East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Sumo season is on in Tokyo! The 15 day summer tournament in Tokyo started last Sunday. This is one of the three tournaments held in Tokyo throughout the year (The other three are held elsewhere in Japan). One of the guests told me she was interested in going to see the Sumo match. The reserved seats are all gone, but if you are willing to stand in line early in the morning, you may be able to get the non-reserved seats for the day. It was quite recent that I first saw sumo live, and I can tell y...

We welcomed 11 guests from Italy, Australia, U.S.A., Canada, Brazil and Philippines. We divided the guests into 3 groups and started our tour at 10:00 am from Tokyo Station. Today was very hot day with strong wind . Luckly the rain was stopped early in the morning. Thanks to all the guests for joining and having a good time with us. Please enjoy the rest of your stay in Japan. TFWT's regular walking tour is held on Saturdays 13:00-15:00. If you are in Tokyo on the day, why not come and join us? ...

Thank you for joining our tour on April 30th. Now,Japanese are enjoying Golden Week holidays. Many Japanese have looked forward to this week, because we have a long holiday, and moreover the weather is usually nice during this week, so it is really good season for going out. On the day of tour, it was also perfect weather. We welcomed 70 guests from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, S...

Thank you for joining us. On that day we welcomed 55 guests from Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Austria, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, USA, Lithuania, India, Russia, and Norway. We divided into 6 groups. The weather was cloudy at the beginning but turned sunny in later time. In the East Garden, spring flowers after Sakura, such as azaleas and wisteria are appearing. In this tour, we are always worried that if the flat turf in the East Garden, where the feudal...

Thank you for joining us. On that day we welcomed 56 people from USA, Australia, Singapore, Phillipines, Israel, Poland, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Malaysia, UK, Ireland, Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, and France. We divided into 5 groups. The main Sakura season, which the most popular cherryblossoms with pale white-pink petals called Someiyoshino were in full bloom was over but one can still enjoy other specie of Sakura, called Satozakura. It was a very good day for viewing it. The petals of the flowers a...

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...