East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Thank you for all the guests joining our regular tour on January 31. We had 15 guests. Many of them came from so warm areas that they were shrinking up with cold wind. Strong wind and dry air are typical in Tokyo in winter. That’s why big fires occurred repeatedly in Edo (the former name of Tokyo in the early modern age). But you find the air is very clear in this season. The sky, the water are also clear and beautiful. The pond in the Imperial Palace reflects trees and the blue sky. The carps i...

It was unusually warm. I couldn’t believe we are in winter now. It was like spring has come. By the way, we welcomed 23 guests from   Australia, U.K., Indonesia, Germany, Korea, Ukraine, and Argentine. We split into 5groups and began the tour from Marunouchi central gate of Tokyo station at 1:00pm.as usual. These are the group-photos. See below, The palace has a Japanese plum garden which has many kinds of Japanese plum-trees. Now they have cute flowers. They are supposed to bloom in February, b...

On that day we welcomed 32 guests from USA, Singapore, France, New Zealand, Australia, Phillipines, Taiwan, Argentina, Vietnam, Sweden and Indonesia. We divided into 4 groups. It was a cold and windy day but the sky was very clear. We are always pleased with a lot of people from all over the world joining this tour. Interestingly,  it was very difficult for people from overseas to visit this country during which the East Garden was the feudal lord's castle not only because travel methods were li...

We would like to thank all our guests for joining Tokyo Free Walking Tour on January 14, 2017. Winter season has definitely come. As the Meteorological Agency predicted, the daytime temperature in Tokyo was less than ten degrees. Despite such severe weather, around thirty guests participated in our strolling tour. All of the participants were divided into four or five groups and several guides were assigned to each group to accompany them. The groups' starting point was Tokyo station and we walk...

Happy New Year! Thank you the guests who kindly joined our first 2017 tour on 7th. We had 26 guests, divided by five groups. We have relatively warm winter this year, so could enjoy Japanese apricot (Ume) blossom already (it usually blooms in February). Thanks to my guests’ suggestion, I smelled the small flower for the first time. It is light scent but I feel such light scent represents Japanese modesty. I strongly recommend you to do; you can touch Japanese elegance. Japanese consider New Year...

Thank you for all the guests kindly joining our regular tour on December 24. We had 23 guests from various countries, and 9 volunteer guides and 7 volunteer guide trainees attended the tour. It was Christmas Eve. So we had fewer guests than usual. We divided into 4 groups and enjoyed the tour. It was warm even in December but sometimes cold winds blew. Fujimi-Mamon, literally a wide house, was used as a weapon warehouse in the Edo period. It was recently opened to the visitors. We entered this h...

Thank you very much to all the guests for joining our tour. It was very nice weather with moderate temperature as December. We welcomed 31 guests from Argentine, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippine, UK and USA. It was very moderate weather and weenjoyed sunshine. Some group had nice and relax guidingand talk atthe park and on the lawn. The lawn in the East Garden is very clean and when the weather is fine, people can relax on the lawn andcan even have...

Thank you the guests who kindly joined our tour on 26th of November. We had totally 50 guests, divided by five groups. It was a clear sunny & windy day. Strong wind made us feel chilly. I usually wash my hands and gargle when I get home, but especially in winter, I always do these for preventing cold or flu. In Japan, gargling with tea (green, black, whatever) is a popular idea, since it is believed tea has anti-bacterial qualities. Not only drinking but also gargling tea is effective in prevent...

Thank you the guests who kindly joined our tour on 8th of December. We had 2 guests from the USA and Hong Kong.       It was a warm  and calm day. We enjoyed walking through the gardens of colored leaves in the blue sky.     We guides were surprised to hear that Japanese apples named "FUJI" are  also popular in other countries. (Reported by Keiko N) ===== We have a regular tour every Saturday and have weekday/Sunday tours irregularly. Please check the calendar on our website, facebook and tripad...

The leaves have turned bright yellow and red around Tokyo. Though it is a bit chilly, it is one of the better seasons to visit the city. Around 30 guests joined us for a Saturday afternoon stroll. Thank you for choosing to join us. Enjoy your stay in Japan! (Yohei) ===== Please visit our website and Facebook, and drop your comments on our TripAdvisor page!