Thank you for joining our tour visiting the Imperial Palace East Gardens on July 20th. We welcomed 16 guests from U.S.A., Argentina, Singapore and India. We divided the guests and guides into 3 groups and started the tours respectively.This time in Japan, rainy seasons usually pass, but this year we are still in the rainy season. It’s hot and humid. What a long rainy season! Fortunately we took only a light shower during the tour so we didn’t need an umbrella. After the rainy season, we enjoy fireworks displays throughout the country. Some famous ones in Tokyo are Sumida(July 27), Koto(Aug. 1) and Edogawa(Aug. 3). The 8th shogun, Yoshimunu, started the Sumida river fireworks display about 280 years ago in order to comfort the deceased due to a large-scale famine. (posted by N)
Thank you for coming our weekday tour of the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. We welcomed 14 guests from France, UK, USA, and Mexico. We divided the guests into 3 groups and started tour respectively. Unfortunately a half of the main castle building area was closed because of preparing the Daijyosai (one of the ceremony of the Imperial inheritance). But we enjoyed the tour of that day! Last Wednesday was cloudy and so humid. But we didn’t need to use umbrellas. It was so lucky in this rainy season. We also welcomed two kid guests. They challenged charm hunting tour with their parents during the tour. They completed their mission of charm hunting tour. Congratulations! By the way, do you know that Japanese like to feel the exact season? Especially in Cha-do “Japanese tea ceremony” it is said that to show the seasonal atmosphere a little ahead of the season using the various tools like flowers, hanging scrolls, flower vases, and bowls for the tea is very important. In addition, ahead of the season is well, but delay of the season is not good. It is so important for Cha-do to match exact season or to take ahead […]
We Tokyo-Free-Walking-Tour welcomed cumulative total number of 17 guests from Spain(6), UK(3), Canada(2), Austria(2), Germany(2) and France(2) to Asakusa morning / afternoon tour & Ueno Park tour held on July 14th Sunday. We appreciate a lot for all of the guests joining our tours and would like to express special thanks to the guests who joined plural tours of us!! Above mentioned each area has their own unique history and traditional culture. We have been expanding our activity from East Garden of Imperial Palace to the other areas and now we came to cover total four tours in Tokyo as shown in the map. As you can see, Asakusa and Ueno Park are just near by which enables efficient combination. We hope all of guests had memorable experience at our tours. We have now a special plan of Weekday tour on coming July 17th at East Garden of Imperial Palace. Please check “tour calendar” of this site for detail. By the way, now is still in “Tsu Yu” or rainy season in Japan. The day was light rainy day, unfortunately. However, good point is, this level of rain sometimes makes young green leaves more brilliant and […]
Thank you for joining our tour to the East garden of the Imperial Palace on July 13th. We welcomed worldwide 12 guests from Philippine, UK, France, Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Finland. Divided into 3 groups with a few guides respectively. The weather was not so bad for the rainy season. Cloudy and little rain in the last minutes of the tour. 27℃ (81℉), gentle wind but very humid. We really appreciate all guest for sharing your precious time together and enjoyed our tour with the guests. Our tour explores Japanese modernization after middle of 19th and goes into the former Edo castle area (now the east gardens of Imperial palace). We had a pleasant conversation with our guest today, too. Sometimes a question from a guest brings us awareness. I love such exchanges very much. In the gardens, the preparation of the Great Thanks Giving ceremony by new Emperor, so called “DAIJOSAI” in Japanese, on Nov. 14th and 15th, is on going. A restricted access area is beginning to emerge in the preparation. However, don’t worry, we carefully select the places where we can enter in and strive to provide a satisfying tour. In Tokyo, the rainy season still continues, […]
Welcome to Tokyo Free Walking Tour! We offer the four different walking tours in Tokyo and Ueno Park is the latest tour. Our tour is operated by the volunteer guides but all of them have unrivaled knowledge and experiences with some jokes. Since the tour usually has small groups of people, you will enjoy an intimate atmosphere with us and we won’t give boring lectures. Ueno Park is about 140 years old and was indeed the family temple of the ruling Tokugawa clan in the feudal period. Take a walk through the Park in the heart of Tokyo for about two hours and experience the fascinating nature, entertaining history, classical and modern architectures along with others. You may be able to hear something or a behind-the-scenes story you won’t find yourself. There is no admission fee. You don’t have to book in advance and just turn up at the meeting place between Park Exit of JR Ueno Station and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan at 1:30pm tomorrow (Sunday July 14). It is accessible from Tokyo Metro and Keisei Ueno Stations as well. Incidentally Asakusa is a nearby town and you could join our Sensoji Temple tour at 10am and continue to come […]
Today it rained continuously during the tour and we felt chilly for the month of July. Despite the weather we could welcome 11 guests at the starting point, the first Torii gate of the Meijijingu shrine. All the guests were from USA except for a guest from Germany. We divided the guests into four small groups, 2 or 3 guests for each, so that our guides could be as attentive as possible to each individual guest. The shrine’s inner garden and the Takeshita-dori Street seemed to be a little bit less crowded than usual. That was good for us as we always held umbrellas during the tour. Meijijingu shrine: Harajuku Takeshita-dori Street: We noticed a bamboo ornament for Tanabata festival at the Shrine gate and another at Takeshita-dori. Tanabata(七夕) festival, held on the 7th day of the 7th month, is one of the traditional five seasonal festivals. In the summer night sky you can see two bright stars, Vega and Altair, facing each other at the opposite side of the Milky Way. According to the legendary tale, Orihime-star(Weaving Princess, Vega) and Hikoboshi-star(Cowherd, Altair) once got married but were separated by the God of Heaven for some reason. After that […]
Thank you for joining our tour of the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on Jul. 6th. We had 22 guests. They were from Australia(3), Brazil(2), Canada(5), Germany(1), Sweden(2) and U.S.A.(9). Even though in the middle of the rainy season, it did not rain and was luckily cooler than usual. Our guests enjoyed taking pictures of historic sites covered by verdure. The Star Festival called “Tanabata” based on the legend from China is held on the night of Jul. 7th in Japan. The legend is about a young couple who were separated on each side of the river. They worked hard to be allowed to meet each other once a year. Nowadays, the couple eventually changed into two stars laying along the Milky Way and people celebrate it by writing down their wishes on narrow long paper slips. Slips are hung on bamboo branches, so that their wishes will change into smoke and reach the stars to come true. These bamboos are set in many places and make people delight even in the rainy season. ( by Rei )
Thank you for joining our tour to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace on June 29. We welcomed 15 guests from UK(2), Spain(3), USA(5), Germany(1), Canada(2), and Argentina(2). We divided them in to 4 groups. The weather was raining at the beginning but the rain let up during our tour. Once we got into East Garden, we totally forgot we were in the center of Tokyo. It was totally covered with fresh and bright green, the moisture helped to make its green much more vibrant. In the main field of East Garden, the construction for new Emperor’s traditional ceremony, Dijyo-sai, in November is on going, but we could cover the most of the viewpoints of the tour. East Garden is originated by Edo-Jyo (Edo Castle). Although there is some reconstructed old buildings, it remains mostly original Edo-Jyo’s stonewalls. Walking in the East Garden requires your imagination like how was the Japanese life, how was the social systems, how the Edo-Jyo was on those days and etc. This tour is not only 2 hours garden walk but also a trip to Edo era in your mind. All of our 4 groups enjoyed walking trough the moisture forest. Our tour is […]
Tokyo Free Walking Tour provides with 4 route tours regularly: East Gardens of the Imperial Palace (Saturday, weekly & weekday once a month) Asakusa (Sunday, bi-weekly) Meiji Jingu Shrine & Harajuku (Sunday, bi-weekly) Ueno (Sunday, bi-weekly) (Please refer to our calendar : https://tfwt.jp/tour-calendar/) In addition to regular tours listed above, TFWT also offers private tours based on request, but only if we can arrange tour guides. The Asakusa tour held on June 25 was the good example. We welcomed 20 guests from Hawaii, who were participants of “The 2019 Summer Study Tour To Japan, Pacific Asia Administrative Council” including 17 selected students from all over Hawaii and 3 senior leaders. Traveling multiple places in Japan for two weeks and having lots of activities, they selected our tour as one of the last day events. We feel honored that they choose our tour. Luckily it was a comfortable sunny day during an early summer rainy season. 20 guests, divided into 4 groups, enjoyed with site view and local shopping. We were impressed with their excellent manner and eagerness to know new things. This time we had more than a month lead time for coordination. But please do not hesitate to send […]
Thank you for your participation to “Tokyo Free Walking Tour – Asakusa Route & Ueno Route” on June 23 Sunday. We welcomed 20 guests from Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Switzerland, UK & USA. The clouds hang low all day, thus during the tours we worried when it starts to rain. But the deity of weather was on our side! Probably you might be aware that it is the rainy season in most part of Japan right now and we’ve been having humid weather. Does this sound depressing? That makes sense. But let me share you some enjoyments during rainy season. The early summer rainy season is called tsuyu and written with kanji characters meaning plum rain. Because it is the when plum trees bear fruit. Water plants produces beautiful flowers, such as irises and water lilies. Fireflies can be added to the attractiveness of this season. They can be found flying about at night near the clean water’s edge, while emitting light from their lower abdomens. The myriads of tiny blinking lights creates fantastic atmosphere. Special ceremonies “Chinowa kuguri” are held at shrines on the last day of June as it marks the halfway point of the year. Stepping […]
