Tokyo Free Walking Tour thanks all 8 wonderful guests, who joined the tour on September 21. It was a sunny day with slightly strong winds. Seeking a Simple Life Last month I personally attended a summer programme on environmental ethics in Finland. Environmental ethics is a field of philosophy emerged in 1970s that studies the moral relationship between human beings and natural environment. In this course, the teacher mentioned a theory of Deep Ecology by Arne Naess, a philosopher from Norway (1912-2009). The basic characteristic of his theory is human-in-ecosystem image; it considers human beings and all living things as elements that are related with each other, like ‘knots’ in a net. Naess criticises conventional ecology as ‘Shallow Ecology’ in that it is based on the idea that human beings are separated from nature. In his words, we should ‘protect the planet not only for the sake of humans, but also, for the sake of the planet itself, to keep ecosystems healthy for their own sake’. Surprisingly, Naess refers to Buddhism when he claims the importance of ‘listening with the third ear’. When it comes to Japan, the spirit of Zen Buddhism might have similarity to the Deep Ecology philosophy. Zen […]
・Date/Time : Thu. Sep. 21, 2017(10:00-1200) ・Meeting Place : Tokyo Station Marunouchi Central Gate (ground floor) ・We leave at 10:00. Please take care to arrive on time! ・Participation Fee : Free ・Reservation : Not required ・Participants : Foreign tourists and residents, and their accompanying Japanese friends, families, etc. For more imformation on our tour, please visit our website, facebook, and TripAdvisor page!
That day was our first tour for the Meiji Jingu Shrine and Harajuku District course. It was a heavy raining day with forecast of a typhoon coming. But surprisingly, we could meet 10 guests at the entrance Torii gate of Meiji Shrine. We were so glad because we thought no one would come because of the bad weather. They were from Columbia, Australia, USA and Canada. First of all, what is Meiji Shrine? It is a memorial of late Meiji Emperor, who had been on the throne during Meiji Era (1868 to 1912), 3 generation in advance of current throne, great grand father of current Emperor, Akihito. It was Japan’s Reconstruction era from feudal period to Modern period. In this period, the Emperor’s residence was relocated from Kyoto to Tokyo. Meiji Emperor is known to be contributed to Japan’s modernization. His figure is depicted in Hollywood film “The Last Samurai” in which Tom Cruise played as US military official dispatched to Japan. The shrine was established in 1920 to commemorate the late Emperor who died in 1912. The forest trees in the Shrine premise were all artificially planted, not wild plants. After walking for half an hour from the entrance, […]
Thank you all the guests for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour. We are honored to have around 25 guests from the different corners of the world like Malaysia, Switzerland, the UK, Germany, Peru, Mexico, and the U.S. We started from Tokyo station and strolled around the central Tokyo, Marunouchi business area, and the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. Although typhoon is hitting in Japan, luckily, we had a comfortable time without getting wet with rain. Also, we enjoyed autumn flowers, red spider lilies and pine trees in the garden. It’s said that autumn is a good season for sports or reading in Japan. Please let us introduce ①Japanese national sports, “SUMO” wrestling and ②a Japanese popular comic book, “HIKARU NO GO.” ① SUMO Sumo is a match between two sumo wrestlers. A wrestler wins when he drives opponent out of the ring or when a part of the opponent’s body touches the ground. There are 6 annual tournaments held at different cities. An autumn tournament is being held now. ② HIKARU NO GO “Go” is a Japanese traditional board game of capturing territory. It was in the news that AI(Artificial Intelligence) defeated human players in “Go” matches as well as […]
Thank you for all guests who joined “Sep. 10, Asakusa Tour. We had 6 guests from Brazil, Switzerland, U.S. and Canada. We could see the new couple in Japanese traditional wedding costume. Oh such a nice day !! Asakusa is always exciting. Why don’t you visit the town some time? (reported by Keiko N)
Thank you for joining our tour on September 9th. On the day of tour, it was quite hot, but not so humid compare to Aug and Jul. I guess beautiful Japanese autumn season is around the corner! We welcomed 27 guests from Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Spain, UK, US and so on. We divided into 5 groups. Some of the guests on that day were really interested in Ninja. We usually take you to the “Hyakunin Bansho” where it said the Ninja used to work during the Edo period. When we take the guests there, we explain not only for basic Ninja information but also add some details about it. At the end of the tour, a few guests asked me about fruit in Japan. It seemed they wanted to obtain Japanese apples. Apple is one of our popular fruit in Japan, so that students often bring them as their lunch or lunch dessert to the school. I think it is the same situation in the other many countries, but in some foreign countries, students bring it without cutting and bite it directly at school. On the other hand, in Japan, apples are cut in less than […]
We thank many guests joining this tour. On that day, we welcomed 35 guests from many countries in the world. It was a good weather. We divided into 5 groups. Although it was still hot but not so humid like August any more. It seems autumn is coming soon. That will be best season for sight seeing. So we expect many more people joining the tour. That makes us to strive to improve our guiding skill. Not just English but communication skill. Just being able to speak English is not good enough to be a good guide. We have to be able to communicate well to entertain the guests. On the same day after the tour, we held a workshop for us to learn about it inviting a famous English speaking Rakugo entetainer named Mr. Kimochi. Rakugo is traditional Japanese talk entertainment. The format is one-man talk show on the stage. It might look like a stand-up comedy. But in Rakugo, a talker wears kimono and sits down on the stage all the time and he or she talks following a storyline playing various characters like actors. But a story contains a funny joke or humor. The very feature of […]
Today we welcomed 34 guests from US, Taiwan, Australia, France, Germany, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, Korea and Canada. It was a nice and chilly day for a stroll in the park. Considering the time of the year, not many colors are in the garden but we were able to witness the last plum blossom in the winter sun, meaning that spring and cherry season is just around the corner. This tour day was Mar.11, an unforgettable day for most of us in north and eastern Japan. 6 years ago at exactly 2:46 PM on a Friday afternoon, a massive earthquake of Magnitude 9 hit northeast Japan, triggering the great tsunami and nuclear leak at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that left around 20,000 people killed or missing. Homes, offices and rice fields along the coastline were wiped out by sea water. On the same day I was at my office in metropolitan Tokyo. Everyone felt 2 continuous strong quakes that struck as if it was the end of the world. Power and all public transportation stopped this day, forcing most of office workers and people a good 4 to 12 hour walk back to their homes. It has been a long time since then, […]
