East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

The peak season of cherry blossoms is almost over. Now young green leaves started to come out. The most pleasant season in Japan has started. In spite of bad weather, we welcomed 15 Guests from the U.S, Bergius, Canada, Singapore, Australia, U.K., and New Zealand today. Although it rained on and off, we were able to enjoy various flowers such as azalea, rhododendron, and iris. By the way, do you know " Yabusame " , Japanese horseback archery ceremony? (Images taken from Taito City website) Yabus...

In Japan, many people relate the cherry blossoms with the coming and going of friends and colleagues.This is because the season falls on the end/beginning of the academic and fiscal year. Graduation ceremonies commonly take place at the end of March and newly grads start their professional career in April.No wonder there are countless pop songs about farewell under the cherry tree. We were able to enjoy the final days of the cherry blossoms with over 60 guests at the East Gardens of the Imperial...

Thanks to all the guests for joining and having a good time with us! It’s cloudy and chilly day, but cherry blossoms are in full bloom. We welcomed over 100 guests 2 weeks in a row and we divided into 7 groups. It’s natural that most of the groups took their group photo at the front of cherry blossom trees. Some guest told me they already visited famous place of cherry blossom, ex. Ueno-park, Meguro-river. I recommended Chidorigafuchi to those who are searching famous cherry blossom place close ...

There is an urban legend in Japan that under each beautiful Sakura, or cherry tree, are corpses of the dead and the tree feeds on them. This originates from a short story written in 1928 by the famous writer Motojiro Kajii*. The story takes the form of a monologue by a seemingly deranged protagonist, explaining how he finally figured out this secret. * "Lemon" is another famousworkby Kajii, in which the main character places a lemon on top of a pile of art books at a bookstore as an act of revol...

Thank you for the guests kindly joined our Saturday tour on 19th of March. We totally had 27 guests from eleven countries, by four groups. It was drizzling sometime, but we had sunshine at the end of the tour. Some of our guests enjoyed our ”instant Kimono” for taking a photo. You can wear the Kimono in 30 seconds! Not always, but we bring such Kimono occasionally. By the way, do you know the fact Tokyo has islands? Last week I went to the one of such islands, Izu-Oshima. It takes two hours by s...

Thank you for joining the tour. On that day we welcomed 35 people from USA, Canada Australia, Ireland, UK, Italy, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Columbia. We divided into 6 groups. It was a very cold day despite middle March. In the East Garden, Ume (Plum) flowers were almost fading away. Instead, red Kanzakura (Colder-climate suited cherryblossoms) were in full bloom. The flowers entertained us in the period between Ume and white-pink cherryblossom....

Thank you for the guests kindly joined our Saturday tour on 5th of March. We totally had 32 guests from twelve countries. Spring has almost come! We have bloomed-plum-tree flower already from Jan. and also, the early-bloom cherry blossoms (kan-zakura) has been bloomed from late Feb. With warm winter in this year, it is sure the flowering season comes earlier more than usual, in addition to the global warming. In Japan, the most popular cherry blossom (Sakura) type is Somei-Yoshino. Last week, Th...

Today we welcomed guests from USA, Ukraine, Turkey, Korea, UK, Switzerland and Australia.The wind was quite cold & strong this day, and guests were shivering.. We appreciate everyonefor getting through the tour with us despite this condition. We thank our guests again for their participation, and wish everyonea wonderful stay in Japan. As for myself I had an opportunity to participate in the Imperial Palace tour on the next day. Since the Imperial Palace is next to the East Gardens of the Imperi...

Thank you for all the guests on Feb27! It was a nice weather, and luckily, we could enjoy plum and a kind of cherry blooming. In general, Cherry blosssoms bloom in late March or early April, but there are some species of winter-blooming cherry trees in the east garden. By the way, in this season, many of Japanese put on masks and one of guests asked me why. Some of them put masksfor prevention of flu or getting cold, but I think major reason isfor their pollen allergy (including me!!). Actually,...