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Meiji Shrine and Harajuku

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Tour Report of Meiji Shrine & Harajuku on March 17, 2024: Sakura season is just around the corner!

Thank you to those who participated in the Tokyo Free Walking Tour (TFWT) at Meiji Shrine & Harajuku today, which was a little bit windy, but a sunny and crispy day.  There was a St. Patrick’s Day parade on Omotesando street, and also because more and more tourists are visiting Japan looking forward to viewing Sakura, Cherry Blossoms, both Meiji Jingu and Harajuku were so crowded. We welcomed 8 guests from the USA, Germany and the UK.  We hope you all enjoyed and shared interesting and joyful conversations with each other during the tour. As mentioned in the title, the Sakura season is coming soon.  According to tenki.jp, the flowering date in the Tokyo area is expected to be March 21.  One of our guests said he planned the itinerary after carefully researching the flowering period. Of course, Japanese people often check the flowering date of cherry blossoms because the cherry-blossom front is moving northwards in a short period.  Just when you think it’s blooming, Someiyoshino, the most popular kind of cherry blossom, quickly falls apart like in one week or so. However, please don’t worry!  For those who might miss the cherry blossom viewing in Tokyo, how about including […]

Tour Report of Meiji Shrine & Harajuku on March 3rd, 2024 : Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Festival Day)

Thank you to those who participated in the Tokyo Free Walking Tour (TFWT) at Meiji Shrine & Harajuku today.  Today was the most suitable and comfortable day for walking.  Moreover, today was “Taian,” the most auspicious day in the old Japanese 6-day calendar, so our guests luckily met five or six traditional Shinto wedding processions and several families with a new-born baby. We welcomed 5 guests from Switzerland, USA, and Germany.  We hope you all enjoyed and shared interesting and joyful conversations with each other during the tour. Today, Doll’s Festival or Girl’s Festival called “Hinamatsuri” in Japanese was held.  Most families with girls display dolls for the Doll’s Festival.  This is an occasion to pray for young girls’ healthy growth and happiness.  Hinamatsuri is celebrated each year on the 3rd of March.  The display of the dolls depicts the wedding party of imperial families.  A traditional set of dolls includes the Emperor, the Empress, three court ladies, five court musicians, the minister of the left, the minister of the right and three servants.  But, these days, most sets of dolls are getting simpler, that is the pair of dolls, the Emperor and Empress because of the recent housing situations.  […]

Meiji shrine and Harajuku tours on Feb 18

  • 2024.02.18

Thank you for choosing our tour at Meiji shrine and Harajuku on Feb 22. We welcomed 15 guests from Morocco, Australia, Netherland, Argentina, New Zealand and USA. I hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. <Group A> <Group B> Sometimes our guests stop and gaze at this shop in fascination when we walk along a Harajuku street. The name of the shop is FENDER FLAGSHIP TOKYO. Fender is one of the most popular electric guitar. Many famous musicians such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy page loved and love Fender guitar. Additionally, it is only one flagship shop in the world and newly opened two month ago. From 30thousand to 100million yen range, so many guitars are displayed fashionably. Why is it opened just in Harajuku? How lucky we are! If you have some interest in electric guitar, don’t miss it!! Fender Flagship Tokyo | Fender our feedback is important and helpful to us. If you enjoyed our tour, please considerposting a review on our TripAdvisor/Facebook etc. Your comments will help contributeto higher-quality tours. Once again, thank […]

Tour Report: Meiji Shrine & Harajuku on February 4th, 2024

Thank you to those who participated in the Tokyo Free Walking Tour (TFWT) at Meiji Shrine & Harajuku today.  On a cold, rainy first Sunday of February, we welcomed 10 guests from Germany, Canada, Taiwan, USA, China, Singapore and the Philippines.  We hope you all enjoyed and shared interesting and joyful conversations with each other during the tour. The guests are curiously watching the wedding procession. You can be shown on the screen at the gate of Takeshita Street! Takeshita Street, included in this tour, is a source of pop culture and fashion especially among teenagers.  Speaking of the most popular sweets around the street, it’s been crepe since the 1970s.  Now, what are the most popular sweets in February?  The answer is “chocolates” for St. Valentine’s Day! Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is becoming one of the biggest events out of the Japanese annual events.   However, the Japanese custom of Valentine’s Day might be a little bit different from other countries’ and has been changing from its old custom.   In Japan, women usually give men chocolates on that day.  Women used to give chocolates to whom they really love or to whom they secretly fall in love.  On the other hand, […]

Tour Report of Meiji shrine & Harajuku: Jan. 21, 2024

  • 2024.01.27

Thank you so much for coming our tour of Meiji Shrine & Harajuku on Jan. 21, even though we had a cold rain at that morning. We 4 guides wecomed 2 guests groups from United Kingdom and Australia. Thanks to both groups that had a great interest about that place which was one of the biggest shrine and our culture, we all guides think we could try to do our best to introduce our traditional and modern culture to all. We felt happy that the guests were also fond of our Japanese traditional sweets such as “Mitarashi-Dango”, dumpling, or “Wata-gashi”, cotton candy! “Mitarashi-Dango” is a dumpling made from rice flour coated with saulty-sweet sauce. Cotton candy is called “Wata-gashi” by Japanese, and one of the typical sweets sold at the Japanese traditional festival. And this way to big rainbow coloered cotten candy is very popular at the Takeshita-dori shopping street of Harajuku. Each different colors has different tastes! Why not come our next tour and try these tastes? Once again, thank you so much for joining us on our tour. We always make efforts to improve our tours and highly appreciate your feedback on our TripAdvisor/Facebook etc. Your comments motivate […]

New Year : Tour Report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on January 7th, 2024

  • 2024.01.07

Thank you for choosing our Meiji Shrine and Harajuku tour on January 7th, 2024.We welcomed 7 guests from Germany, Australia, US and Greece. I hope all of you enjoyedand shared interesting conversations with us during the tour.As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. GR A GR B GR C GR D The number of worshipers for Hatsumode in Meiji Shrine is the largest in Japan every year.Hatsumode is the first visit of the year to a shrine and is Japan’s original custom.It is over three million people from 1st to 3rd of Jan. At that time it was too much crowded.And today lots of people came to shrine. Do you know osechi that are Japanese New Year Food. “Osechi” are traditional foodswhich are eaten by a lot of Japanese on New Year’s Day. It includes many kinds ofJapanese traditional foods, and they are packed together in “Jubako”,which is a special box that resembles bento boxes. The representative food is Kuromame, Kazunoko, and Tazukuri.Kuromame is sweet black soybeans. Eating Kuromame means that you can stay healthy and strong.Kazunoko is herring roe. Kazunoko is a lot of roe, so it means “descendants prosperity”.Tazukuri is […]

Repeat Guests: Tour Report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on December 17, 2023

  • 2023.12.17

Thank you for choosing our Meiji Shrine and Harajuku tour on December 17, 2023. We welcomed 14 guests from US and Singapore. I hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. Today, the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees compared to yesterday. Temperature changes can affect our physical condition. Some of our guests joined our tours several years ago, and some joined our other tours recently. We are very grateful for such repeat guests. We are sometimes asked by our guests where they can find trash cans. As you know, the number of trash cans is decreasing in the city. They were removed as a place to hide suspicious items after the terrorist attacks. However, there are plenty of places in the city where people can hide suspicious items if they want to. Terrorists would not stop terrorizing because of the lack of trash cans. A major reason for the decrease in the number of trash cans is that governments and businesses have realized they can reduce the time and cost by removing trash cans. It is easy to […]

Bonenkai Season: Tour Report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on December 3, 2023

  • 2023.12.03

Thank you for choosing our Meiji Shrine and Harajuku tour on December 3, 2023. We welcomed 4 guests from UK, Singapore, and Colombia. I hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. It was cold since winter was about to begin. We need to dress warmly for our walking tour. Autumn leaves are falling now. The zelkova trees planted along Omotesando Boulevard, the approach to Meiji Shrine, are illuminated with LED lights at night. It creates a romantic atmosphere and feel peaceful. A bonenkai is a party that happens in December. In Japan, these parties often take place in Japanese-style bars called “Izakaya,” which become busy during this time. For some Japanese, it is like a special gathering. The main idea is to let go of any problems from the past year and get ready for a new start in the next one. These parties are often organized among colleagues who work together in a company. It was restrained during the pandemic. We always strive to give high-quality tours. Your feedback is very important and usefulto us. If you […]

Beaujolais Nouveau release; Tour Report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on November 19, 2023

  • 2023.11.19

Thank you for choosing our Meiji Shrine and Harajuku tour on November 19, 2023. We welcomed 12 guests from US, Philippines, Turkey, Australia, and Netherlands. I hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. Unfortunately, today was a Butsumetsu, which is considered an unlucky day because it’s part of the Rokuyo, a recurring sequence of six days, associated with Buddha’s death. Originally, the Rokuyo had no connection to Shinto shrines. So, visiting a shrine on an inauspicious day like Butsumetsu is not a problem. However, some older people still believe that celebratory events like Shichigosan (celebration for children aged three, five, and seven), Omiya-mairi (shrine visits for newborns), and prayers for safe childbirth should occur on auspicious days. We were fortunate enough to encounter a wedding procession. The new wine ‘Beaujolais Nouveau,’ made from grapes in the Beaujolais region of France, was released on November 16. The sommelier seems to think it tastes better than last year. As you walk towards the main hall of Meiji Shrine, you’ll see rows of wine barrels. Back in the Meiji era, Emperor […]

Cheerful walking with Chrysanthemum : Tour report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku Tour on Nov 5th, 2023

On behalf of our guides, I just wanted to send a few words of gratitude. Thank you forjoining our tour at Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on Nov 5th. We welcomed 19 guestsfrom USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Indonesia. The group was divided into four teams. Although it was an unseasonably warm day, we enjoyed walking through the forest and town, where we could feel the signs of autumn.We’ve posted group photos and snapshots so that you can look back on the fun times we had. <Group A> <Group B> <Group C> <Group D> During the tour, we enjoyed Chrysanthemum exhibition in the main approach road. There were many varieties of beautiful flowers and elaborated presentations. The emperor Meiji and The Empress Shoken are enshrined in Meiji Jingu Shrine and Chrysanthemum is a family crest of the imperial family. In fact, the flower language of chrysanthemum is “Noble” in Japan. On the other hand, I heard in English speaking countries it is “Cheerfulness”. I feel like it symbolizes our tour, too!!This exhibition will run until Nov 23rd. Why don’t you join our next tour on Nov 19th? We always strive to give high-quality tours. Your feedback is very important and usefulto […]

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