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2020年1月

The Imperial Palace East Gardens Tour on Wednesday 29th January 2020

  • 2020.01.31

Thank you for joining our tour at the Imperial Palace East Gardens on Wednesday 29th January 2020. We welcomed 8 guests from the UK, USA and Australia. I hope all of you enjoyed the tour in the warm sunshine, as it had been cold and wet for a few days earlier this week. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached.   Your feedback is important and helpful to us. We would appreciate if you could post your review about our tours on our TripAdvisor or Facebook. Once again, thank you for choosing Tokyo Free Walking Tour during your precious time in Tokyo.   Have you taken a taxi in Tokyo? Nihon Kotsu, one of the largest taxi companies in Tokyo, has announced that all 1,500 vehicles of the company have been replaced by new-type Toyota JPN TAXI. JPN TAXI, released by Toyota in 2017, is designed specifically for hackney carriages. Compared with conventional sedans, it has more space for passengers in the rear seats. According to a survey by Nihon Kotsu, 86% of passengers who tried JPN TAXI was satisfied with the larger cabin.     Taxi drivers in Japan need a Class II (high-class) driving licence. Compared to […]

Asakusa & Ueno Tour Report, 26th Jan. 2020

  • 2020.01.27

Thank you for choosing our tours at Asakusa & Ueno on 26th Jan. 2020. We welcomed 9 guests from UK, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Brazil. I hope all of you enjoyed our tour and shared with us an interesting conversation of history and culture for a few hours. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached.   Your feedback is important and helpful to us. If you enjoyed our tour, could you consider reviewing our tours? We would appreciate to see your comment about our tours on our Facebook/TripAdvisor etc. Once again, thank you for choosing Tokyo Free Walking Tour during your precious time in Tokyo. In case you happen to be back in Tokyo please try another one of our tours. https://tfwt.jp/

Tour Report on Jan. 25th, 2020 (The East Garden of Imperial Palace)

  • 2020.01.26

Thank you for choosing our tours at The East Garden of Imperial Palace on January 25th, 2020. We welcomed 8 guests from US, UK, China, and Chile. I hope all of you enjoyed our tour and shared with us an interesting conversation of history and culture for a few hours. As promised, here are group photos. And here are some interesting snapshots. Enjoy! You may know that Japan is famous for cherry blossom. But here is another good one to see, that’s blossom of Japanese plum. It just started blooming here in East Garden of the Imperial Palace. Plum blossoms are associated with quietness, calmness, and peaceful mind. They are simply beautiful, and are loved by many Japanese people as well as famous cherry blossoms. It’s a good idea to visit some plum blossom spots. We always strive to improve our tours for the higher standards, your feedback is very important and useful. If you have a moment, please consider commenting about the tour on our Facebook/TripAdvisor etc. Also, please tell your family and friends about us and if you happen to come back to Tokyo, come to another one of our tours. Once again, thank you very much. For […]

Meiji Shrine & Harajuku Tour Report on the 19th January

  • 2020.01.20

Thank you for joining our Meiji shrine & Harajuku tour on the 19th January. We welcomed 16 guests from the U.K, India, Turkey, Serbia, Argentina, the U.S.A. and Australia. Although it was a bit chilly, we enjoyed a fantastic walking under the blue sky.   In this tour, you can experience an amazing transition of the atmosphere , absorbed in a traditional tranquility of the shrine, then jostling through a crowd in colorful Takeshita street, finally reaching a grand avenue lined with sumptuous boutiques. It is the real charm of this tour ! We all wish travelers in Japan have a wonderful time and we’d appreciate if our tour would be one of your happy memories in Japan. We hope to see you again.(by Miharu)

Tour Report on Jan.18,2020(the East Garden of the imperial Palace)

  • 2020.01.19

Tour Report on Jan. 18.2020. (The East Garden of the Imperial Palace) Thank you for choosing our regular tour of The East Garden of the Imperial Palace. We welcomed 5 guests from Australia. It was a light rain but we enjoyed two and half hour walking with our gusts. We watched some plum-blossom. Japanese love plum-blossom viewing in February and pickled plum that is called “Umeboshi” in Japanese. It’s very sour. Have you tried? We had a family of five members. One of them was the youngest daughter who was so cute named “Emma”. Japanese “Ema” means 絵馬.(絵is picture. 馬is horse) “Ema” is a votive picture tablet which we offer to a shrine or temple when we pray for something of after our prayers are answered. The table sometimes gears a picture of a horse from the fact that people once dedicated a living horse. In may case, I drew a“Ema” and dedicated when my daughter got pregnant. She got a cheerful baby. Please go to shrine or temple and draw a “Ema” and pray when you want to make a wish. Posted by Akiko.  

Asakusa Tour Report on Jan.18th

  • 2020.01.19

Thank you for joining our Asakusa Saturday morning tour on Jan.18th. We had 15 guests. They were from Argentine (2), Italy (2), Mexico (8), Turkey (2) and U.S.A (1 ). It rained with sleet and snowed sometimes. Although it was cold, our guests enjoyed walking and taking pictures at Sensoji temple in Asakusa. For more information about our tour, please visit our website, Facebook and Tokyo Free Walking Tour at https://tripadvisor.com Asakusa Tour Information (by Rei)        

Tour Report on Jan. 11, 2020 (The East Garden of the Imperial Palace)

  • 2020.01.13

Thank you for joining our regular tour of The East Garden of the Imperial Palace. We welcomed 19 guests from South Africa, Columbia, Russia, Greece, Germany, Australia, USA and Spain. It was perfect day to enjoy the walking tour. We enjoyed two hour walking with our guests. Today, the second Monday of the January is our National Holiday  “ Coming-of-Age Day”. Young people who was born in 1999 and 2000 celebrate their grown-up. You can see many young women wearing the long sleeved kimono around the city. It is so gorgeous! Japanese kimono especially women’s kimono is difficult to wear not only for other country’s people but also for Japanese. However, we offer the opportunity to wear kimono easily. We are preparing  “ One touch Kimono” that can be easily worn. Anyone is possible but it depends on the weather.  If you have about five minutes more after our tour, try it on!  You can take a picture in a typical Japanese place. Of course it is free! Posted by Yumi.H  

Tour Report on 12 January 2020, Meet the legendary dogs at National Museum of Science and Nature!

  • 2020.01.13

Many thanks to 6 guests who joined today’s tours in Asakusa and Ueno Park. In the morning, we welcomed 5 guests from USA, South Africa, Hong Kong and South Korea at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, and then in the afternoon we welcomed 1 guest from USA in Ueno Park. That day was actually the first tour day of the sites in 2020. So Happy New Year for the guests! It was cloudy, and sometimes slightly rainy and cold in the afternoon. But we could enjoy the tours and the atmosphere was very cheerful since it was in still a new year holiday mood so the places we walked on were crowded with people enjoying some festivities. We usually tell guests impressive stories about the tour sites and hope the stories inspire their life. In Ueno Park tour, when we pass National Museum of Science and Nature. We talk about the legendary dogs exhibited there. One of the dogs is HACHI, whose specie is Akitainu. Hachi was taken care by a man named Ueno in Tokyo, 1920’s. When Ueno used the Shibuya Station for the commute, Hachi went along with him and when he came back home, Hachi waited for the […]

Meiji Jingu & Harajuku : Tour report on January 5

  • 2020.01.06

  Dear TFWT tour guests and website viewers, Happy New Year! For you, who stayed in Japan over the years, hope you encountered and enjoyed various kinds of seasonal Japan unique events, decorations, dishes and traditions. We also met lots of new year special during the tour on January 5, the first Meiji Jingu Shrine & Harajuku route tour of the year. We welcomed 9 guests from Australia, Ireland, Singapore & USA. It was a lovely sunny day which looks like promise our happiness of the year. 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 and could customize the contents at some extent. Meiji Jingu Shrine, one of the most known and popular Shinto shrine in Japan, will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year, just in time for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Lots of ceremonies, events & exhibitions are schedule throughout the year. Please add Meiji Jingu Shrine to your “must-visit” list.   Before closing this tour report, let me share you one of the seasonal Japanese traditional custom scheduled on January 7, tomorrow, which is called “Nanakusa-gayu or rice […]

Happy New Year! TOUR REPORT ON 4JAN2020 (EAST GARDEN OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE)

  • 2020.01.05

Thank you very much for joining our tour on 4th January. It was the very honorable first tour to East Garden of the Imperial Palace by TFWT in 2020. It was a little bit chilly but good sunny day for walking around outside. We welcomed 17 guests from Singapore, South Africa, USA, Germany, India and France. We really appreciate choosing our volunteer tour to spend your valuable time during stay in Tokyo and hope you enjoyed New Year’s quiet and peaceful atmosphere in the East Garden of the Imperial Palace.   During the tour today, I heard our guests talking to each other about Japanese Ramen, like which Ramen shop have you been to so far in Tokyo and what style of Ramen do you like best? Ramen is a popular Japanese dish of wheat noodles and comes in many varieties. Let me list up some common types of ramen below. Shoyu Ramen (Soy source flavored ramen and normally the taste is not too thick. It is common all over in Japan) Tonkotsu Ramen (It uses pork bone broth and rich taste. Kyushu is famous for Tonkotsu Ramen) Miso Ramen (Soybeans flavored ramen. Hokkaido is famous for Miso Ramen) There […]