Thank you for joining our tour visiting the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace on November 3rd. We welcomed 23 people from U.S.A., Canada, Philippines, UK, Italy and Australia.
We could enjoy clear blue autumn sky with comfortable temperature. This autumn is a little bit warmer than usual and it should enable us to enjoy autumn yellow leaves longer.
The day was a National Holiday named “Bunka-no-Hi”, which translates as “Culture Day” today. Originally, the day was the birthday of Emperor “Meiji”, Great-grandfather of current Emperor. The event on this “Culture Day” is to award this year’s “Order of Cultural Merit” by the Emperor. The ceremony was held at Imperial Palace inviting five recipients of this year, who contributed a lot to Japanese culture, probably during the time we were strolling around East Garden!!
This ceremony has become the final one provided by current Emperor, because he will retire at the end of next April. Therefore, the ceremony should have been more impressive for the recipients than usual.
Anyway, every time, it is a great pleasure for us to guide this tour, and enjoy conversation with guests including a lot of questions and answers. We really hope all of guests enjoyed the tour and remember wonderful memories.
(posted by Masao)