Thank you for joining our tour at the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on May 14, 2024. We welcomed 15 guests from Canada, Poland, Spain, USA, Germany and Singapore We hope everybody enjoyed the tour and conversation with us and other guests. Courtesy of our guests, we can post the photos of today’s tour which might interest you to join next time. On previous day, we had a heavy rain in Tokyo. Today, someone had a strong luck to attract a very fine weather. The period before the rainy season is the best time to travel in Japan, and the guests could realize it. Although not so many flowers aren’t seen at this time, we can enjoy the beautiful scenery in the vivid green. The contrast between the green and the blue sky is marvelous from the top of the foundation of “Tenshu”, the main tower of Edo castle. In Ninomaru Garden area, you can see the colorful carps in the pond. They are the cross breed of Japanese carp and Indonesian carp. The former Emperor Akihito came up with the idea of the cross breed when he visited Indonesia about 60 years ago and saw Indonesian carps. In […]
Hello, everyone. I am Masa, one of the guides who hosted the Asakusa tour in the morning. I am reporting on tours of the day. As a tour guide for foreign guests, I realised it is important to know how our guests feel when they travel in Japan. Thus I traveled to one of the world’s most famous tourist spots to take a glimpse of how foreign tourists view our country a few month ago. I included my analysis of this agenda in this report. Firstly, thank you very much to the guests who participated in the 3 tours of Asakusa and Ueno Park on 12 May 2024. We hosted 16 guests from Israel, Germany, Australia, El Salvador, England, Indonesia, Singapore and New Zealand on the morning tour of Asakusa. We divided into 4 groups. The weather was cloudy and the temperature was moderate. At Asakusa Shrine, next to the Sensoji Temple 3 Mikoshi (portable shrines carried by human shoulders) that will be used in upcoming Sanja Festival, are exhibited. The festival is to worship 3 men who contributed to the establishment of Sensoji Temple. Then, we hosted two guests from Mexico on the afternoon tour of Asakusa. Also, in […]
Thank you for choosing our tour at the East Garden of Imperial Palace on 11 th May. We welcomed 24 guests from US, UK, Australia, Ireland, India, Argentina, Iran and El Salvador. 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> <Group C> In our tour, we head for castle palace area through three guard house. Second house is the biggest called Hyakunin-Bansho which means there are one hundred guardians in shift. Here, my favorite is the arranged and modified tree next to Hyakunin-Bansho. As it is very important place to guard, they assign special force at that time. It’s Ninja!We always add our explanation about Ninja. Sometimes we hand you Origami-shuriken. It’s typical weapon for Ninja. Playing Ninja reminds us of our childhood days!! Your 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 you for choosing Tokyo Free Walking Tourduring your precious time in Tokyo. In case you happen to be back […]
Thank you so much for having choose our walking tour on May 5, 2024 at Meiji Shrine & Harajuku. We welcomed 11 guests from US, UK, Poland, Finland, Singapore and Argentina, and had a precious time with them. Here are many good pictures we took during the tour attached. We hope all you enjoy! At this day, Meiji shrine had one of the annual event called “Onzo-sai”, which was for changing deities’ clothes from winter ones to summers ones. Almost all priests of Meiji shrine might have participated the special worship in the main hall. We had met so many priests that just have finished the ritual them came out from the hall. They looked so solemn. 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 would makes us happy and give us more strong motivations to keep our volunteer activities. And also we’d be glad so much if you would recommend your family and friends our tour. Hope to see you again at our another tours too, such as East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, Asakksa, and Meiji Shrine/Harajuku. […]
Thank you for choosing our tour at the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on May 4, 2024. We welcomed 14 guests from Argentina, US, France, Canada, Germany, and Australia. 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 a sunny day and perfect for our tour. The cherry blossom and azalea season has been over, but the iris season is coming. We are looking forward to it. Our guests wore our original handmade kimonos for fun and took beautiful photos. They look like people from the Edo era in their Kimonos. This enjoyable event will be held at the final destination, Hirakawa-mon. May 4th is Greenery Day. It came from the Emperor Showa’s birthday on April 29th. It was a national holiday called “The Emperor’s Birthday” until 1988, and the name of the holiday was changed to “Greenery Day” the next year, which was the previous year Emperor Showa passed away. He had a lot of knowledge of biology and botany and was interested in preserving the environment. Then the name “Greenery Day” was chosen to […]
Thank you for joining the Ueno Park tour on May 1. We welcomed 4 people from Switzerland, Hong Kong and America. The weather was a little rainy and chilly. Nevertheless, we hope you enjoyed walking with us at the park. As promised, photos are posted as a memory. After cherry blossoms have fallen at Ueno Park, the peony flowers are now in full bloom at Ueno Toshogu Garden. The garden is one of the best peony gardens in Tokyo. Ueno Toshogu Peony Garden was opened in 1980 to commemorate the friendship between Japan and China. The peony which originates from China is called King of the hundred flowers, Goddess of Flowers or the noble and wealthy flower due to its gorgeous appearance. The peony has breathtaking large petals (10-20 centimeters), so it is compared to a beautiful woman. The flower comes in a variety of colors including white, peach, crimson, vermilion, yellow and so on. It was during the Nara period(710-794) when the peony was introduced to Japan from China as medical plants. After that, the peony was cultivated as ornamental plants, then many types were created. Consequently, the gardening culture became familiar among the ordinary people in the […]
Many thanks for joining our tours at Asakusa and Ueno Park on April 14, 2024. We welcomed 26 guests from Canada, Italy, India, Holland, New Zealand, Malaysia, and the USA. It was a tremendous opportunity for us to meet wonderful guests from all over the world and to share interesting conversations. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached so that you can remember the fun we had during the tour. Asakusa AM Group A Asakusa AM Group B Asakusa AM Group C Asakusa PM Group A Asakusa PM Group B Ueno Group A Ueno Group B On this day, a crying sumo match was held at Sensoji Temple. As the name suggests, crying is the point of the contest. Babies born last year are eligible to participate in this event. The sumo wrestler holds the baby wrestler in his arms and brings them to the ring. The babies look at each other. The Gyoji referee watches over them. By the way, which do you think is the winner? Actually, the baby who cried louder won the match. This is based on the saying, “A child who cries grows better.” Koinobori (carp streamers) were swimming at the Sensoji Temple. Koinobori […]
Thank you for joining us on our tour of the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on April 27th. We were delighted to welcome 16 guests from various countries including Canada, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, Germany, France, Greece, and Italy. Meeting such wonderful individuals from around the world and exchanging cultural insights was truly invaluable to us. Guests had a lot of knowledge about Japan, so they impressed us. (Group A) We sincerely appreciate each and every one of our guests for generously sharing their time and enriching our experience with engaging conversations. As promised, we have included group photos and snapshots for you to reminisce about the memorable moments we shared during the tour. We hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did. (Group B) It was a cloudy day, but we enjoy exploring the stunning garden and admiring the blooming flowers in the East Garden. The flowers were a breathtaking sight, complemented by the vibrant surroundings. It was heartwarming to see guests enjoying the beauty of the garden together. (Group C) We are committed to providing top-quality tours, and your feedback is invaluable to us. If you have a moment, we would greatly appreciate it if […]
Thank you for joining our tour in Asakusa on April 24. 6 people were kindly with us from Australia, Taiwan and Canada in spite of the bad weather. Asakusa has a once-a-year festival called ‘Sanja Festival’ on May 17-19 this year. This is a spectacular festival and about 100 mikoshi portable shrines parade through the towns. It seems that people in Asakusa can’t wait for the festival. As promised various photos are posted as a memory. When visiting Asakusa, taking a sightseeing boat to Hamarikyu Gardens on the Sumida River is an option. Hamarikyu is one of the most representative daimyo (feudal lord) gardens which belonged to the ruling Tokugawa family during the Edo period(1603-1867). The area is about 25 hectares which is the largest existing daimyo garden in Tokyo. The cruise ship departs from the Azumabashi Bridge area a few-minute walk away from Kaminari-mon Gate. One of the attractions on board is to enjoy the monumental bridges. There are 13 bridges between Asakusa and the Hamarikyu Gardens. Each has a different color and shape. The elegant Kiyosubashi Bridge and the masculine Eitaibashi Bridge are the most impressive contrast. The cruise ship departs almost every hour. Tickets are available online […]
Thank you to those who participated in the Tokyo Free Walking Tour (TFWT) at Meiji Shrine & Harajuku. We welcomed 8 guests from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan. We hope you all enjoyed and shared interesting and joyful conversations with each other during the tour. Unlike “Omikuji” (fortune telling slips) offered in most shrines, Meiji Shrine offers a very unique “Omikuji”. How unique? Most omikuji tell us good or bad luck concerning our daily life like health, money, love and so on. On the other hand, Meiji Jingu’s omikuji is the form of Waka poems. Waka poems are the Japanese traditional poems consisting of 31 syllables in the pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. These Waka poems included in omikuji were composed by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, both of whom are enshrined in the shrine. How to draw omikuji in the shrine: 1. Put ¥100 into the offering box. 2. After shaking a wooden box in order to mix well sticks inside, turn the box upside down. 3. Draw one wooden stick from the box. (There is a small hole so that only one stick can come out.) 4. After finding a number written on the stick, put it back into […]
