East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

We held a weekday tour for this day. Sunny and warm, a little bit windy, but the climate was just splendid to stroll around the peak season of the cherry blossom!  We welcomed 28 guests from the U.S.A., Canada, Chile, France, Slovakia, Malaysia, and made 4 groups to go on for the walk. One of our French guests told us that they came to Japan to enjoy their honeymoon. They very much wanted to come at at the Cherry Blossom season.  Once we heard that, all of the guests in our group started celebra...

Thank you for all the guests kindly joining our regular tour on April 1. We had no less than 89 guests from 20 countries, and 16 volunteer guides. We divided into 6 groups and enjoyed the tour. It was a cold day. I don’t believe it was April. And we had a light rainfall but I could walk without an umbrella. Usually it’s time when cherry blossoms were in full bloom, especially Somei-Yoshino cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Somei-Yoshino cherry is a kind of cherry trees and is the most popular ...

We thank many guests from all over the world. On that day we welcomed 50 people from U.K., USA, Deutschland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Canada, Chiles, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, France and Mexico. We divide into 7 groups. The weather was fine but cold despite the season. According to the calender, winter has already finished and it is turning to spring. This tour was actually last tour in Japan's fiscal year of 2016, which began in April of 2016. March is closing month of fiscal year. Busin...

Thank you for joining our tour. Although it is irregular and suddenly arranged, we could have 16 guests from Europe,America,Asia and the southern hemisphere.  In this season, some flowers begin to bloom in our Imperial palace site. Let me show you my favorite one. It is called Mitsumata in Japanese, just blooming now. To our interest, it is raw material of Japanese paper bill. And more, Mitsumata means three branched in our language. You can see it is really branched into three from the photo be...

Thank you all for joining our tour! We had a pleasant Saturday afternoon tour with close to 50 guests. With the cherry blossom season not far, it will soon be the busiest time for our walking tour. === Around the Ninomaru Gardens I mentioned how the "koi" or the carp is liked in Japan, to the extent that there is a professional baseball team named after them. Baseball, as you may know, is one of the most popular professional sports here in Japan. Currently there are two major baseball events goi...

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...

We thank many guests joining the tour. On that day we welcomed 32 guests from Germany, USA, U.K., Canada, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and India. We divided into 5 groups. It was a mild spring day. The temperature is getting higher these days. During the tour, in the East Garden, formerly a castle of Tokugawa Shogun, guests view mainly outerior of the exhibited buildings. We go outside all the way. So warmer climate i...

What a perfect saturday it was to go out for a walk!! Blue blue sky, cool air with warm sun, early cherry blossoms and good smell of the plum tree, ducks swimming in the moat…spring should be very close now. We were delighted to welcome 35 guests from Brazil, Australia, Israel, U.S.A., Spain, Germany, Canada, Singapore, U.K.,China to stroll around the east garden. We made 4 groups for this day. During our tour, one group of our guests brought us the following questions; " Why does the stone wall...

Tokyo Free Walking Tour thanks all four wonderful guests, who joined the tour on February 23. It was a cold and windy day, slightly raining at the beginning of the tour. One of the guests said he is going to participate in the 2017 Tokyo Marathon next Sunday. 35,500 people from all over the world will run the central Tokyo on the new course, starting from Shinjuku and finishing at Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station and Gyoko-dori Street (the wide street which connects Tokyo Station and Imperial Palace...

Thank you the guests who kindly joined our tour on 18th of February. We had 24 guests from 9 countries, divided by four groups. The Saturday was cloudy and chilly day. However, we had very strong wind and warm day on Friday. Such wind in February or March is called Haru-Ichi-Ban (春一番), which literally means “first wind in Spring”.  Such changeable weather indicates that Spring is just around the corner, and we have to take care ourselves to keep fit more than usual. By the way, I went to Izu Pen...