Thank you very much for all our guests who joined “October 12, East Gardens of the Imperial Place Tour” We had 12 guests from Spain, Russia, USA, Australia, Italy and France. We divided them into 2 groups before our starting. It was a little hot day. We enjoyed the tour and we could feel the autumn. We imagined the autumn day of 300 years ago inside the East Gardens. In Japan, autumn is a nice season for traveling. Comfortable temperature, pleasant humidity, blue sky, huge harvest, delicious fruits, beautiful scenery of mountains, etc. TFWT’s regular tour of the East Garden of the Imperial Palace is held every Saturday 13:00-15:30. You are in Tokyo, please come and join our tour. We guides are always looking forward to seeing you. (posted by Keiko N.)
Thank you the guests who kindly joined our tour on 7th of October. We had 22 guests from nine countries, divided by four groups. Autumn has come here in Tokyo. It was very chilly day on Friday. On Saturday, it rained in the morning, but turned lovely day with sunshine in the afternoon. It was a best day for walking tour! I give you one good knowledge for visiting Japan in autumn. Everybody knows the cherry blossom flower (Sakura) in Japan bloom in spring, but do you know we can see it in autumn as well? It is called Jugatsu-zakura, which blooms in October. It blooms twice in a year, one in spring and one in autumn. Some article says Sakura originally bloomed in autumn and its DNA has gradually changed blooming in spring only. It means such Jugatsu-zakura keeps original character. We can see such Sakura in our tour, after entering the Otemon gate’s reception, near Sannomaru Museum. Recently we can smell a fragrant olive (Kinmokusei in Japanese). When we smell this, we recognize the autumn has come. I like it very much, not only the smell itself but also the language of the flower: noble, modesty, truth, first […]
・Date/Time : Thu. Oct. 12, 2017 ( 10:00―12:00 ) ・Meeting Place : Tokyo Station Marunouchi Central Gate (ground floor) [more on where to find us] ・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 information on our tour please visit our website, facebook, And TripAdvisor page !
We thank all the guests joining our East garden of Imperial Palace tour on Sep. 30. It was cloudy. But it got fine at the beginning of tour and good condition. Summer has gone! We welcomed 45 guests from 13 countries. We divided into 6 groups and started from Tokyo station. Every group walked around Marunouchi area. During the tour in Marunouchi we saw some wedding ceremonies. Now Japan is the best season for wedding. There are a lot of wedding ceremonies in autumn. Speaking of autumn, in Japan we think autumn is a perfect season to have a good appetite. We call this “Autumn appetite.” The reasons are 1. Many ingredients come into season in autumn. 2. Japanese summer is terrible hot and wet. Japanese people intend to lose appetite in summer. 3. When it gets cool in autumn, people feel hungry. If you want to feel Japanese Autumn appetite, I strongly recommend to eat a “Sanma-Shioyaki” Sanma is a slender shaped fish which is called Pacific saury in English. Shioyaki is one of the cooking way to grill ingredients with salt. “Sanma -Shioyaki” means ” salted and grilled Pacific saury.” The best season of eating Sanma is autumn. Its nourishment reach a peak. […]
We thank many guests joining this tour On that day we welcomed 28 guest from USA, UK, Israel, Italy, Indonesia, Philippine, Australia, Nederland, and Romania. It was a little hot but not so humid. We then divided into 4 groups. One of the group has 4 cute child guests so the guides of the group entertained them by using stamp rally so that the children would not be bored. That is our way of hospitality. That day was National Holiday called Shuubunno-hi, Autumn Equinox Day. In a period around that day, the length of day and night becomes almost the same. That is the start of Autumn season in calender. But this is not cheerful holiday rather it is time to visit family graves and worship ancestors and comfort their spirits. In March we have the other Equinox Day, that is called Shunbunno-hi, Spring Equinox Day. That is the beginning of Spring time. Both Equinox periods are called Higan in Japan. It is said that heat and coldness do not last over Higan periods. After the both Higan, climate becomes milder and more comfortable to go out. It is the best season for sightseeing. We expect more people joining the […]
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!
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 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 […]
