Thank you for joining our tour to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on September 18. We welcomed 10 guests from Canada, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, and USA. We enjoyed our walking tour and great conversation very much. Our tour starts from Tokyo station. Very fortunately, we happened to see procession of horse-drawn carriages at the Ceremony of the Presentation of Credentials at Tokyo station. During the Ceremony of the Presentation of Credentials, ceremonial horse-drawn carriages welcome newly appointed ambassadors to Japan and convey them from the Tokyo Station to the Imperial Palace South Porch. We welcomed two new ambassadors from Netherlands and Slovenia. During the tour, we encountered rain, but we still enjoyed our walking tour and great conversation. One of our guests asked us about the place they can see IKEBANA. During our tour, we didn’t have a good clue. Now we’ve got some information. IKEBANA EXHIBITION is held at Meguro, the Hotel Gajoen Tokyo from September 20th to November 13th, 2019. Ikebana is one of the traditional Japanese art in which flowers and plants are specially arranged for appreciation. It has been practiced for more than 600 years, and there are so many styles […]
Please be advised of the recent situations that may affect our tour. The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace is being prepared for a once-in-a-reign Ceremony in November by the new Emperor. Some areas of the Gardens are closed down to erect a special ceremonial complex built just for this occasion. As the Ceremony nears and the construction progresses, these close-downs may necessitate us to modify or cancel our East Gardens tour. We will keep you posted on the developments. Please also refer to our terms and conditions. Thank you for your understanding!
Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour at Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on September 15th. We had guests from various countries such as Australia, US, India, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Singapore, Pakistan, and Germany. As always, we shared good atmosphere in a quiet forest and historical objects in Meiji Shrine. At this time of year, we have a lot of Typoon, but fortunately the weather was good, and temperature was just comfortable. This good condition is also good for a bride and groom who just started their new life from Meiji Shrine. Congratulations to the young couple! Just one block away from busy TAKESHITA street, there is a small facility called Ota Memorial Museum of Art, which has specialty in UKIYOE wood block print. It is amazing that such a quiet and pretty museum showing traditional Japanese art is located in the center of pop culture. The museum holds themed exhibition from time to time. You can obtain good knowledge of UKIYOE from a special angle in such exhibitions. This week’s exhibition is all about Utagawa Toyokuni who had his work in late 18th to early 19th century. If you are interested in UKIYOE, it’s surely worth while spending […]
Thanks to all the guests for joining the tour and having a good time with us on 14th September! We welcomed 34 guests and divided into 2 groups. Our group welcomed 18 guests and another group welcomed 16 guests. It’s larger than usual because it’s fine day for walking. Guests enjoyed the tour and talking with other guests in same group. Guests also enjoyed simple wearing Kimono at the tour end. Guests give us lots of questions during the tour, but most interesting question today was about Metro train. A guest wants to buy one day ticket for his sightseeing in Tokyo. Tokyo Metro offers reasonable one day ticket pass. However problem is that there are two metro train companies in Tokyo, Tokyo Metro and Toei Metro, and the reasonable ticket is available for Tokyo Metro only. He gave me a question how to know the Metro entrance which his ticket is available for? I couldn’t answer it immediately but I got the answer with help of other guides. Tokyo Metro’s mark is like character “M”, and Toei Metro’s mark is a ginkgo leaf. (Gingko tree is the represent tree of Tokyo Metropolitan.) Metro companies also sell other type of […]
Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour in Ueno and Asakusa. On the day of our two-guided tours, the 8th of September, we welcomed 12 guests on our walking tour. These people came from different regions of the world, including Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, U.K and U.S. Strong typhoon was approaching Japan, and Japanese meteorological agency repeatedly issued the alert. In Tokyo, however, we had strong sunshine and occasionally scattered clouds in the sky, and the daytime temperature rose up to around 30 degrees Celsius. Seemingly, scorching heat of the sun has not been pushed back yet. Under these circumstances, we met twelve guests in Asakusa and Ueno. Some of the attendants of Asakusa Morning Tour made their time to join Ueno Afternoon Tour. We really appreciate it. Around 10 a.m., we started a morning tour at Asakusa. After overlooking the entire Asakusa district from the rooftop of the Asakusa Information Center, we moved to a gorgeous gate called Kaminarimon Gate, or a thunder gate in English. After passing through the 250 meters shopping stretch, we witnessed temple visitors waiting for their turn in a long line to worship. They’re going to make wishes like improving their […]
Hello, viewers!! Suddenly, a quiz for you. What do you think is drawing attention to the people in the above pic? ①Sunglasses accidentally fell into the pond.②No one has seen such a huge turtle taking a sunbath at this place. ③Colorful carps with long fins and tails are swimming so elegantly. We very much appreciate our guests energetic enough to join our tour last day. We could welcome 15 guest from coutries as the U.S.A, Mexico, Columbia, Germany, Austria, Poland. It was an extremely hot day, so hot as like another mid summer day of last month, but we could have a blessful time sharing the Japanese history and cultural talk with all of you. The sun shone on the water, the asphalt path, the Japanese Garden so clearly this day. The blue sky was just perfect to take any photos. And also the evergreen colored trees, grass, lotus were so refreshing to our eyes. After the tour, we were happy to see our guests enjoying the TFWT Instant Kimonos. All of you looked so cool and lovely in the Japanese style!! Oops…!! I almost forgot to give the answer of the first quiz. On our tour course, you can usually see the beautiful carps (koi)mixed with Indonesian and Japanese carps. […]
Thank you for choosing our tour among the many candidates in Meiji Shrine and Harajuku area on September 1. 12 guests kindly joined our tour from America, Britain, Ireland, France. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sudan. I hope all of you enjoyed walking with us in spite of muggy weather. Cat Street is a 1 kilometer-road between Harajuku and Shibuya, and crosses Omote Sando Avenue in the middle. The street is almost straight consisting of south part (Shibuya) and north part (toward Shinjuku) going deeper into Harajuku (“Ura Harajuku”). The narrow road seems to originate from many homeless cats basking in the sun in the old days. You may not be able to see them now. In fact, this road was made over the river prior to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964. Cat Street is one of the hot spots in Harajuku. There are a number of trendy shops and cafes including vintage clothing stores. However, it has much less teenagers in cosplay like Takeshita Street. People show more adult fashion. Since there is not that much traffic, it is an ideal place to go for a walk with your friends or family. In addition, you will see many outstanding mural arts […]
Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour on August 31th. We welcomed 16 guests from many countries like US, Germany, Spain, Israel, Canada, Singapore, and the Philippines. The weather forecast for this day was cloudy with occasional rain, but actually it was sunny and very hot. In spite of the lingering heat, we could enjoy with the guests overall and appreciated having a good time with us. Moreover, Ninomaru Garden, one of the attractive place in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, was beautiful as always. I was really glad to hear that some guests had been to Japan before. If you have never been to Japan, I recommend to go to Japan in autumn. Probably, the hot days continue, but it will be gradually comfortable to stay. Moreover, the leaves will turn red in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, so it will be very beautiful and be worth walking more. Because the East Gardens of the Imperial palace is being prepared for Daijo-sai festival, the ceremony performed by the new emperor, we cannot partly walk through the Gardens. However, we will guide the alternative course to make you fun. If you will be interested […]
Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour in Asakusa and Ueno. On that day, the 25th of August, we welcomed 6 guests on our walking tour. These people came from different regions of the world, including Canada, Chile and Netherlands Finally, peak time of summer season is coming to an end. Seemingly, we no longer experience a sweltering day, which started early in August following rainy season and left unbearable sensation of scorching days in Japan. Under these seasonal changes, we met 6 people at Ueno and Asakusa. At first, we started our morning tour at 10:00 A.M. in Asakusa. Our walking started from an iconic location in the area named “Kaminarimon Gate” or Thunder Gate and ended at Asakusa Shinto Shrine. Upon arriving at the main hall of Sensoji Buddhist Temple, a lot of people were surrounding an incense burner and bathing the smoke from there. Due to religious faith, this smoke is believed to heal their wounds. Eventually, appealing smells of food wafting out of food stalls come into our nose. Walking and eating is also one of the attractions for temple visitors. Meanwhile, at the concourse of Ueno Station, a large stuffed panda warmly welcomed […]
Thank you for all! We welcomed 17 guests from various countries such as US, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Philippines. We divided all the guests into 2 groups and each tour took 2 hours with the guides. The sunshine was still strong and my phone suddenly dead during the tour due to the heat! ( That’s why I couldn’t take many photos) We tried to stay in a shade as possible. Now the Honmaru area of the Imperial Palace is under the construction for preparing the ceremony of our new emperor. So we took the alternative course to Ninomaru Garden. There are not many flowers in this season but you can find that the thick green leaves and the sound of the waterfall make you feel cooler. We offer the Kimono experience in the end of the tour. It takes half an hour to put on real Kimono, but our instant Kimono is far easier than it. You can experience Japanese tradition in thirty seconds. All the members of the family from Spain tried the Kimono. How nice! Feel and experience Japanese tradition with us. For more information about our tour, please visit our East Gardens of the Imperial […]
