so much for joining us on our tours and I hope to see you again in another one of our tours should you come back to Tokyo. BEST WISHES IN THE NEW YEAR! Yoshi
Thank you for visiting our website! Our guests often ask us “why do you do this volunteer guide activities?” Answers differ by each member. But we all have same reason “because all of our guests are so wonderful and we are encouraged to do this, enjoying communication with guests from all over the world!” Yes, the same applied to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace tour on December 21 (Sat). Though it was a pretty cold & cloudy day, we welcomed 7 guests from Australia, France, New Zealand & Singapore. Thank YOU very much for your joining to our tour! As the benefit of relatively small number of guests, we could offer semi-private tour for our guests. ***************************************************** By the way, it feels like the year’s coming to an end. Let me introduce seasonal topics in Japan. The winter solstice, called Touji, falls around December 21st or 22nd (December 22nd this year). Touji represents the advent of winter. We are heading to coldest season. But at the same time, we also consider it is the start of spring because daytime will become longer day by day after Touji. For the day, we have such traditional customs, eating […]
Thank you for all our guests who joined “December 15th Meiji shrine & Harajuku tour”. We welcomed 5 guests from Bulgaria, UK, and USA. It was so quite in the Meiji shrine. We heard unique footsteps on the “TAMAJARI” or beautiful gravel. We had a great chance to see a wedding couple in the shrine. The bride in the traditional white Kimono was so graceful. The families with celebrated children looked so happy. Can you imagine the precincts of this shrine will be filled with people during the new year, and it may take more than 2 hours to get to the pray area from the entrance? We are always looking forward to seeing you on TFWT tour. For more imformation about our tour, please visit our website, Facebook and TripAdvisor ! (reported by Keiko N.)
Many thanks to 13 guests from Brasil, Singapore, USA and Australia. We divided into 3 groups. The weather was mild and unexpectedly warm like spring time despite the winter season has already started in Tokyo. The colors of foliage in the East Garden was very vivid because of winter sun rays. Guests could also enjoy clear reflection of the foliage colors on the water. But we are already in the winter. Normally going outside is hard thing to do. Then you might notice many people on the streets wearing surgical masks in Japan. That surprises foreigners. Especially in this cold season, more people wear masks. Foreign guests ask us why they are wearing it. That is one of most frequently asked questions by foreigners because it is a very unique custom of Japan. The answer is we wear this not to spread disease when we get a cold or fever. Mask is believed to block virus and germs from the mouth. But experts claim micro virus cannot be blocked by paper or cotton made masks and can easily go through the fabrics. Actually, it is rather a manner to tell others that you do not intend to spread disease even […]
Thank you for joining our tour to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on Dec 7. We welcomed 5 guests from Australia, Israel and Spain. The weather was a little chilly with light rain but we could enjoy our walking tour and great conversation very much. From November 21 to December 8, the Daijokyu, the complex specially built for the Daijosai, an important ceremony accompanying the enthronement of the Emperor, was opened to the public. Imperial Palace opened Inui Street to public for autumn foliage as well. We also enjoyed viewing autumn colors at the East Garden. Thank you for joining our tour. We are looking forward to seeing you again. For more information about our tour, please visit our web site at https://tfwt.jp/top/east-gardens-of-the-imperial-palace/, https://www.facebook.com/ , TokyoFWT or Tokyo Free Walking Tour at https://www.tripadvisor.jp/ (Posted by Tank)
Thank you so much for joining the tours in Asakusa and Ueno Park on Dec 8. We welcomed 5 guests from Malaysia, Australia and Israel. This day was a day of refreshing and fresh air like this season in Japan. We really appreciate all guest for sharing precious time and inspiring us with interesting communications each other. I hope they enjoyed out tour as we did very much. December 8th is a day of Celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, so called “Jodo-e” in Japanese. There was a special Buddhism service in Sensoji Temple. The picture of Buddha under the linden tree was put inside the main building of the temple. The season is moving into winter in Japan. Nakamise shipping street in Asakusa has already started to prepare Year End and New Year. In Ueno Park, Nishikigoi (Colored Carp) Fair and Auction was held as usual. Please come and find Japanese winter with us. For more information about our tour, please visit our Asakusa tour, Ueno tour, Facebook, and TripAdvisor page! (Posted by Toyo)
Thank you for your joining our tour today.We welcomed 8 guests from many foreign countries, such as CANADA, COLUMBIA, BELGIUM, MALAYSIA. Today in Tokyo the weather was moderate, so 8 guests could enjoy this walking tour. Here in the Meiji shrine seasonal special events such as 7.5.3 event, chrysanthemum show, flower arrangement show, ancient martial arts events, finished. Now in the Meiji shrine quiet atmosphere returned． By the way I want to review autumn events this year. In this autumn events I want to focus on ‘yabusame.’ I introduce you yabusame, an archery on horseback performance. This is a courageous performance. A player on horseback aims at 3 targets lined in a row by shooting the bow and arrows from a horse running at the top speed. The target is square wooden board, size is 50 cms. Targets are placed on the left hand side of running direction. “Wow! A horse is running so fast. An archer hit the target. Great! I was so impressed with the combination of the high skill between an archer and a horse.” Yabusame started in Heian period and it became popular in Kamakura period as samurai worriers’ military exercise. This culture has […]
Thanks to all the guests for walking and talking with us on 30th November! We welcomed 12 guests from US, Philippine, Israel, German, and Sweden. The Imperial East Garden area is crowed with people visiting this area to look the Daijokyu ceremonial building, but guests enjoyed walking and learned about Japanese history. In today’s report, I’d like to introduce the illumination spots of this year in Tokyo that I couldn’t answer well to the tour guest a few weeks before. (1) Shibuya Park Street to Yoyogi Keyaki Street: Motif of this illumination spot is Blue Color. The trees on the street are decorated with 600,000 blue LEDs. JR Shibuya or Harajuku station is best to come. (2) Ebisu Garden Place: Main object of this spot is the Baccarat Chandelier illumination, which height is 5m and width is 3m. JR Ebisu station is best. (3) Roppongi Mid Town: Theme of this spot is Cosmic Space. Wide lawn area beside the Roppongi Mid Town building is decorated with illumination. Roppongi Metro station is best. (4) Marunouchi Naka Street : Trees beside the Naka Street are decorated with “Champagne Gold Color” LEDs. This was my answer to the guest, because this illumination spot […]
Many thanks to 3 guests joining our weekday tour. It was a cold and drizzling day, but 2 guests from Germany and 1 from Canada came to Tokyo Station. Thank you so much. We enjoyed walking and talking during the 2-hour tour. My daughter, who is also one of the guides in Tokyo Free Walking Tour, has started working in the southeast of Osaka. She lives near Horyu-ji Temple, the very first World Heritage in Japan registered in 1993. My daughter and I visited the temple last week and were strongly impressed by the solemnity of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world. I go to see my daughter at least once a month, do cleaning and cooking for her, and chat with her, which make myself soothed. However, visiting Osaka once a month has affected my family budgets! Then, last week, I tried a highway bus from Tokyo to Osaka. There are various types of buses, and what I chose was this: Only three lines of seats in one coach – each seat is independent with its own plug for electric equipment, and curtains protect one’s privacy. It takes 7 hours from Tokyo to Osaka, but […]
Thank you so much for choosing our tours in Asakusa and Ueno Park on November 24. We had 26 visitors from Sweden, UK, Ireland, Italy, Canada, America, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. I hope you enjoyed walking with us and particularly appreciate the fact that some of you consecutively joined our tours for two days. You might have seen a big gate in front of the Sensoji Temple Main Hall. Hozomon Gate is larger and more spectacular than the famous Kaminarimon Gate at the entrance. The upper level houses the complete Buddhist scriptures and on the lower level a pair of wooden statues of guardian deities of Buddha opening and closing each mouth symbolizes the beginning and end of all things in Buddhism. On the back of the gate is a pair of ‘waraji’, massive sandals made of rice straw ropes. As waraji reflects the power of the guardian deities in front, evils quickly run away knowing that the wearer of the sandals protects the temple. I really appreciate your participation in our tours and hopefully look forward to seeing you at another one of our tours in case you come back to Tokyo. . (posted by Yoshi)
