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2019年6月

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Enjoyed green in the heart of Tokyo: The East Garden of Imperial Palace Tour on June 29, 2019

  • 2019.06.30

Thank you for joining our tour to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on June 29. We welcomed 15 guests from UK(2), Spain(3), USA(5), Germany(1), Canada(2), and Argentina(2). We divided them in to 4 groups. The weather was raining at the beginning but the rain let up during our tour. Once we got into East Garden, we totally forgot we were in the center of Tokyo. It was totally covered with fresh and bright green, the moisture helped to make its green much more vibrant. In the main field of East Garden, the construction for new Emperor’s traditional ceremony, Dijyo-sai, in November is on going, but we could cover the most of the viewpoints of the tour. East Garden is originated by Edo-Jyo (Edo Castle). Although there is some reconstructed old buildings, it remains mostly original Edo-Jyo’s stonewalls. Walking in the East Garden requires your imagination like how was the Japanese life, how was the social systems, how the Edo-Jyo was on those days and etc. This tour is not only 2 hours garden walk but also a trip to Edo era in your mind. All of our 4 groups enjoyed walking trough the moisture forest. Our tour is […]

WELCOMED 20 GUESTS FROM HAWAII : JUNE 25 ASAKUSA PRIVATE TOUR

  • 2019.06.29

Tokyo Free Walking Tour provides with 4 route tours regularly: East Gardens of the Imperial Palace (Saturday, weekly & weekday once a month) Asakusa (Sunday, bi-weekly) Meiji Jingu Shrine & Harajuku (Sunday, bi-weekly) Ueno (Sunday, bi-weekly) (Please refer to our calendar : https://tfwt.jp/tour-calendar/) In addition to regular tours listed above, TFWT also offers private tours based on request, but only if we can arrange tour guides. The Asakusa tour held on June 25 was the good example. We welcomed 20 guests from Hawaii, who were participants of  “The 2019 Summer Study Tour To Japan, Pacific Asia Administrative Council” including 17 selected students from all over Hawaii and 3 senior leaders.  Traveling multiple places in Japan for two weeks and having lots of activities, they selected our tour as one of the last day events.  We feel honored that they choose our tour. Luckily it was a comfortable sunny day during an early summer rainy season. 20 guests, divided into 4 groups, enjoyed with site view and local shopping. We were impressed with their excellent manner and eagerness to know new things. This time we had more than a month lead time for coordination.  But please do not hesitate to send […]

Let’s enjoy rainy season in Japan:   June 23 ASAKUSA & UENO tour

  • 2019.06.24

Thank you for your participation to “Tokyo Free Walking Tour – Asakusa Route & Ueno Route” on June 23 Sunday.  We welcomed 20 guests from Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Switzerland, UK & USA. The clouds hang low all day, thus during the tours we worried when it starts to rain. But the deity of weather was on our side!   Probably you might be aware that it is the rainy season in most part of Japan right now and we’ve been having humid weather.  Does this sound depressing? That makes sense. But let me share you some enjoyments during rainy season. The early summer rainy season is called tsuyu and written with kanji characters meaning plum rain. Because it is the when plum trees bear fruit.  Water plants produces beautiful flowers, such as irises and water lilies. Fireflies can be added to the attractiveness of this season.  They can be found flying about at night near the clean water’s edge, while emitting light from their lower abdomens.  The myriads of tiny blinking lights creates fantastic atmosphere. Special ceremonies “Chinowa kuguri” are held at shrines on the last day of June as it marks the halfway point of the year. Stepping […]

ENJOYED CHATTING IN RAINY DAY REPORTING FROM THE EAST GARDENS OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE (JUNE.22)

  • 2019.06.23

Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Working Tour on June.22. We welcomed a total of 30 guests from: UK(5), Spain(2), Sweden(4), USA(3), Russia(1), Germany(2), Australia(4), Swiss(1), Brasil(4) and Italia(4). During the tour, it rained on and off but we could enjoy the tour with all of our guests. Still enjoyable many blue colors in the east side of garden.  In the rainy season, multiple varieties of iris and hydrangea entertain us with raindrops.  So that you don’t need to worry about the weather in here.  Especially for the the Ninomaru-garden (Japanese artificial garden) which is configured to enjoy the view for all seasons. Actually our tour guide will never get tired of this view no matter how many times we guide here:) Every time we guide the tour, I really enjoy chatting with our all guests. This time, I could teach small talk in Japanese for some guests because they will take exam of JLPT (Japan Language Proficiency Test) in this summer. I’m so grad to hear about it and know many people are interested in Japan. And also another guests said they bought ORIGAMI for their souvenir and one of guests said she can make some simple products. It’s […]

TOUR REPORT ON June 18, 2019(THE EAST GARDEN OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE)

  • 2019.06.20

Thank you for joining our tour to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on June 18.     We welcomed 21 guests from USA, UK, Israel, Italy, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, Pakistan, and Bolivia. We divided in to 4 groups. The weather was humid and  hot like summer. We enjoyed our walking tour and wonderful conversation very much.  And we enjoyed various kind of beautiful iris flowers in Ninomaru garden. (Typical Japanese Garden) Introducing hot springs in Japan. We Japanese love onsen! It is not too much to say that Japan is a country of onsen (hot springs).  Japan is a volcanic country and one result of this is it has lots of onsen(hot springs). There are some 3000 hot springs around the country. The water quality is excellent as well. There are various colors of water depending on the water quality.  Although most Japanese onsen are colorless and transparent, there are white water called nigoriyu ,brown water, black water, and emerald green too.  It contains various minerals and provides a lot of medicinal benefits such as warming the body, stimulating circulation, increasing metabolism and relaxing your body and mind. People who have disease stay at bathhouse for long time to cure […]

Sunny Day Tour During Rainy Season — @Meiji Jingu Shrine & Harajuku on June 16, 2019

  • 2019.06.17

Thank you so much for joining our tour at Meiji Jingu Shrine & Harajuku area on June 16.  We welcomed 12 guests from Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and France! The rainy season had already started in Tokyo, but we were blessed with sun during this tour.  We could enjoy to see the Japanese traditional wedding at the front of the main Pavilion of Shrine, or many young people enjoying playing dress-up at the Takeshita-dori Street! On June 16 was the Day of Japanese Confectionery, so the Shrine gave any visitors a Japanese traditional sweets and tea.  In 868, the Emperor supplied gods with the sweets or dumplings for preventing the epidemic from spreading further, then it worked well.   We have a Japanese garden inside of the Meiji Jingu shrine and anyone can enjoy watching Japanese irises with the admission fee.  One of our group visited there. Now is the flowers high season, we highly recommend to visit there ! (reported by Hisako)  

A bad weather for the outdoor tour, 15 June 2019, the East Garden of the Imperial Palace

  • 2019.06.16

Many thanks to 20 guests who participated in this tour from USA, Germany, Spain, Greece, Belgium, India and Indonesia. We divided into 4 groups. The weather was terrible so it was not a very comfortable tour for all of us. We really  appreciated our guests’ patience on that day. Actually, June is a rainy season in Japan. The phrase “June Bride” does not match with Japanese climate. June is not popular wedding month in Japan. In that sense, the guests experienced a very typical June weather although it was not desirable for outdoor guide tour. It is recommended to enjoy indoor tours in such season. Where in Japan is best for indoor tour? How about Todai-ji Temple in Nara prefecture? It is a big hall and you can view middle age made Buddha statues inside. If you are interested in Buddhism, that is the place where you can spend an hour inside. Another big hall is Higashi-Honganji temple in Kyoto. There is the world’s biggest wooden-made building. Inside is a very spacious straw mat floor that you have to take off shoes to get on. Rainy season is the time when you should think about indoor tours. Within our presenting […]

Is that the bell from Ueno or Asakusa? (A tour report of Asakusa and Ueno Park on Jun 9)

  • 2019.06.09

Thank you so much for joining the tours in Asakusa and Ueno Park on Jun 9. We welcomed 17 guests from USA, UK, Germany, Mexico, Philippines and India. Tokyo entered the rainy season on June 7. The weather forecast told that there could be raining but thankfully it was not happened. Cloudy and a little humid but not so hot. It began to rain after night, so we were lucky. We really appreciate all guest for sharing your precious time together and enjoyed our tour and conversations with the guests. We are often inspired by unexpected questions and information from our guests and today’s tours were definitely the ones. We wish our guests had the good time with us, too. Speaking of time, June 10 is “Time Day” in Japan. It is not a national holiday, but I think it is one of the candidates because there are no national holidays in June. The Emperor Tenchi, who is the 38th Emperor, on June 10 in 671, approximately 1350 years ago, first made a water clock and made it a time clock to Otsu in current Shiga prefecture. Based on the historical event, Time Day was enacted in 1920. Time went […]

Full of flowers(TOUR REPORT OF THE EAST GARDEN OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE ON JUNE.8, 2019)

  • 2019.06.08

Thank you for all! We welcomed 20 guests from various countries such as US, Philippine, Portugal,New Zealand,India,Singapore and Russia. We divided all the guests into 2 groups and each tour took 2.5 hour with 2 or 3 guides. Fortunately,it was cloudy and sometimes sunny in such a rainy season and our tour went smoothly with a help of wouderful guests. In this season, our site is full of flowers. Blue flowers are standard and lacecap hydrangea. (Ajisai and Gakuajisai in Japanese) They are just beginning to bloom. White flower is evergreen magnoria.(Taisanboku in Japanese) Big petal is impressive in early Summer. Red flower is Indian coral tree.(Kaikozu in Japanese) It is a simbol tree of Kagoshima prefecture in south Japan. Highlight is a beautiful iris in Ninomaru garden. It blooms freshly and youthfully with a plenty of rainwater. This weekend or next weekend will be the best to enjoy. And the guests wearing on special Kimono is as nice as those flowers. In our tour, we can share Japanese nature,history and dairy life. Please come and join us !! (Posted by Y.A.)

EDO WAS THE” CITY OF FIRES”, ON JUNE 1

  • 2019.06.02

Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour in the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. On that day, June 1, we welcomed around 55 guests from Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Myanmar, Nederland, New Zealand, Philippine, Singapore, Sweden, U.K. and U.S.A. Finally, June has come. The month signals as the start of early summer season, which tends to be Japan’s rainiest time of the year. With sunny and occasionally cloudy sky, we met 55 people in the square of Tokyo Station building located in Marunouch district of Tokyo. The redbrick train station was overlooking us, and it also seemed to warmly welcome our tour group, as it always does. Immediately before starting the tour, we made four groups for several participants in line with a few assigned guides. After a twenty-minute walk from Tokyo Station, we went into the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, which used be Edo Castle. This historical garden is situated in a highly urbanized area of Tokyo, which is fully surrounded by busy streets and concrete buildings, whereas this well-preserved historical location can draw us into its peaceful and calm environment. The remaining parts of the castle buildings in the garden are in […]