Thank you for coming the regular tour of the Imperial Palace and the East garden. We welcomed 55 guests from all around the world and divided into 4 groups on that day. Even it has already started the rainy season this year since last week, it was nice and sunny early summer day which is good for the walking tour. June, the rainy season, is the best timing to see Japanese iris. There are many place you can enjoy irises around Tokyo (eg. Meiji Jingu Shrine, Hama Rikyu Garden, Kiyosumi Garden, etc), and my best recommendation is here, Ninomaru Garden, Imerial Palace. There are 4 fields of iris and 84 kinds of Japanese iris blooms from early to mid June. So many people come to the Ninomaru Garden with camera to enjoy these flowers. Some of them (including me!) tries to make this flower by Origami. 🙂 Hope all guests enjoy the rest of their days in Japan, and all guides always look forward to meeting them at the next tour!!
We welcomed around 50 guests from all over the world to our regular tour on Saturday, June 3rd. It was a beautiful sunny day for a tour. We enjoyed a wonderful walking tour in East Gardens of the Imperial Palace with our friendly and cheerful guests from all over the world. The starting point of our tour is Marunouchi Exit of Tokyo Station, JR. The front of the Marunouch Exit has been under construction for a long time. And we’ve found today that the part of area is now open towards the Imperial Palace. At the open space, we took a group photo with all our guests. The construction of Marunouch was planned to complete in spring this year, however, it looks like being delayed. According to the completion drawing, there will be a wide open space with greenery. Once the construction has been completed, we can enjoy more walking through Gyoko Dori towards Imperial Palace. During our tour at East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, we enjoy not only historical spots in Edo Castle but also beautiful gardens of roses, bamboos, cherry blossoms, tea trees, orchards of classical species and others in the four seasons. At the Ninomaru Garden, a […]
Thank you for joining our tour. Although it was drizzling the previous day, the weather was very nice that day. We were honored to have around 60 people from the different corners of the world came and joined this tour. We split them into six groups and started our tour. The guides were very responsive to the inquiry of the guest because most of them were very attentive and curious at the same time. Normally, our strolling is two-hour long and it consists of two parts. The first locations are the modern Japan and its cultural assets like Tokyo Station. Next is to showcase the old Japan like the Edo Castle, which is now the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. We hope all of you can enjoy the view of these historical sites. Aside from explaining the historical background of each site, guides are talking about the relevant stories like anecdotes or new findings. Moreover, instant-kimono experience is one of the highlights in our tour. In Japan, Tsuyu season is coming soon. “Tsuyu” is referred to as the rainy season in the beginning of summertime in Japan that usually starts in early June and lasts until the middle of July. […]
I want to express many thanks for sparing your precious time and joining our tour to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace on 20th May. We welcomed 71 friendly guests throughout the world.The weather was fantastic but in spite of the heat of the early summer I hope you could enjoy the tour and the instant kimono afterwards. By the way I presume many of you have seen Fujimi Yagura(Mt. Fuji viewing fortified tower) from outside. This is the highest building at the Imperial Palace, so the leading figures in the olden days might have enjoyed viewing Mt. Fuji from the top. It is not possible to see the mountain now because the tall buildings get in the way of viewing. Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776 meters and located about 100 kilometers from Tokyo and is really most beautiful in Japan. The mountain is an active volcano which last erupted about 300 years ago. Mt. Fuji is sacred and has accepted the pilgrims from the ancient period. The mountain is regarded as a symbol of the country and mental support for the Japanese people. （photo:Fuji City） When snow melts, climbing season will come […]
It was a terribly rainy day. Despite such a bad weather, more than 30 people from all over the world participated in the tour. We were glad to welcome that many people in such unusual weather in this time of a year. Usually, May is best month for outdoor activity. Its climate is best in a year. It is beginning of summer but not too hot and not too wet with very few rainy days. That is why many outdoor events are held in May. On first weeked annual Tokyo Rainbow Pride Event and Parade were held in Yoyogi Park and mainstreet in Shibuya Ward. The Shibuya is known to be most fashionable district in Tokyo. In the event stage shows were held and many booths were set up for forums and sales. Some booths were from foreign embassies. Then the march was held to the main street, where big department stores showed rainbow billboards to show their support. Around 6000 people marched saying “Happy Pride.” A lot of foreigners joined the parade. This symbolised how considerate Japan has become in terms of LGBT issues to correspond to global trend, which is being LGBT is what one is born with, not one chooses to do, so no one should be […]
Thank you to all the wonderful guests who joined our tour on May 6, 2017. It was a beautiful sunny day but it felt a little hotter than a usual spring afternoon, so it was a good day to have some ice cream during the tour. (There is a place where you can buy ice cream inside the Imperial Palace East Gardens.) When we gathered at the Tokyo station, it seemed the people walking around were a little bit fewer than usual. Maybe it’s because it was during what we Japanese call the “Golden Week”, a week that contains 4 public holidays starting from the end of April till the beginning of May where many people go on short vacations outside of Tokyo. Although there were no cherry blossoms anymore, there were many other flowers blooming inside the East Garden. Especially the wisteria in Ninomaru Garden (a beautiful Japanese garden inside the Imperial Palace East Gardens) were amazing. Pretty soon the iris will be blooming (there are more than 80 kinds of them in the Ninomaru Garden!), so if you are in Tokyo during May and June, please try to include the Imperial Palace East Gardens in one of your destinations. […]
We welcomed more than 70 guests from all over the world to our regular tour on Saturday, April 29th. It was so nice a day until the last minute when sudden drizzle occurred as weather report just had told in the morning. But it wasn’t a big problem. We could see full of smiles on this day as usual! We must say good-by to cherry blossoms this year, but flowers after flowers continue to bloom. Azalea wisteria And some beautiful flowers which I don’t know! I am really happy to be born in a country full of flowers in every season. In my garden, roses (but still buds) start to bloom this year, too. Roses, Irises, and hydrangeas will be coming soon! Why don’t you join us? By Kyoko
We thank guests from all over the world who joined the tour on that day. 66 people joined us from Germany, Portugal, USA, Israel, Malaysia, Australia, Argentina, Spain, Czech, France, Mexico, U.K. Croatia, and Italy. We divided into 5 groups. Now the cherry blossom season is over. The flower is known to be short-lived so we learn the lesson that happiness is a sudden gift and never last forever. It seems spring is gradually turning to summer as it gets warmer day by day in Tokyo. But in Japan, up north you can still go skiing. In Yuzawa town, Niigata Prefecture, 1 and half hour bullet-train ride from Tokyo Station, there still remained good amount of snow and ski resorts are open until May. But down south, in Okinawa Prefecture, 3 hour flight from Tokyo is already in summer season so you can swim in the sea. Recently Okinawa has become popular among foreign tourists visiting Japan. If you want to fly there from Tokyo, right wing side window seat is recommended. You can view Mt. Fuji from the window during the flight. Okinawa is southernmost prefecture and consists of several islands surrounded by coral reef. The climate is different […]
We welcomed 72 guests from all around of the world on April 15. We divided the guests into 7 groups and started our tour at 1:00 pm from Tokyo station. The following are the group pictures. . It was cloudy warm day and it was almost end of cherry blossom season but a few flowers remained. There were many kinds of flowers in the park not only cherry blossom but also Thunb(Iris japonica) and azalea and more. Cherry blossoms are No1 flower for most of Japanese even it is over the full blossom. We wait for cherry blossoms blooming,enjoy for very short time,look a shower of cherry blossoms,and look foword to next year’s cherry blossoms. We must be anxious about cherry blossom would be fallen by heavy rain or strong wind during flower blooming. There is a poem written in ninth-century in Japan. If it were not for Cherry blossoms in the world, How peaceful and calm The heart in spring could be! Thanks to all the guests for joining and having good time with us. Please enjoy JAPAN and please enjoy the next cherry blossoms if you have a chance. We have […]
Thank you to all the wonderful guests who joined our tour on April 8. Although it was not a perfect day to go out for a walk (it was cloudy and we had some drizzles here and there), we welcomed almost 100 guests from all around the world. The cherry blossoms in the East Gardens of the Imperial palace were in full bloom, and many people were taking pictures of the beautiful pink flowers. It will be all gone soon, so if you are still in Japan, you must hurry! In our group, we had two boys as guests.They were having fun playing Pokemon Go during the tour. (There are quite a few pokestops in the East Gardens, so if you are playing it, this is the place you should go!) We talked about the pokemon we can only find in Japan called Kamonegi, in English Farfetch’d. They had not caught it yet, but I hope they can during their stay in Japan. Soon, spring will be over and the rainy season, in Japan we call it “tsuyu（梅雨）”, will come. After tsuyu, the hot and humid summer will arrive. Even though the cherry blossoms will pretty soon be […]
