Merry Christmas!! Tour Report of Asakusa and Ueno Park on December 24, 2023

Many thanks for joining our tours at Asakusa and Ueno Park on December 24, 2023. We welcomed 15 guests from the US, Portugal, India, Malaysia, and Turkey. It was a tremendous opportunity for us to meet wonderful guests from many countries and share interesting conversations. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached so that you can remember the fun times we had during the tour.

<Asakusa>

It was a really cold but typical Japanese winter, with a maximum temperature of around 10 degrees Celsius. There were reports on TV news of frozen road surfaces and a car slipping, but despite that, we enjoyed heartwarming conversations with our guests. This tour was the final one of Tokyo Free Walking Tour in 2023.

While it’s common to enjoy turkey on Christmas Day in Western countries, it’s intriguing why there are long lines at KFC in Japan during Christmas. It’s rumored that sales on December 24 are 10 times higher than the yearly average. KFC, the American fried chicken chain, made its debut in Japan in 1970 and reportedly initiated its Christmas campaign. A foreign visitor, finding no turkey available on Christmas in Tokyo, remarked, “I’ll celebrate Christmas with Kentucky’s fried chicken since there’s no other option.” Upon hearing this, KFC Japan’s sales team launched the “Kentucky for Christmas” campaign. Ever since, the company has run this Christmas campaign annually. Despite Christians making up only about 1% of Japan’s population, many Japanese have embraced the commercial side of Christmas. The Japanese openness to adopting foreign festivals may have contributed to the success of KFC’s Christmas campaign.

<Ueno Park>

The combined tour with Asakusa in the morning and Ueno Park in the afternoon is not mandated, but it is just our recommendation. You can choose either of the tours as you wish.

Once again, thank you for choosing Tokyo Free Walking Tour during your precious time in Tokyo. In case you happen to be back in Tokyo, please join another one of our tours. Your feedback is important and helpful to us. If you enjoyed our tour, please consider posting a review on TripAdvisor/Facebook, etc. Your comments will help contribute to higher-quality tours.

For more information about our tour, please visit our website at

https://tfwt.jp/top/asakusa/, https://tfwt.jp/top/ueno/,

https://www.facebook.com/TokyoFWT or Tokyo Free Walking Tour at

https://www.tripadvisor.jp/ .

( Posted by Yutaka )